That is one reason why this is doing their final checks before historic. Five minutes and 45 seconds launch. And if youre going to go to space and make history as the away. First launch from u. S. Soil in what should we be watching for nine years you need some space as the launch plays out . Jams. Were told they drove over to reporter about 45 seconds to launch youll hear the launch the launch pad listening to director say go for launch but five minutes before is when it ac dcs back in black. The girl of ipanema and the will be in autonomous mode about a minute before falcon 9s star spangled banner. Onboard computers will take that is a varied play list to control and it will be counting say the least. Down to the tminus zero straight to cnns rachel crane liftoff. Two seconds before launch is at the Kennedy Space center. When the nine merlin engines if this happens it will be the will ignite and have the thrust first time a commercial company has brought humans into orbit. Of five 747s. Nasa just said launch chances 1. 7 Million Pounds of thrust at have risen to 70 as the weather liftoff. A few minutes after that well improves. Talk to us about what is have the separation of the first happening now in the final stage of falcon 9 and they are hoping to land it on their drone minutes. Reporter well, john, im trip in the atlantic which has starting to get butterflies. Here on the ground i dont see become pretty ordinary now for any clouds in sight over launch spacex. Theyve done it over 50 times, pad 39. We are crossing our fingers and you know, then shortly toes that this takes off. Thereafter the crew dragon will it feels like it is going to. Continue on to orbit with to let me tell you what is happening. Theyre loading over a million the International Space station. Pounds of fuel right now. That is liquid oxygen and we just got the word it is officially switched to kerosene. The crew access arm has been autonomous countdown right now so the Onboard Computers have retracted. The launch escape system has taken control of the countdown. Been armed as you said. John, i got to tell you i have crazy butterflies right now. Bob and doug are strapped into the capsule. As you know i am a huge space now five minutes out is when nerd and have been following terminal countdown begins and this program the entirety of my when dragons Onboard Computers career. To be here at this moment on take control of the vehicle and this day covering it and delivering the news to you, i got to tell you it is emotional. The back retracts. One minute before 9 00 falcon it really is. President trump for his part just said it is a go. Line will be in start mode when the computers take control. Were watching that very closely 45 seconds before launch the as well. Rachel crane, thank you very director will say go for launch. Much for being with us. Enjoy. I know this is very important to two seconds before countdown the nine engines will ignite and at you. Joining me now a veteran of four space flights and the former tminus zero hopefully today we will see the historic lunch of commander of the retired space crude dragon once again having station retired astronaut scott kelly also cnn contributor miles american astronauts launch from obrien a very familiar face american soil on american during cnns coverage of the Space Shuttle program over the rockets for the first time in nine years. Years. Gentlemen, thank you for being as you can tell im pretty with us. Scott kelly, i dont see you on the screen, if you are with us, jazzed about this. This is obviously something we im sure youre a little excited, too. Havent seen in years. Talk to me about your feelings, i know you have a little space nerd in you. Three minutes and 50 seconds to i am super excited. Just so people know the stages go. Well, it is pretty exciting. Were going through for the next 20 minutes or so a bunch of an exciting time in many different checks and processes astronauts life to be open into to begin the launch and then after 12 minutes the capsule space whether it is your fourth will be on its own flying into time or in this case bob and space and then 19 hours before dougs third flight so i think it docks with the International Space station about 10 30 a. M. At this point the weather is eastern time tomorrow. Always a factor and can always for these astronauts, what will change but it looks like everything is looking very positive. So theyre pretty excited. The difference be between miles obrien i know you are driving this crew dragon on top as excited as scott is and i am of the falcon 9 rocket compared as well. Talk to me about what is to the shuttles both have flown different inside Mission Control before . Reporter as you point out both bob and doug have flown before. For this than launches weve they expect a smoother ride with crew dragon. Seen before. You can see the difference john, it is a spacex launch. This countdown is presided over by the spacex team. Between crew dragon and shuttle. Shaped like a plane, designed to and they are providing a service to nasa. Land on a runway. Crew dragon is a capsule design like a gum drop. Inside is where there is a lot nasa is intertwined with this of difference. Process and looking very gone are the 2,000 switches and carefully at it and nasa knobs of the shuttle. This is a very sleek design, a management ultimately has the right to say no lets not go lot of touch screens. Today. Generally speaking what we are i had the opportunity to speak to bob and doug a couple weeks seeing here are decisions made by spacex, by the spacex flight ago. They said if all goes as planned controllers and engineers and the crew dragon is made to Fly Management in providing that fully autonomously if needed. Service to nasa. That is a fundamental shift. That potentially makes the job historically, when the shuttle easier. On the test flight they will be astronauts flew in all previous testing the manual override of Nasa Missions it was a nasa the autonomous capability so owned rocket, nasa built with help from contractors, and the piloting the capsule several times throughout the journey decisions were made by nasa themselves. Staffers. On demo one which is a test it is a very different construct flight of the system a year ago and the idea is to make it a lot they recorded the sound inside of the capsule so bob and doug cheaper and easier to get to space. Well see how it turns out here. Could test that out and run so, scott kelly, what is through the simulator with the going through the minds of bob audio so they knew what to expect. Apparently it is quite loud so behnken and doug hurley right they expect a smoother ride but now or should i say the stomachs . A bit of a louder ride. I dont know where butterflies the goal in all of the actually go physiologically. Training is to make it be exactly like it is in real life so that nothing is new when it you know, theyre thinking about their jobs. Happens in about 18 minutes. At this point most of the were seeing this white smoke apprehension is left behind. Drifting from the launch pad. You are committed to doing this. Explain what that is. You know, as i said, the fuel their life work basically, 20 is being loaded right now on to the falcon 9 over a million plus goals at nasa for each of pounds of liquid oxygen and rp1 them. You know, theyre thinking about what they have to do in a which is the kerosene. What youre seeing there is the nominal situation but also off liquid oxygen boiling away. Nominally. I am not that familiar with the that is why they try to do that loading, load and go they call spacex. It right before launch to even though it is autonomous prevent as much of the fuel from there are functions they have to boiling off as possible. Perform. That is what theyre pleasing that is what youre seeing that being of the right now. Smoke that is completely normal scott kelly, miles hoechlt and to be expected. You see that also with the cargo emissions so whenever falcon 9 brian if you will what we are launches you see that smoke. Going to do when we look at the pictures of the astronauts on the righthand side shall the all right. Crew capsule on the lefthand side, well open up to the sound rachel crane at the space from Launch Control to listen in center. If people remember from to the communications one minute wednesday it was just under 17 minutes when the launch was away from history. Scrubbed so we are close to being past where we were just a few days ago. Fingers crossed. Well be back in just a minute. The word from nasa just a short one minute to launch. Time ago was there is now a 70 chance of favorable weather conditions for launch up from a previous 50 chance of favorable weather. Lets go straight to our meteorologist in atlanta for more on the weather. One of the key components is were only giving it about a 10 chance of lightning. Lightning was one of the major factors on wednesdays scrub. This is good news. Keep in mind it is not juf the lightning at the surface but falcon 9 is in startup. They also have to keep an eye on dragon is in countdown. Fts is armed for launch. Something called the electric field mill, the electric charge in the atmosphere anywhere in under a minute now the fts, the vicinity of the region not necessarily just right at the flight termination system, has launch pad. We have a couple storms out been armed. Dragon, spacex, go for there. Most are starting to slide south of cape canaveral. There is still a little launch. Spacex, dragon, go for lightning within some of those launch. Lets light this candle. Storms but they are heading in the right direction, away from cape canaveral. Still something they have to keep a close eye on, these are tminus 30 seconds. Popup storms which means they can pop up at a moments notice. It is often like many people say, when you have a pot of boiling water you know bubbles will come but it is hard to figure out exactly where the bubbles are going to pop. Here is a look at 3 22 the stage one expressing for official forecast is expected to flight. Tminus 15 seconds. Be scattered showers and thunderstorms. Winds out of the southeast. Maybe 8 to 10 miles per hour. That temperature into the low 80s. Again, as of now things are looking good. It is not a 100 guarantee. According to the 45th weather 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, suadron, the people that make those decisions at nasa, keeping 0. Ignition. Liftoff as the falcon 9 and crew dragon, go nasa, go spacex. God speed bob and doug an eye on the thunderstorms in the general vicinity. It is not just the area, the america has launched. Weather right around the launch so rises a new era of american pad. We talked about this before. They also have to monitor the space flight and the ambitions weather across over 50 locations of a new generation continuing stretching from the east coast the dream. To the united states. 20 seconds into flight stage one propulsion is nominal. Canada all the way up to the portions of northern ireland. That does include areas of the atlantic ocean. One thing theyre keeping an eye on is this particular region, tplus 30 seconds and this this tropical disturbance has a historic mission, flying crew 60 chance of development. This is not necessarily a onboard dragon and falcon 9 and Tropical Storm that is going to look at them go make big waves around land masses but they have to keep an eye on it. Falcon power nominal. Some of these bands of the outer portion of the storm could still potentially have an impact as were throttling down to get the ship or the shuttle is going ready for the period of maximum up. This is something they all have dynamic pressure. To keep a close eye on when were in the throttle bucket. Theyre monitoring a lot of these things. Rachel has talked about this. Reports say all systems are go. It is also not an instantaneous window. The case was on wednesday if the vehicle is supersonic. They had just an extra 10 or 20 minutes for the weather to clear weve exceedd mach one on the it would have made a big falcon 9. Difference. They simply dont have that for this instance today. It is one of those where the weather has to be perfect at m1d. Were throttling back up to 3 22 or they will scrub the full power as were through max launch again. All right. Thank you for that update. Q. Copy one bravo. We heard that one bravo call just so people know we are now past where they were on out. Wednesday when they scrubbed the thats just the second abort launch, 14 minutes to go until zone theyre in. The crew dragon capsule launches theyll continue to be on this on top of the falcon 9 rocket. Until the first stage has done its job and they switch over to the second. Thanks for being with us. At this point bob and doug we were told President Trump is pulling about 2. 3 gs, 2. 3 times now at the Kennedy Space center for the launch. Boris sanchez is there. The earths gravity, already boris . Reporter hey there, john. Over 1500 miles per hour. Yeah. President trump arriving at the weve heard the call out for Kennedy Space center a few moments ago. The president before arriving mvac engine chill getting the here saying that he feels an engine ready to light. Obligation to be on hand for itll come about 2 44 into this launch. I spoke to a white house flight. Right now everything continuing to look good. Official who told me that the president is eager to put his next major event coming up is going to be the triple. Stamp on this historic moment to show that america is ready for what he calls a transition to well have cutoff of the greatness and ready to move on beyond the coronavirus pandemic engines, stage separation, then that now claimed more than a ignition of the second stage engine to continue to carry the hundred thousand american lives. Astronauts into orbit. The president also clearly eager to Counter Program as so much of the country is divided and we coming up in about 20 seconds. Are seeing scenes of chaos in major cities across the nation. This is something all americans m1d throttle down. Can root for and the president twoonts put his image out there in front of this. We heard were throttling further, geography may also play down to merlin engines on the a role. This is the Sunshine State that first stage. Was critical to his victory in twifrnts a 2016 and will be crucial in falcon stage separation confirmed. 2020. He wants to divert eyes away [cheers and applause] falcon to alpha. From the chaos that engulfed the nation. Thank you very much, Boris Sanchez from the Kennedy Space center. We are now 12 minutes and change away from the historic spacex ignition. Launch. We are told the astronauts listened to back in black from all right. We have stage separation ac dc on the way to the rocket. For those about to launch, we confirmed. The first stage beginning its salute you. Flight back. The second stage being powered by the single merlin 1d vacuum i am totally blind. Engine has ignited and is now and non24 can throw my days and nights out of sync, carrying bob and doug into orbit. So theyre going to continue keeping me from the things i love to do. Under the power of the second talk to your doctor, stage. Stage two propulsion is and call 8442142424. Nominal. Which will cut off at second engine cutoff about 8 44 into todays flight. A little over five minutes to go still on this second stage. You heard the call out 2 alpha. They are now in the longest abort zone that carries them all the way from about North Carolina up the eastern seaboard almost to canada. Things are looking good, though. Getting good call outs. Nominal propulsion on the second stage. Bob and doug continuing to make their way into orbit. Dragon spacex nominal trajectory. Acquisition of signal bermuda. Spacex dragon nominal trajectory. All right. Dragon pointed in the right direction continuing to make their flight uphill. Bermuda is one of the other ground stations theyre using to get information back from this spacecraft. Stage two propulsion is still nominal. A little over 4 minutes, 40 seconds into the flight bob and doug flying nominal trajectory. Already almost 200 miles down range from the Kennedy Space center. Nominal trajectory continuing. And while they continue uphill it looks like we are getting a view of the first stage as well. On your right screen you can see that first stage with the grid fins deployed making its way back to attempt to land on our drone ship. Of course i still love you today. Were just about a minute, a couple minutes away from the entry burn. Thats where three of the nine merlin engines do ignite to help slow the vehicle down as it reenters into the earths atmosphere. Then after the entry burn will be the landing burn, which is just a single engine burn. Spacex nominal trajectory. Theres the call out. They are still on a nominal trajectory on dragon. Still on second stage. That is that mvac engine on second stage on your left screen. Again, on your right screen is the first stage booster coming back toward our drone ship. Of course i still love you. Were about a minute away from entry burn. Meanwhile that second stage continuing to power dragon into orbit. Keeping an eye on that timer. That is going to continue to burn until eight minutes and 44 seconds into flight so a little over two minutes from now well hear the call out and itll be a little under or over, a little over 3 00 until dragon physically separates from the second stage of the falcon 9. Dragon on trajectory. Continuing to check in with bob and doug as they are on a nominal trajectory. Just about ten seconds away from the first stage starting that entry burn on the right screen we are getting ever closer. We should be able to see that 8 00 now until launch time for view live. Stage one entry burn start todays spacex flight scrubbed on wednesday. We are well past the moment it was scrubbed then. Eight minutes to go. This will mark the first time in history that a commercial up. There is the entry burn Aerospace Company has carried humans into earths orbit. If all goes as planned two beginning. This burn lasts about 36 seconds veteran astronauts bob behnken long. Stage two fts is saved. And Douglas Hurley will ride about 19 hours before arriving at the International Space station tomorrow. Cnns rachel crane is at the Kennedy Space center in florida. We are now exactly eight minutes. While the entry burn what is the latest . Continues we are about a minute reporter well, john, as you away and well hav