SpaceX Demo-2 Post-Launch Press Conference
Questions on ElonsFAQ asked in this interview (2)
Transcript
0:17Jim Bridenstine (NASA)Well, we're making history again.
0:19Elon MuskLet's go.
0:47Bettina Klein (moderator)Five, four, three, two, one.
0:51Kathy Lueders (NASA)Zero.
0:52ReporterIgnition.
0:53Jim Bridenstine (NASA)Lift off.
0:54Elon MuskThere's a falcon line and crew dragon.
0:56Kathy Lueders (NASA)Go NASA, go SpaceX. Godspeed bottom.
1:00Bettina Klein (moderator)Do.
1:05ReporterSo ride on a new arm of American space flight.
1:18Bettina Klein (moderator)Good afternoon and welcome from Kennedy Space Center. I'm bettina Klein with NASA's Office of Communications. What a day. We are here to Discuss the NASA SpaceX Demo 2 mission and the return of US human spaceflight from American soil to the International Space Station.
1:36Bettina Klein (moderator)With astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley. The Crew Jacket spacecraft And the Falcon 9 rocket lifted today from Launch Complex 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center. At 3:22pm Bob and Doug are now safely on their way to the International Space Station.
1:55Bettina Klein (moderator)To talk more about this historic mission, we have a great panel of guests, starting with NASA NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine, Elon Musk, the Chief Engineer of SpaceX, Kathy Lueders, Manager of the NASA Commercial Crew Program, Kirk Sherman, Manager of the International Space Station and NASA Chief Astronaut Pat Forrester.
2:16Bettina Klein (moderator)We'll start with opening comments and our presenters. Then we'll take your questions. We'll first start with our NASA Administrator, Jim Bridenstine.
2:25Jim Bridenstine (NASA)Well, thank you, Bettina. What a great day for NASA. What a great day for SpaceX. What a great day for the United States of America. It's been nine years since we've launched American astronauts on American rockets from American soil.
2:39Jim Bridenstine (NASA)And now we have done it again. I want to be clear, the mission is not yet over. This is a test flight. And so we are at the beginning.
2:49Jim Bridenstine (NASA)But so far everything has performed very, very well. And we are excited about the fact that Bob and Doug, our American heroes, are safely in orbit and on the way to the International Space Station.
3:03Jim Bridenstine (NASA)So I just want to say congratulations to the NASA team. Congratulations to Kathy Lueders who's been on the NASA side leading our commercial crew program all along. And you and your team have done an absolutely marvelous job.
3:18Jim Bridenstine (NASA)And of course, Elon Musk and your team at SpaceX. This, this launch represents the best of everything that America has to offer, but it also represents continuity of purpose, I think.
3:31Jim Bridenstine (NASA)To Charlie Bolden, my predecessor is the NASA administrator who got this program off the ground when there wasn't a lot of political support and now there is a lot of political support.
3:41Jim Bridenstine (NASA)But it's because we have had success after success. And so this is an important milestone for the nation. And I am so honored and grateful to have really this brief moment in my life to be at the head of this agency.
3:57Jim Bridenstine (NASA)So what an amazing, amazing group of people that made all of this happen.
4:01Elon MuskThank you.
4:02Bettina Klein (moderator)Thank you, Administrator. Next, Elon Musk.
4:07Elon MuskI'd like to just acknowledge the incredible work of the people at SpaceX and NASA and everyone in creating this technology and in what has culminated in this incredible launch today of getting astronauts back to orbit after almost a decade.
4:32Elon MuskI think this is something that should really get people, I mean, right on the heart of anyone who has any spirit of exploration. And the United States is a distillation of the human spirit of exploration.
4:44Elon MuskI think this is something that's particularly important in the United States, but appeals to everyone throughout the world who has within them the spirit of exploration. So, I mean, I'm really quite overcome with emotion this day.
5:00Elon MuskIt's kind of hard to talk Frankly. It's been 18 years working towards this goal, so it's hard to believe that it's happened. We haven't quite yet docked the space station, and of course we need to bring them back safely and we need to repeat these missions and have this be a regular occurrence.
5:21Elon MuskSo it's a lot of work to do. But it's just incredible. I think this is something that everyone, you know, this is a craft made by humans, you know, for humans.
5:34Elon MuskThis is like something that I think humanity should be excited about and proud of occurring on this day.
5:42Bettina Klein (moderator)Thank you, Elon. Well, next, Kathy Lueders.
5:45Kathy Lueders (NASA)Well, I wasn't really expecting this today. I'm going to tell you. We woke up this morning. I think Jim actually called me this morning and said, what do you think?
5:55Kathy Lueders (NASA)What do you think? Are we going to fly today? What do you think? Yeah, yeah. Well, it was at the 6:05 wake up phone call, but, you know, I didn't know you ever slept, but I think I'm, you know, Jim said it.
6:13Kathy Lueders (NASA)I mean, I think I was really proud of the team. The team sat there this morning, we looked at the weather. It didn't look great, but we looked at the different options that were out there, and we realized how important it was for us to kind of step through this carefully and weigh the readiness of the hardware and then, you know, not have launch fever, but to very carefully assess the situation and be able to clear the gates and the milestones along the way.
6:43Kathy Lueders (NASA)And The NASA and SpaceX team did a fabulous job with that. And I'm very grateful for the weather clearing one hour before we were getting ready to launch. I mean, all weather constraints were cleared on a day that we weren't really sure how it was Going to work out for both our abort track and our launch area, which we have very, very tough weather constraints.
7:07Kathy Lueders (NASA)But like both Jim and Elon have said, you know, this is a test flight. Bob and Doug are already up there accomplishing a lot of the goals of our test mission.
7:15Kathy Lueders (NASA)You know, they got to do their far field demos, they got to feel, you know, what it's like to be able to use the touch screens when you're in zero G.
7:25Kathy Lueders (NASA)They got to be able to check out all the different parts of the system and liberate their zero G indicator, which I think you guys all have and probably have on order right now.
7:38Kathy Lueders (NASA)And they have a lot more things. They're going to get to try to sleep. I'm not sure how they're going to do that, but they're going to get to try to sleep.
7:45Kathy Lueders (NASA)And then tomorrow morning we'll be approaching Space station and it'll be some of the most important demonstrations that they'll be able to work on about how do we safely dock to the International Space Station.
8:01Kathy Lueders (NASA)So I am so grateful and proud of our NASA and SpaceX team. They are still vigilant, they're still on console. We're going to stay, I'm going to stay in the LCC until Bob and Doug get docked to the International Space Station because we're going to stay vigilant until we bring them safely home.
8:22Kathy Lueders (NASA)Very, very proud of this team. Cannot tell you how happy I am and amazed that we're here today. Thank you, Kirk Shireman.
8:33NASA OfficialWell, what a great day. Very, very great day for human space flight. Big congratulations to Elon Musk and the SpaceX team. And of course a big congratulations to Jim Bridenstine and his leadership together with Kathy leaders and, and the commercial cargo team, commercial crew team.
8:49NASA OfficialJust a fantastic day. Really, really happy to be part of it. A lot of the ISS team couldn't be here in Florida today, but I can tell you they were watching it virtually.
8:58NASA OfficialThey actually had a virtual launch watching party and they were very excited to see the launch as well. And finally our international partners, I had the chance to get congratulations from many of my counterparts across the International Space Station partnership.
9:18NASA OfficialThey have been a big part of commercial Crew and the SpaceX efforts along the way. Today they were watching, I can tell you they're all very excited about having their crew members fly in the very, very near future on the Dragon and come up to International Space Station today on board the iss.
9:38NASA OfficialThe three crew members, Chris Casty, Yvonne Wagner and Anatoly Ivanishin are getting ready to have their additional crewmates on board. I know they're very, very excited. In fact, I'd be surprised if they don't have something really special cooked up for them when they arrive.
9:51NASA OfficialSo we'll look forward to that. There's lots of work to be done on ISS and I know Bob and Doug together with the folks on orbit are really ready to get busy.
10:02NASA OfficialWhat you saw today, hopefully what you saw today was really smooth and calm. It's kind of like a duck. Maybe on the water it looks smooth and calm, but there's a lot of, there's a lot of paddling going on underneath the surface.
10:16NASA OfficialAnd what you'll see tomorrow likely, we certainly expect is very, very smooth and nominal. I just want you to know though, it's very, very difficult, it's a tremendous amount of effort on the part of the designers, the test engineers, in terms of the ops planners and the operators and even the crew to go make that happen.
10:33NASA OfficialSo smooth and nominal is actually really, really hard. So anyway, with that it's been a great day. Very, very happy to have Bob and Doug on their way to the International Space Station and looking forward to the rest of this test flight.
10:50NASA OfficialAnd Pat, I tell you I am very happy to be sitting here in a post launch press conference and that's not something you'll hear me say very often.
11:01Jim Bridenstine (NASA)Probably not as happy as Bob and
11:03NASA OfficialDoug are right now, but I'm pretty happy. And no doubt I have a group of astronauts jumping up and down back in Houston that are pretty happy too because we promised them some flight assignments and those are sure to come once we got Bob and Doug up.
11:20NASA OfficialAnd so I just wanted to just say thanks to the team for being able to do that to make, to give these opportunities to our other crew members. I want you to know that I've been living with Bob and Doug in our astronaut crew quarters here over the last week plus and I have never seen a crew so calm and focused leading up to a launch as these two were.
11:45NASA OfficialNow no doubt that has to do with their experience, it has to do with the training, but I really think it's a demonstration of the trust that they have both in the NASA team and the SpaceX team to get them safely to orbit.
12:03NASA OfficialAstronauts sometimes are referred to as heroes and no doubt Bob and Doug demonstrated that today, but this is the first time I've ever been in the flight control room as the chief astronaut while we were trying to launch a crew.
12:18NASA OfficialAnd I'll tell you, accepting risk on behalf of others is a big responsibility. And I was amazed at what was going on in the loops. As Kirk said, there was a lot of paddling underneath.
12:30NASA OfficialAnd I want everyone to know that we were surrounded by heroes on the ground that got us where we were today. With that, I think I'll say thanks again for getting our crew safely to orbit.
12:44NASA OfficialWe'll look forward to seeing them dock to the International Space Station tomorrow.
12:49Bettina Klein (moderator)Thank you. So today we have media joining us remotely, so they'll be on the phone and watching on NASA television like everybody else. So to ensure as many people as possible to ask their questions, we're asking our reporters to ask one question to make sure that all of their colleagues has an opportunity to participate in this press conference.
13:09Bettina Klein (moderator)Please state your name, affiliation, and whom you're directing your question to. Our first question comes from Miriam Kramer.
13:19ReporterHi. Thank you so much. Miriam Kramer with Axios. This question is for Elon or for the administrator or both. I was just wondering. So this launch has often been referred to as a moment of hope for the nation, but it's also happening against the backdrop of protests and demonstrations around the country today.
13:35ReporterI wonder what you want to say to those people out there protesting. Is this launch for them, too? Thanks.
13:45Jim Bridenstine (NASA)I'll be happy to field it. Look, this launch is for all of America. And we have had moments in time in American history where we've had challenges as a nation.
13:56Jim Bridenstine (NASA)We think back to the 1960s. We think about the Vietnam War and the protests. We think about in the 1960s, the civil rights abuses and the civil rights protests.
14:07Jim Bridenstine (NASA)We think about the height of the Cold War. And yet we had this moment in time, July 20, 1969, when all of America stopped, literally just stopped, because we had American astronauts walking on the surface of the moon.
14:25Jim Bridenstine (NASA)And then we repeated that five more times. The challenge is the Apollo program eventually ended. But I think what is great about NASA is that we bring people together.
14:40Jim Bridenstine (NASA)Everybody loves exploration. And it's not just political divides. It's also international divides, and it's unifying. And I would hope, I think it happened today. As a matter of fact, all of America stopped.
14:57Jim Bridenstine (NASA)I've seen some of the numbers. The amount of viewership on what we accomplished today was off the charts. And so I am hoping that people can see this as something that is bright, hopeful, and that people know that tomorrow is a new day and a better day, and we're always going to strive to do better.
15:22ReporterThank you.
15:23Bettina Klein (moderator)Our next question comes from Jackie Wattles of cnn.
15:29ReporterThanks so much for doing this. I was curious. This question is for Elon. If you had heard from President Trump yet and what he might have told you and what you might have said to him about this.
15:40ReporterThanks so much.
15:42Elon MuskWell, I've not spoken one on one with him. I just essentially heard the press conference along with everybody else. So we've not exchanged any direct comments.
15:55Jim Bridenstine (NASA)We had a few moments in the firing room there after the launch. And I'll tell you that the President is excited. Of course, he congratulated elon in the SpaceX team, team and I thought it was a good moment.
16:10Elon MuskYes, it was with a group of people, but yeah, oh, sure, sure, sure. But yes, he certainly congratulated the SpaceX team and NASA and everyone involved. And yeah, I think this just to echo the NASA administrator's comments, I think this is, this is a day that is that I think everyone can be proud of that.
16:34Elon MuskIt's a good day to be. This event is something that all of humanity can get excited about. It's just a fundamentally positive good thing. And I think we need more positive good things in this world.
16:51Bettina Klein (moderator)Our next question is from Joey Roulette of Reuters
16:56Reporterdoing this one question, two part question. First is for Jim Bridenstine. Have you heard from your Russian counterparts? Kirk Scheimen mentioned that international partners reached out to NASA with the success and the other is for Elon Musk with SpaceX's success today.
17:14ReporterHave you heard from your Boeing counterparts and what would you say to them? Thanks.
17:19Jim Bridenstine (NASA)So Dmitry Rogozin is the head of Roscosmos in Russia and I haven't talked to him, but I have seen his public comments and of course he was overwhelmingly congratulatory towards NASA and SpaceX and he made some comment about how it's like flying an iPhone or something.
17:41Jim Bridenstine (NASA)And I know, I've made similar comments as well. But he does, he did express that this is an exciting day, not just for us, but also for them. They believe in the partnership and so I think it's going to remain strong.
17:56Elon MuskThe trampoline is working.
18:03Elon MuskIt's the inside joke. Inside joke, yeah.
18:07Bettina Klein (moderator)Our next question comes from Marcia Dunn
18:13Reporterfor you. Your company president said right before liftoff that she was super nervous, stomach and throat. Could you talk about how you were your emotions, your feelings leading up to liftoff, in a sense, especially seeing them make it to orbit safely.
18:29ReporterThank you very much.
18:33Jim Bridenstine (NASA)Was that for me or Elon?
18:38NASA OfficialSure.
18:39Jim Bridenstine (NASA)That goes for Elon.
18:40ReporterFor Elon, please. Elon.
18:44Bettina Klein (moderator)Marcia, if you're on the line, can you repeat your question?
18:50ReporterYes, Elon Gwynne. Shotwell said right before liftoff that she had her stomach in her throat. She was super nervous. I'd like to know how you were feeling in the minutes leading up to liftoff today.
19:03ReporterYour emotions, your feelings of having to stand there and watch all this unfold. Thank you.
19:11Elon MuskWell, I mean, just speaking straight from the heart on Wednesday during the first countdown, I'd say that my adrenaline was railed at 100% and when launch was called up, it went to zero percent.
19:28Elon MuskI just basically collapsed and slept. The longest time I'd slept in probably a year. Then oddly enough today, I don't know, it felt like just the fates were aligned.
19:38Elon MuskAnd I didn't feel, didn't feel nervous, didn't feel just. It felt like it was going to work. And I felt like the right thing was going to happen. So for whatever reason, I did not.
19:50Elon MuskI don't feel nervous.
19:53Jim Bridenstine (NASA)Hey, Bettina, can I say something real quick? I just got a note. Moments ago, Doug Hurley announced that the crew Dragon is named Endeavor. And we are going to look forward to hearing a few words from them shortly.
20:08Bettina Klein (moderator)Thank you.
20:09Elon MuskYeah, they've been flying it around. Actually, it's cool that they, they took it off automatic and just were manually flying the craft around. It's got to be pretty fun just zipping around.
20:22Elon MuskSpace and spacecraft.
20:26Bettina Klein (moderator)Everyone's childhood dream.
20:27Elon MuskYeah.
20:28Bettina Klein (moderator)Next we'll go to Emory Kelly of Florida today.
20:32ReporterHey, folks, thanks for doing this. I appreciate it. I'm just wondering with this being the first time humans have had a chance to experience flying on a Falcon 9 and in a crew Dragon after all these years of them flying.
20:48ReporterHave you gotten any input from Bob and Doug?
20:51Elon MuskIs it, you know, smooth ride?
20:53ReporterWhat was it like?
20:54Elon MuskThank you.
20:56Jim Bridenstine (NASA)So I have not heard specifically as to how it flies. I do know that we are going to hear from them soon. I don't know at what point that's going to take place.
21:07Jim Bridenstine (NASA)Bettina, I don't know if you have that specific information. No, I don't have the ring.
21:13Elon MuskIt was a very smooth ride. You can see. I think on the webcast it looked quite smooth. In fact, a friend of mine who's a filmmaker said you need to put some shake into the camera to make it look more realistic.
21:29Bettina Klein (moderator)Our next question will be from Paul Brinkman of upi.
21:35ReporterYes, I'd like to ask Elon, I realize the mission isn't over, but it's a significant achievement at this point. What's the impact of success for this program on SpaceX as a whole, including development of Starship.
21:52Elon MuskWell, I think this obviously a tremendous accomplishment for SpaceX in partnership with NASA and a number of critical suppliers. In fact, if I think about the total number of people involved in making this mission successful, probably adds up to 100,000.
22:11Elon MuskSo I'd just like to just express a word of appreciation and congratulations again to everyone involved in making this successful. And actually, and just special word to administrator and Kathy and you know, it's just everyone involved, it's just wow.
22:34Elon MuskAnyway, it is a little hard to process. I think at this point I am somewhat overcome by emotion. To try to come up with cohesive, you know, sentences that make any sense is quite difficult.
22:50Elon MuskBut I think the, this is hopefully the first step on a journey towards a civilization on Mars. Life becoming multi planetary based on the Moon and expanding beyond Earth and life becoming multi planetary for the first time in the four and a half billion year history of Earth.
23:15Elon MuskI think this is hopefully the first step on that journey. It will require a tremendous amount of innovation and technology development to make going to orbit and ultimately beyond orbit a routine matter where thousands and perhaps ultimately millions of people can travel to other planets.
23:38Elon MuskThat's what we really need to achieve over time. And that's, that's obviously a very difficult goal. But that's seeming increasingly real with what happened today. Getting people to orbit finally, after 18 years, if we are able to increase the rate of innovation, then life can become multi planetary.
24:04Elon MuskThis is the goal we should strive for.
24:07Jim Bridenstine (NASA)I think from a NASA perspective, I think what this did for Starship and a lot of others is kind of establish that this is a successful business model. And if we look at how we did commercial resupply of the International Space Station and now commercial crew of the International Space Station and of course the commercial Lunar Payload Services program to deliver payloads to the surface of the moon.
24:31Jim Bridenstine (NASA)And now for the first time since 1972, we have funded a human landing system. And of course we're very proud that SpaceX is going to be a partner in that development program as well.
24:44Jim Bridenstine (NASA)So not only do we have it funded, we actually have contractors under contract developing that human landing system. So I think as far as how this relates to the Artemis program and the Moon to Mars program, I think the business model has proven itself very successful.
25:03Jim Bridenstine (NASA)We're bringing down costs, we're increasing access. That's going to continue to happen as we on ramp more partners and of course as SpaceX and others to go get more customers.
25:13Jim Bridenstine (NASA)NASA doesn't want to be the owner and operator of the hardware. We Also don't want to be the only customer. We want SpaceX and others to go get customers that are not us.
25:23Jim Bridenstine (NASA)And when all that materializes, I think what Elon's talking about here, this vision for humanity being able to live on the surface of the moon for long periods of time and eventually on Mars for long periods of time.
25:38Jim Bridenstine (NASA)That's the eventuality of the business model that we are currently developing.
25:44Bettina Klein (moderator)Thank you. Our next question is from Chris Davenport of the Washington Post.
25:50ReporterOh, thanks guys, for taking my call. I really appreciate it. And thanks, Elon, for the trampoline quote. That was classic Elon. If I could ask you, you put the window in the cargo Dragon as a symbol of your ambition of flying people.
26:06ReporterI wonder if you can talk a little bit about how over these very long years you kept your team focused on human spaceflight as the ultimate goal, even though obviously they've been working on so many other things along the way.
26:18ReporterThanks and congrats.
26:26Elon MuskYeah, Human space flight was always the goal, the fundamental goal of SpaceX. Well, like I said, to create the technologies or help create the technologies necessary to make life sustainably multiplanetary.
26:43Elon MuskI cannot emphasize this enough. This is the thing that we need to do. We must make life sustainably multi planetary. It's not one planet to be explored exclusion of another, but to extend life beyond Earth.
26:54Elon MuskWe are life's agent in this regard. All the creatures that the plants and everyone that exist here on Earth, we can bring them to other planets. And it's very important that we do so as soon as possible.
27:07Elon MuskI think while the window of opportunity is open.
27:14Elon MuskI call upon the public to support this goal and to think about this goal and think about how important it is and how fundamental it is to the future.
27:26Elon MuskWe got to get it done. Launching satellites is nice, of course, and it keeps the, you know, we've got to bring in more money than we spend. This is important, but it's ultimately all about life beyond Earth.
27:47Bettina Klein (moderator)We'll go to our next question. It's Eric Berger of Ars Technica.
27:53ReporterGood afternoon. That was a hell of a thing to watch. Question for Jim today. It's been a little more than eight months since you tweeted about SpaceX and it was time to deliver.
28:06ReporterJust wondering if you would say that they have delivered or not. And maybe do you have a message for other contractors for NASA? Yeah.
28:13Jim Bridenstine (NASA)No, I leave it to you to bring this up. We're celebrating here a little bit. I want to be careful. We're not celebrating too much. Until Bob and Doug get home safely.
28:24Jim Bridenstine (NASA)But no, that's right. There was a time eight months ago, as you mentioned, where we were having challenges with parachutes. We had a crew dragon that had a static fire test that ultimately resulted in its catastrophic loss.
28:43Jim Bridenstine (NASA)And, you know, if you would have told me then that we would be right here today, I don't know that I would have believed it. And yes, I sent a tweet and asked Elon to deliver.
28:53Jim Bridenstine (NASA)And I'll tell you, and I'll tell you the same thing I told the President, I told the vice president. And of course, I've said it in a number of interviews.
29:02Jim Bridenstine (NASA)Since that day, Elon Musk and SpaceX have delivered on everything NASA has asked them to deliver on, and at a speed that we never would have guessed. My engineering team was saying that this is not going to be able to be achieved in this amount of time.
29:20Jim Bridenstine (NASA)The amount of parachute tests that we had to get done and how long it takes to get those parachute tests done. Look, we got all the parachute tests done, and we are just overwhelmingly grateful, not just for SpaceX and Elon Musk, but also airborne and the NASA team that really went to work on getting all these tests done.
29:42Jim Bridenstine (NASA)And of course, all of the, you know, getting, changing out the titanium, all that took time. And then doing all the tests after that, my goodness, SpaceX really delivered something that is magnificent and that is speed.
29:58Jim Bridenstine (NASA)Without question. I don't think anybody would have believed the speed with which SpaceX delivered. And they did, in fact, deliver.
30:05Elon MuskDeliver.
30:06Bettina Klein (moderator)Kath, you want to add anything to that?
30:08Kathy Lueders (NASA)Oh, no. I mean, I think Jim said it really well. I mean, we went through. It wasn't like we didn't have issues. We had things we had to go solve, Right?
30:18Kathy Lueders (NASA)And we've learned a ton. And that team, the SpaceX team and the NASA team together, working hand in glove, you know, together solve these problems together, right? We tackled them and we solved them and figured out how we're going to go fly together.
30:36Kathy Lueders (NASA)But without the SpaceX folks making it happen, like Jim said so quickly, we wouldn't be here today.
30:44Bettina Klein (moderator)Thank you. Next is Lauren Grush with the Verge.
30:49Kathy Lueders (NASA)Hi.
30:50ReporterThank you so much for taking my question. I guess this is for anyone who can answer it. I'm wondering if there was anything unexpected during the launch today. I think I heard something on the live stream about some component being lower in temperature than expected.
31:04ReporterJust wondering if everything went as planned or if you had any hiccups along the way. Thanks,
31:14Kathy Lueders (NASA)Jeremy. So the only, you know, really the count was, I would say spectacularly quiet. I mean, everybody said, you know, and then probably within as we were loading the prop, the only thing we saw was, we saw it was actually something we'd seen as we were unloading on Wednesday.
31:35Kathy Lueders (NASA)We had a sensor that was reading in a way that we had to go understand why was it reading in that particular manner. And we also had to understand what can happen if it fails.
31:51Kathy Lueders (NASA)And it was in an area where actually we it's downstream of our fill and drain valve. And so it was, you know, kind of Jim talked before about where do the teams, how do they work together.
32:05Kathy Lueders (NASA)And one of the things that we've learned on this mission is how to go take a piece of data, like a sensor data, and go understand what is that data telling us and then be able to clear it.
32:16Kathy Lueders (NASA)Which is really why we were able to fly through our understanding of what the issue was and then turn that around in a very short period of time. And what that takes is two groups of folks that have been working with each other for a while and understand what the vehicle is trying to tell them.
32:33Kathy Lueders (NASA)But you know, I thought, oh my goodness, we're going to have this issue. After going through all the weather stuff, now we're going to have this issue. And I was very impressed with how the joint teams together looked at the sensor, understood it, understood the phenomena, and then cleared it and continued on the count.
32:55Bettina Klein (moderator)Next we'll go to Irene Klotz of Aviation Week.
32:58ReporterThanks. Congratulations everybody. That was super impressive to see. My question I think is for Kathy and maybe for Elon, what has to happen from this point on for you all to feel confident that an August 30th or early September launch of the first post certification mission can happen.
33:22ReporterThanks.
33:25Kathy Lueders (NASA)Well, you know, I'm very proud of the SpaceX team for another reason. You know, we had really wanted our crew on vehicle to get into prop checkouts, which is really where the spacecraft's assembled.
33:39Kathy Lueders (NASA)And we're kind of in one of the final acceptance testing modes. And last night I got an email that said, Crew 1 vehicle is in prop checkouts. They're going through and making sure that the propulsion systems leak tight and operating in a critical manner.
33:56Kathy Lueders (NASA)So I tell you, that's the first thing. The vehicle's got to be ready. The other things that we've got to do is make sure one, we can we dock our demo two vehicle because like we said, this is a test flight and make sure that we're taking all that learning that we are going to have from the docking and rolling it into our readiness for Crew 1.
34:19Kathy Lueders (NASA)And then we also have to make sure that we are understanding that we get through landing and make sure that we're taking that understanding and any issues that we have with the landing and then rolling that into Crew one.
34:34Kathy Lueders (NASA)So our team's getting the vehicle ready. And we're also watching this demonstration mission and making sure that our learning out of this test flight is then rolled into how we're going to be Flying Crew 1.
34:49Kathy Lueders (NASA)So keep watching along the way. It's going to be like a. We're like a, I'd say like a serial net year serial. And we'll be following along as we learn along the way.
34:59Kathy Lueders (NASA)But these test flights are very important for that next mission.
35:06Bettina Klein (moderator)Next question comes from Jeff Faust.
35:11Jim Bridenstine (NASA)Hi, this is Jeff Faust with Space News.
35:14ReporterAre there anything, any issues you're particularly watching on the crew Dragon as it approaches the space station? Anything that you'll be particularly keeping your fingers across over the remaining hours up through docking?
35:31Kathy Lueders (NASA)So, you know, the big thing, the nice thing about us having the Uncrewed Mission was we were able to check out a lot of the systems on the Uncrewed mission that had to do with docking.
35:42Kathy Lueders (NASA)I think everybody saw last spring how successful our crew, our Demo 1 mission was through the docking phase. But you always learn something with spaceflight. And now having the crew on board and understanding how the spacecraft and the crew operate as a system and then how that total system then obviously works with us approaching station will be another big thing that we're learning.
36:11Kathy Lueders (NASA)Right. And then obviously, you know, people forget, and Kirk alluded to it, us understanding how to be docked with station and operate within station is a big part of our learning for this group.
36:26Kathy Lueders (NASA)We're going to be, this is also our first long duration mission where we're going to be doing integrated operations with the space station for a long period of time, which is also going to be a huge learning opportunity for us.
36:41Kathy Lueders (NASA)So these test flights are very, very important for us to not only learn how the vehicle works, but learn how we're operating it. And we've learned a lot about how to try to fly with weather and how to operate with these systems.
36:58Kathy Lueders (NASA)It's going to be really important for us now to go learn how to obviously do the docking piece, but then learn how to be part of this integrated, you know, Enterprise.
37:10Kathy Lueders (NASA)That's the International Space Station. And Kirk, you probably could add, it's a very complicated, you know, system.
37:17NASA OfficialFirst of all, I promise good weather tomorrow, Kathy, I promise no rain, showers we did have a solar flare, but I don't think that'll impact our operations. But there's a series of tests along the way.
37:28NASA OfficialJust like on Demo one, there's some additional tests. Of course, Doug's going to take over and fly manually. And the crew onboard the Dragon, Bob and Doug monitoring how the vehicle comes in, and Chris Cassidy on board the ISS will also be monitoring it.
37:43NASA OfficialSo it really is. How does the vehicle perform? How does the integrated crew, both the crew on the Dragon and the crew on the International Space Station, handle all that?
37:51NASA OfficialAnd then of course, equalizing the pressures, making sure there's no leaks when it's mated to the iss, and then finally just training the crew to come across the hatch and how the ISS works and be part of that bigger integrated team.
38:06NASA OfficialSo I think there's a tremendous amount of things to learn along the way and we have very, very experienced crew on board the ISS and a very, very experienced crew on Dragon, and I think it will go really well, but I'm sure we'll learn a few things along the way.
38:23Bettina Klein (moderator)Thank you. Our next question is going to come from Jackie Goddard of Times of London.
38:29ReporterHello. Thank you and congratulations. My question is for Elon. You said last week that you had told Bob and Doug's two little boys that you would do everything you can to bring them home safely, even with a safe launch out the way.
38:43ReporterThat must still weigh on you throughout the mission, though. And I wondered if you can share some personal insight into what it's like to have that responsibility, not just with your SpaceX hat on, but as a dad.
38:55ReporterThank you.
39:02Elon MuskWell, it really hit home, you know, when you meet somebody's kids and the vehicle at that you're responsible for, you know, their lives at stake. It really hits home.
39:25Elon MuskSo, you know, there's still, so we still got to dock with Space Station. We still got a, still got a return. I think there's an argument that the return is more, more dangerous in some ways than the ascent.
39:40Elon MuskSo we don't want to declare victory yet. We need to bring him home safely, make sure that we're doing everything we can to minimize that risk of reentry and return.
39:52Elon MuskWe were able to do that with the Demo 1 vehicle, so we were able to retire. A lot of risk with the reentry there. That's a big deal. But yeah, that's.
40:10Elon MuskAnyway get it choked up here. So it really, I'm getting choked up. Sorry. I'm not sure I can answer the question any more than that. Except yeah, gonna do Everything we can to make sure it gets home safely.
40:28Bettina Klein (moderator)Our next question comes from Marina Corin.
40:32ReporterHi, everyone. Marina Corin with the Atlantic. Congratulations on the launch. This is for Elon or Jim. Do Bob and Doug want to dock manually to the ISS instead of letting Dragon do it?
40:43ReporterAre they allowed to do that or can they only take over if there is a problem or some kind of emergency?
40:51Jim Bridenstine (NASA)The plan is for automatic rendezvous and docking. That's. That's the plan. Of course, if they needed to do something manually, they could, but we're planning to test automatic rendezvous and docking.
41:06Jim Bridenstine (NASA)I just want to reiterate something that Elon talked about. There is no doubt that Bob and Doug are on Elon's mind all the time. But that is not just on his mind.
41:19Jim Bridenstine (NASA)He has made that throughout the culture at point some SpaceX. And we did an assessment of the culture at SpaceX and it came back extremely strong. And it is on the mind.
41:32Jim Bridenstine (NASA)Bob and Doug are on the minds of everybody all the way down to the line worker and all the way to the top. Everybody at SpaceX knows what is at stake here.
41:43Jim Bridenstine (NASA)And I will tell you, I was very impressed with what I saw in that safety assessment that we conducted. And I think all of our NASA team was impressed with it as well.
41:55Jim Bridenstine (NASA)It's not just Elon, it's his whole team, and he's made that go all the way down. To every person that works at SpaceX,
42:04Kathy Lueders (NASA)they're called the dads, which may have something to do with their age, but I can say that because they're on orbit, so they're. And it'll be a few months before maybe they come back and kick me now.
42:16Kathy Lueders (NASA)But. Yes, but they're called the DM2Dads.
42:22Elon MuskWe should have a dad joke or something.
42:25NASA OfficialI would like to add to that because it plays back to an earlier question about how did SpaceX stay focused on human spaceflight coming out of cargo. And I think part of that is that relationship that was built.
42:40NASA OfficialI, I know recently, over this past year, I think it was 32 straight weeks that Bob and Doug were out there at Hawthorne with the SpaceX team. And they have really built a very close relationship.
42:52NASA OfficialYou can see it in the eyes and the smiles when they see each other. And that goes a long way, I think, in this.
43:02Kathy Lueders (NASA)I think what's really, really cool is that the part number for their seats and their suits has their names in it. So, you know, I think, Elon, you guys have done a great job to personalize that they're flying our crews.
43:18Jim Bridenstine (NASA)That culture is not easy to achieve, and it's not easy to get it throughout the whole organization. And the safety assessment that we did indicated that that was the case.
43:28Elon MuskI just want to say that I think we would not have achieved this level of safety without the tremendous support from NASA and your team. NASA made us way better than we would otherwise have been.
43:39Elon MuskAnd obviously, we couldn't even have got started without NASA. So thank you very much for your support.
43:45Jim Bridenstine (NASA)Let's celebrate safety when we get them home.
43:47Elon MuskYeah, totally. Yes, let's do that. But it's good.
43:54Bettina Klein (moderator)Our next question is from Ivan Krone from afp.
43:59ReporterThank you very much. A question for Elon Musk. Could you expand on starship development and about when you expect you will go around the moon?
44:09Elon MuskWell, I tend to be a little optimistic about schedules,
44:19Elon MuskBut I'm optimistic in general, so I guess that extends to schedules, too. I don't know. I mean, I guess I would wish that we could do it in two years.
44:34Elon MuskI don't know. That might mean four, but I don't know. I think it's not out of the question that it could be two years. I would be surprised if it took more than four.
44:49Bettina Klein (moderator)Okay, our next question is from Dave Mosher of Business Insider.
44:57ReporterThank you for taking my question, and congratulations on an amazing launch. This is for Elon. You've been working toward this moment for 18 years and have certainly encountered some resistance along the way, I think, even at NASA at one point.
45:10ReporterWhat would you say to Those who doubted SpaceX could do this? Do you have a message for them? And then your last conversation with Bob and Doug. Can you tell us what you talked about, what you said?
45:20ReporterThank you.
45:21Elon MuskMy apologies. I didn't hear the first question properly.
45:25Bettina Klein (moderator)Can you repeat that.
45:31Elon MuskFirst question, Dave?
45:34ReporterYes. I'm sorry. You couldn't hear the question.
45:36Bettina Klein (moderator)Yeah. Can you repeat it, please?
45:38ReporterYeah. Sorry about that. So this is for Elon. I said you've been working toward this moment for 18 years, and you certainly encountered a lot of resistance along the way, even, I think, from NASA at the very beginning.
45:49ReporterWhat would you say to Those who doubted SpaceX could do this? Do you have a message for them? And then what was your last conversation with Bob and Doug like?
45:56ReporterWhat did you. What did you talk about? Where was it? Thank you so much.
46:00Elon MuskDo I have a message for those who doubted you? Oh, doubted, Okay. I was like, what did he. Okay, maybe I just blank out the word doubt.
46:17Elon MuskSo, no, I mean, to be totally frank, I doubted us, too. So I thought we. You Know, had maybe when starting SpaceX, maybe had a 10% chance of reaching orbit.
46:27Elon MuskSo you know, to those who doubted us, I was like, well I think you're probably right. You know, I mean the number of times that I was told, like, because I was taking the money I earned from PayPal and rolling it into to create SpaceX and Tesla ended up spending it all, it wasn't the intention and almost both companies went bankrupt.
46:52Elon MuskFrankly, 2008 was a tough year. It took us four attempts just to get to orbit with Falcon 1. And so, but a lot of times people tell me this joke, like how do you make a small fortune in the rocket industry?
47:11Elon MuskYou start with a large one is the punchline. And I was like, okay, I already heard that joke 12,000 times. Anyway, it almost came true. We just barely made it there.
47:28Elon MuskThat fourth launch of Falcon 1, that's all the money we had for that fourth launch. And then, and that wasn't even enough to save the company. We also then had to win the NASA cargo resupply contract.
47:40Elon MuskSo that came a little after, you know, a little bit later or towards the end of 2008. Those are the two key things that saved SpaceX otherwise we would have, you know, not made it.
47:52Elon MuskSo yeah, I think those datas were, their probability assessment was correct but fortunately Beta smiled upon us and brought us to this day.
48:05Bettina Klein (moderator)And Pat, anything else you could add about Bob and Doug right before they launched?
48:11NASA OfficialWell, I mentioned earlier that they were calm and focused. I think that this was for both of them a chance to get back to space. They felt like it was a privilege to represent NASA and the astronaut corps in this endeavor.
48:28NASA OfficialAnd they, I guarantee you are going to enjoy their time on the International Space Station. Chris joked with them when they didn't get up the first time. I think the administrator heard this, that they were trying to get out of the weekend cleaning that we do on the iss.
48:45NASA OfficialBut they'll be glad to get there. Glad to come back.
48:50Bettina Klein (moderator)We're going to take our last question from.
48:55ReporterHi, this is hanukkah weidering with space.com thank you so much for taking my question and congratulations on an amazing launch today. I'm just wondering if you could talk about what else Bob and Doug will be doing now that they've completed their manual flight test.
49:08ReporterI've heard that they're going to be taking a nap at some point, but what else is on the to do list for Bob and Doug between now and docking?
49:17Kathy Lueders (NASA)Well, you know, they did their far field demo so like Elon already mentioned they got to manually fly the vehicle. They'll be doing another demonstration a little bit closer to the space station.
49:31Kathy Lueders (NASA)You know, people forget that, you know, the reason we picked or the FOD picked the Bob and Duck to fly this is because of their experience as test pilots and actually had developed the concept of the cadre to have an experienced set of crew members working with the companies to make sure that they were able to help them as they're working their designs and developing their systems.
50:02Kathy Lueders (NASA)So this is kind of cool because this is Bob and Doug get to actually fly the work that they've been helping work and develop and say figure out how's it really working on orbit.
50:15Kathy Lueders (NASA)And so the other thing they get to do is just to be able to be, you know, the ECLSS systems working. They're getting to see that are things cooling is the how's the seat feels, how's the suits feel?
50:30Kathy Lueders (NASA)Can you get in and out of the suits? You know, when you're on orbit, how easy are those kind of functions going to be? I'm not going to talk about the, the waste functions, but that's kind of part of it.
50:43Kathy Lueders (NASA)And then obviously how approach feels with. I know that Jim was able to use a simulator, but now they've got this big simulator that's the International Space Station that they're going to get to be able to actually come up to and be able to dock and see how that really works and how it matches.
51:03Kathy Lueders (NASA)Because one of the things that's really important, we all know it and anybody you know, is how does a real thing really approximate what you've been practicing on for, you know, the last few years.
51:18Kathy Lueders (NASA)And so they now are going to be able to come back and for these next crews that are going up, they'll be able to share with them, hey, this is really how it felt, this is how these systems worked and be able to share that experience with the crew.
51:33Kathy Lueders (NASA)One crew that right now is doing their training. So they're doing a very, very, very important function for our upcoming crews that will really be the long duration crew members and will be flying to the space station.
51:49NASA OfficialAnd I can promise you that the hardest thing they'll do tomorrow is when they're done flying their manual near field flying is to hand it back over to the computers and not dock it themselves because they are test pilots.
52:02NASA OfficialAnd to answer an earlier question, that is exactly what they would enjoy doing. So to give it back will be a little bit hard for them.
52:10Kathy Lueders (NASA)I did notice, you know, Doug was Really good at teaching Jim how to fly it. So. Yes, he helped you, Doc, right?
52:17Jim Bridenstine (NASA)Well, I might have. No, he helped a lot, and it was fantastic.
52:24Bettina Klein (moderator)Well, that was our last question. Some closing remarks from the administrator.
52:27NASA OfficialSure.
52:28Jim Bridenstine (NASA)So, again, this is a great day for the United States of America. It does represent many years of work, I want to say. You know, a question came up earlier about, you know, doubters and people that didn't believe that this could ever happen.
52:45Jim Bridenstine (NASA)There was a day when Charlie Bolden, my predecessor at NASA as the administrator, was trying to get this program off the ground in a significant way. And he had members of Congress on both sides of the aisle that were in opposition to it and wouldn't adequately fund it and ultimately gave him a hard time about it.
53:05Jim Bridenstine (NASA)And General, Marine Corps General Charlie Bolden persevered and he pushed through, and that was the beginning of what we all get to experience today. And so I want to emphasize that.
53:19Jim Bridenstine (NASA)I also want to emphasize, you know, Pat was talking about how the Bob and Doug were joking with each other earlier today when I had the opportunity to be with them, and they were joking.
53:30Jim Bridenstine (NASA)You know, Doug Hurley's last space shuttle mission got scrubbed five times before they finally launched on the sixth time. And of course, Bob Behnken is saying that Doug Hurley is the jinx here, and therefore, you know, they're not going to launch today either.
53:44Jim Bridenstine (NASA)And to see them loose like that. Pat, you mentioned that they were loose and joking and in fact, seemingly having fun on the day of launch, even though what they're doing is very serious.
53:57Elon MuskNerves of steel.
53:59Jim Bridenstine (NASA)Nerves of steel. I mean, these are just American heroes. So I just want to make sure that we're keeping them in mind. And of course, Elon, SpaceX and your team, you know, going back to what we talked about just a few minutes ago, the fact that at SpaceX, you don't call them Bob and Doug, you call them the dads, because that's what they are.
54:22Jim Bridenstine (NASA)They are, in fact, dads. And keeping their safety at the foremost of your minds. So really, this is really a great day for all of America. It's a great day for our country.
54:34Jim Bridenstine (NASA)It's been a long time. It's been nine years since we've had the opportunity. And of course, we are here now. And there's, you know, as Elon said earlier, There's 10,000 people behind us that have made it happen.
54:50Jim Bridenstine (NASA)You might have said it a hundred times.
54:52Elon MuskI see when you add up suppliers and everyone, I think it's probably closer to 100,000 children that's right.
54:58Jim Bridenstine (NASA)So this really is, it's a great day for the United States of America. It's a great day for our international partners. Remember, Crew 1 is going to be an international mission.
55:10Jim Bridenstine (NASA)On the first crew, we're going to have a Japanese astronaut with us. So we're very excited about this. I want to say congratulations to everybody. We're not celebrating yet.
55:20Jim Bridenstine (NASA)We will celebrate when they're home safely. But certainly we can breathe sighs of relief every step along the way. And that's what we're doing today. So congratulations to SpaceX and Elon Musk, congratulations to Cathay leaders and your NASA team that got us to this position.
55:37Jim Bridenstine (NASA)And we look forward to so many things ahead.
55:40Elon MuskGreat.
55:42Bettina Klein (moderator)So that's going to wrap it up for us here at the Kennedy Space Center. You can continue watching our live coverage until the astronauts reach the International Space Station and docking and hatch opening and the arrival of Bob and Doug at the ISS.
55:54Bettina Klein (moderator)Docking is scheduled for 10:29 Eastern Time. And right after this broadcast we'll turn it over to jsc. We're going to hear from Bob and Doug during a downlink from from the crew dragon as they orbit the Earth.
56:07Bettina Klein (moderator)So we'll have more information. Please go to NASA.gov for more specific information on commercial crew. You go to NASA.govcommercialcrew and go SpaceX. Go NASA. Go Bob and Doug and go America.
56:21Bettina Klein (moderator)Thank you.