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The orion capsule will separate from its service module then complete a skip maneuver off the edge of the earth's atmosphere which will bring it closer to its landing site and cut down on the g forces that future astronauts will have to endure. after that all eyes are on the heat shield as orion blazes back to earth at temperatures twice as hot as molten lava. nasa says the heat shield has been tested more than 1,000 times and making sure it can take the heat is one of the primary goals of this mission. from the outset the uncrewed artemis i mission has been a dry run to make sure the spacecra...

It was coming in at 25,000 miles an hour, 5000 degrees fahrenheit. and it did that twice as it dipped into the atmosphere and lead off that speed, and then came back up about 150,000 feet. and then dipped in, in this deep dive again to get more speed, then came on in. so, everything worked. >> and as we know, this was not a manned mission, but we know that nasa's hope. when do you think we will know about human crew? might we get an announcement soon? would you like to make some news here? >> as a matter of fact, you are going to hear pretty soon. we are going to encourage the headquarters her...

There are something out there that could be of interest, like helium 3 that could be used as a fusion reactor in the future. >> i understand the importance of it. but for the playperson, who might be thinking, we've already -- we've already sent astronauts to the moon. why is all of this necessary? why will there be another artemis mission with astronauts onboard, just circling, and doing the same journey that this one did? why is all of that necessary, why can't we go back sooner? >> sure. the issue of landing humans on the moon, we don't have a lander yesterday. nasa has contracts out, some ...

We make this rocket and spacecraft do things we would never do with a human crew. the main purpose is to test the heat shield. you can't test that in a lab. >> joining me now is retired nasa astronaut leroy chao who is also a former commander of the international space station. hi, leroy. even though this flight is unmanned, what makes it so important? why should people watching right now care about this? >> it's always exciting when there is a launch of a new vehicle and this has been a long time coming. this rocket is actually has more thrust. generates more thrust at lift-off than the satur...

>> right. and obviously the heat shield is so critical here, so instead of having actual people on board, you're going to have these mannequins and i have a lot of questions about these mannequins. one, i would like for you to send me one so i can put it in john berman's office when he's not looking. two, the mannequins, people are remarking how creepy they look, but they're important to have them there as you wait to see that actual people can be on board, right? >> in particular we are going to make sure that the radiation that those mannequins receive is acceptable. of course, if there is a...