Blue Origin launches William Shatner into space: Watch LIVE

foreign there she is new shepherd live on the launch pad preparing to take chris bosh hausen glenn devries our very own audrey powers and captain kirk himself the legendary william shatner to space today blue origins launch site one in west texas is our second human flight the human need to explore is deep within all of us our ancestors crossed mountain ranges sailed open oceans to map new lands and sought out the unknown while always looking to the stars we're curious and now we're at a place where we can pioneer new horizons because earth this blue planet and all its beauty is just our starting place it's time t minus 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 amanda oh yeah look at her go 5 000 feet and climbing now is the time to open the promise of space to all and lay the way for generations to come when our descendants look to the stars perhaps from a rocky moon or colonies floating in open space they'll remember this time when they reflect on where it started they'll remember this place and when they honor those first explorers who said let's go this is blue moon they'll remember these bold steps we are blue origin and this is just the beginning good morning everyone my name is ariane cornell and on behalf of everybody at blue origin i'm thrilled to welcome you to our second human flight four astronauts will launch to space and back on board our new shepard rocket safely flown 17 successful consecutive missions i'm joined at the desk today with my co-host jackie cortese what up girl how you doing thanks ariana it's so great to be here with you today it's been amazing to be down at launch site one the past couple days meet the crew see the team hard at work and shortly we'll have four newly minted astronauts so that's very exciting as well a big morning so glad to have you here with my being my partner in crime for the day okay let's get into it you're going to notice here that we're on a new set the same winds that delayed our launch just a day also affected our outdoor set so out of abundance of caution we decided to move inside just a mile down the road but we're here in texas to bring you all the action live now earlier this morning our astronauts arrived to the astronaut training center we've got a little bit of footage of that let's check it out so you see they're getting out of those ribbons very cool cars those ribbons are almost like rocket ships themselves and uh everybody in good spirits this morning waving they uh they they got that astronaut energy they are ready to go to space and back indeed and there they go inside the astronaut training center that's where they've spent the last couple of days learning from our crew member seven sarah knights and uh they will go through all of the training that they also have gone through um it's been a big couple of days for them but i know that they feel prepared and ready to go all right that's some good stuff we've got four incredible individuals on the rocket today all of them inspiring in their own ways and all of them focused on inspiring others as noted today we are flying customers chris boshhausen and glenda reese blue origins vice president of mission and flight operations audrey powers and of course cultural icon william shatner well of course and with regards to mr shatner many of us pursued the space industry myself included and joined blue origin because of early inspiration from watching shows like star trek so this is a pinch me moment for all of us to see captain james tiberius kirk go to space really and maybe for today we'll need to rename our capsule from the rss first step to the rss enterprise but just for today well let's let's see if the twitter picks it up by the way you know it's serious when you use somebody's middle name right it is it is real captain kirk is going to space today now every mission on this journey is important and every mission will be unique so far 593 people have gone to space up to this moment but today we will send numbers 594 595 596 and 597 to space and back and next year we're expecting several missions more every mission with humans on board is an incredibly inspiring shared experience for example today we know star trek fans around the world are rejoicing that their beloved captain kirk is really going to space and audrey powers she represents all of us here at blue origin and everybody who works in the space industry that shares this collective dream of one day going to space absolutely present company included absolutely ariana and i would love to be to be out there uh we wanted to take a moment to remind everyone that this is just the beginning of a cultural shift in our history with the work blue is doing and the work being done across the entire space industry we live in an incredible era where people will go to space and from up above they'll get to see the fragility of earth while we can't predict how that will change us it's likely that as more and more people have this experience that less than 600 people have had to date there will be a tipping point for humanity's viewpoint of the earth back here on earth so a huge thank you to everyone out there who believes in this mission and to everyone at team blue across all of our sites who ariana and i know work tirelessly to make these moments possible that's exactly right jackie and at the center of it all here at blue origin is safety safety is embedded in everything that we do our collaborative environment is grounded in our leadership principles which are ownership humility and technical ambition and safety has been baked into the design of new shepard from day one it's a robust vehicle designed with high margins we've actually determined the design can handle substantially more than what we see in flights the crew capsule has the ability to escape at any moment if a booster problem is detected there are redundant flight computers separation systems parachutes and sensors to just name a few that's right and we we have backups to the backups in many of the cases we got backups to the backups of the backups so there's so much redundancy built into the system from the very beginning and as mentioned we've successfully flown new shepard 17 consecutive times successfully including two capsule escape tests plus an additional pad escape test all of them gone well now driving all of this incredible success with new shepard is our blue origin team they are professional operators fully certified through practice and examination and the team trains for for both nominal scenarios but of course also off nominal scenarios that's right and actually for over 12 months before first human flight back in july new shepard went through many verification and readiness reviews both internally but more importantly out outside of the company we had external consultants with deep experience on nasa human space flight programs that were part of these reviews and unanimously this team determined that new shepard met the highest standards for certification and that's so that's what got us to first human flight but that's not where it stops we have ongoing cycle of continuous improvement that has spanned over a decade of development and that is going to continue indefinitely into the future we learn after every single flight so yes new shepard is built on a commitment to safety and with that why don't we take a look at this magnificent rocket on the pad readying to fly humans to space today this is jackie we are we were just talking about safety here at blue and to remind people we're not in a test program anymore we spent five years over five years in fact testing and now we're fully into customer flight operations and safety has never mattered more for a greater and even better perspective on safety a couple days ago i had the opportunity to sit down with lourdes and senior director of new shepherd safety and mission assurance andrew lake let's hear it from him andrew you have such an important role at blue origin so blue when we say safety is a top priority what does that mean yeah it's interesting you know this idea of safety is a priority and there are a lot of ways to think about this but i see safety more as a core value that you build a business around and a business like what we were thinking about for new shepard and what blue is doing in general is animated around this idea of safe and reliable systems so new shepard went through this extensive test program right and we flew for what five six years before we put people on board are we how do you know that you're done in a certain way instilling safety into both the vehicle and the how it operates yeah the there are a couple ways you kind of go about the first thing you have to do is you have to set goals um safety performance goals save performance thresholds to help you understand when you've met those thresholds but in any program you're never really done you always want to look for opportunities to improve the system both operationally both for safety both for reliability as well and so we always have to maintain a humility that comes with flying rockets with these kinds of energies involved and so we and in the ops team that we're about to go fly this mission i've never seen a team more diligent um more patient and the constant awareness and the vigilance required to say raise issues and make sure they're addressed before we decide that it's time to fight people it's taken a a team of people to to get to this point to be flying people on new shepard what would you say to this team i i'm humbled to work with this team um it would be lying to say that three people who happen to have voted as part of a much larger tech for human flight certification the people who decided that were safe enough hundreds of people have put their blood sweat and tears into this program each of them um just immensely individually focused on not just the safety of the system but the reliability of the system um and and and then there is the work that our team does to kind of partner with them to to help them achieve these goals um i'm i'm immensely grateful for the opportunity to work with them um and i'm humbled to to have an opportunity to kind of lead the safety mission insurance efforts with this team oh tell me this would you fly a new shepherd i would ab and let me just say this yeah there are a lot of people at blue that would be excited to fly new shepherd and i'm happy to cut myself as one of them it's a fantastic system it's a very robust system and yeah if i ever had the opportunity to fly i'll wink a little bit at folks making these decisions super excited fantastic well i hope we get to go one day absolutely thanks andrew thank you well that was a great conversation ariane and it's clear that andrew and his team drive a stringent safety approach across everything we do at blue origin listening to andrew really provides some really good meaty context around the safety culture here at blue and how we implement it most importantly okay we're at about t minus 1 hour and 16 minutes to go until launch in a moment we'll turn our attention to today's crew but before we meet them let's briefly take a look back at our first human flight just three months ago feels good to be in the flight suit getting uh butterflies my baby crew yeah welcome to launch day amazon founder jeff bezos ready for liftoff blue origin astronomy as you can see jeff bezos realize the dream he's had since the child just minutes from now jeff bezos is about to blast off into space and they are ready to go the mission comes exactly 52 years to the day after the historic apollo 11 lunar module touched down on the surface of the moon on our way to space and there you see it right there blue origin has begun its liftoff into space there is mikko main engine cutoff a beautiful shot look at that view okay oh wow that's incredible i mean anderson that's a thing of beauty for blue origin this is now the third time that that booster has flown to space here comes the crew capsule back from space here are the mains out and touchdown you call blue origin the most important thing that you will do in your entire career we need to build a road to space we have to work on the here and now and we have to look to the future i was right here at the desk that day and yes it was quite an emotional experience for everybody involved you know watching that that video makes me feel like i was part of something that was really special and today we can feel that same great energy why don't we meet the crew that's going to space in just one hour former nasa engineer and the founder of satellite company planet labs chris boshhausen is a flying customer today and he'll be the very first full australian citizen to go to space chris is in seat number four another customer flying today is glenn devries he's the co-founder of medical company metadata and uh fun fact there's actually a website called is glenda breeze in space right now and over the last couple of days or until today the answer was no but today it says yes that's super cool glenn is in scene number six and in seat number one on the capsule today someone very near and dear to ariana and i's hearts and everyone at team blue is audrey powers blue origins vice president of mission in flight operations she is truly one of the space industries shining stars and we're absolutely thrilled that she's on today's flight and by the way audrey's a pilot but today she's gonna get a little bit of an upgrade to astronaut so that's that's also great that's that's a mean upgrade and last but most certainly not least here's the great william shatner he's been in the zeitgeist for over 50 years and is flying to space today in seat number three mr shatner is 90 years old which having met him i just can't believe and as such he'll become the oldest person ever to go to space it's a crew capsule full of fascinating people who in just a short while will enjoy the ride of their lives what have they been doing since their arrival here at launch site one let's take a look when i was a kid i would make model rockets there was a book available called the the space shuttle operator's manual and i would pour over it for hours the idea that i'm actually going to get on top of a rocket in a couple days is just hard to fathom i think i reached a certain age and i had given up on the idea that i would go to space in my role in mission flight operations uh we were waiting to hear who the fourth astronaut was one of my very good friends and colleagues michael edmonds called me and said on behalf of jeff and the senior leadership team we'd like you to represent team blue and fly as the fourth astronaut i don't know how many billions of humans have ever existed but fewer than 600 people have seen the earth from space the curvature of the earth a thin line of the atmosphere the blackness of space you know i'm happy to be one of the people to put my hand up and say yeah i understand the risks i've worked in this industry my whole life but i think it's important enough that we should do it and to show other people that this is something that is coming and something that will be available for them and may have some impact in their life in the future captain james d kirk i think william shatner is the best possible co-passenger i could have for this flight he was obviously a great hero of mine and many many many other space people played the role of the captain kirk everybody assigns me the knowledge that a futuristic astronaut would have could have always been consumed with curiosity and it's the adventure that i feel so good doing i was teary-eyed and this opportunity has befallen me it's one of those moments where your life just flashes before your eyes you know like the air and space museum when i was six and my parents bought me that telescope working on the space station and getting this job at blue chris and glenn and bill it's so great because they're great people it's a wonderful feeling now knowing that our names will be linked forever that's really good i had the privilege to go through that astronaut training and let me tell you it was incredible and i know that our four astronauts today feel very prepared for their journey to space i have to say one of the one of the best things obviously they make you feel very comfortable with the rocket with the team but most importantly you yourself feel prepared like you can do that that flight to space and enjoy it yes and i'm still very jealous that you got to do the astronaut training i know you try and downplay it but i saw those blue orange and blue cocktails at the astronaut village and i think it was very fun and i'm still jealous it was we can have the cocktail together well getting back to today's launch let's set the stage for how things are going to unfold today coming up shortly at just around t minus 54 minutes we'll join our astronauts inside the astronaut training center for a tradition that began on our first human flight the coin ceremony this is where our crew member 7 who's responsible for training in flight safety presents our astronauts with this very special coin you see on screen to fly with them today quite a unique and well earned keepsake for each of today's crew members that's right and from there capcom or capsule communicator will signal it's time to begin the astronaut load-in process that's at t-minus 45 minutes now capcom is crew member seven's other half on this mission capcom is kevin sprogue and there he is getting ready for flight and sarah knights is our crew member 7. so for those of you that tuned in for our first flight they have uh basically swapped roles uh for the day both of them extraordinarily well trained in both of those roles and they're both outstanding people to be guiding our astronauts to space and back all right we're gonna uh i look forward to seeing more from kevin actually because he's got some some great words to share with our uh with our astronauts once they're on board the capsule and of course uh through their flight yes and let's step through some milestone moments that are going to unfold right after the coin ceremony first at around t minus 44. we'll get that go for astronaut load uh at this point our astronauts will board those riviens that ariane mentioned earlier they definitely look like spaceships especially with the juxtaposition of the desert here once they're in the riviens our astronauts will drive down the road to space out to the launch pad it's about two miles and once they get down there of course it's photo time because if you didn't take a photo it's not on the gram it never happened it's not on the grammy so they'll get their crew photo at this point and once they disembark from the riviens they'll begin to ascend that tower i know captain kirk and crew probably wish they could be transported into the capsule but we don't have that technology quite our advanced development program is working on a jacket jackie we just have to be patient i have confidence once they ascend the tower they'll briefly be in their safety room at the top and they're awaiting word to ingress the crew capsule they'll get all buckled up with crew member seven and we anticipate about t minus 29 minutes for that hatch to close now a t-minus 24 minutes again we close the hatch and that's when kevin sprogue in capcom takes over and we move into the final countdown which of course takes us to the best part the launch and that mission ends once the crew capsule safely touches down back here in the west texas desert and then it's celebration time it's champagne showers champagne showers rocket launches champagne showers right and we'll have welcomed back four brand new astronauts to earth now today's crew will have a special guest traveling with them during the astronaut loading process our founder jeff bezos will be with the astronauts all the way up the tower and to the crew capsule some incredible moments to look for today kind of fun to have jeff bezos himself you know beat her your chauffeur out to the rocket that's not that's not too shabby oh no that's a pretty special crew member eight and we're gonna have to make sure he actually disembarks at the end and doesn't want to try and go up with them again i know i know he had we know he had a really good time on the first time around good thing we got those cameras up there okay jackie why don't we take a quick breather here and let's everybody let's check out new shepherd on the pad as she gets ready to fly to space and back today with our second human space flight crew welcome back everybody if you're just joining us we're about t minus one hour and three minutes to go until our second human crew launches to space and back in just a few minutes we are going to bring you the special coin ceremony that we noted earlier but before we do that why don't we talk about the road to space today is all about new shepard but down in florida we're hard at work building our orbital rocket new glen this is the rocket that will pave the road to space we took the first huge step with first human flight on new shepard and new glenn is going to be the next huge step for blue origin you have to put the infrastructure in place to give us a road to space where we could actually maintain a permanent presence in space and new glenn is the key to all of that the scale from new shepard to new glenn is humongous new shepard is the single stage that gets you into some orbital this takes you to orbital space we are building a rocket and a launch site that can put more payload into space than anybody else we're going to be launching you know blue origin developed payloads lunar landers and human space flight the scale of what's coming with new glenn is just unbelievable this is a huge vehicle this thing's massive and it's it's modern it's reusable it's new hardware that's going to be changing the game and it's going to be the next generation of launch vehicles we're in the space coast of florida where all the action is where the history of human space flight started it's been amazing to watch this launch site grow up first started here was a couple equipment pieces here and there but now it's flourishing it's super exciting it's a huge job to bring a rocket like the new glenn together it only happens with diligent teamwork it's a lot of dedication from a lot of teams across blue we have engineers we have electricians we have technicians it takes a lot of teamwork uh dedication just passion for this mission it's not about us having a day in and day out job it's about having a vision that's way bigger than all of us building a road to space to me means paving the way for having that infrastructure to make space more accessible to provide access to space for everyone builder roles to space means we're working on a legacy that will last 100 years and longer i'm jerry gleckel i'm emory coles justin white sandy lee dave powell allison caron kelsey cromer meg dalton hoffman i'm jennifer oldham and i'm building a road to space i'm building the road to space i'm building a road to space i'm building a road to space i'm building a road to space i mean wow the progress down at our cape facility is truly amazing i'm always shocked at the incremental just huge leaps forward i remember the first time i went down to the cape the factory had just opened and it was essentially just a large empty building um and at this point we have over 1 million square feet of manufacturing space a brand new launch complex built from the ground up i mean it's truly mind-blowing with hardware being built and also i mean it's not just a building or two it is a campus down there by now it's really cool that's right and as you could tell in the video the road to space is powered by people if you'd like to be one of the people building that road we're growing and hiring across all of our groups here at blue origin come work with some of the smartest people solving some of the toughest and most interesting challenges please visit our website for more details and ariane it was great to see some of that progress on new glenn of course we're taking lessons learned from new shepard applying them to new glenn and new glenn is powered actually by seven of our be4 engines that blue engine four and here's blue origins be4 propulsion test engineering manager sophia porter to talk all about propulsion this is launch site one and specifically the test stand behind me is zeke's the extreme engine experiment which is the home of the be4 rocket engine be4 is a reusable orbital class rocket engine so we've really focused all of the design and development of be4 around reusability down to the smallest details and here at zeeks we learn every day in development about the engine we test it out to make sure that this engine is capable of delivering payloads to the precise orbits that our customers require we have two test cells that are equally capable here at zeeks and once those engines are installed we perform all of our checkouts we install our ground-based sensors we run a series of tests and then we ship the engines off to their next destination the individuals who are the life and breadth of our site are engineers our technicians our safety and quality and administrative staff they come out here to make rocket test operations and launch operations a reality oftentimes we have engineers who come here right out of college and within a year they are running engine tests themselves at 22 or 23 years old you could be making the go no-go call for this engine when you watch that engine fire when you feel it through two sets of hearing protection you feel it resonate in your body it's just absolutely pure raw energy to watch that happen in real time is incredibly inspiring and i can only imagine when we watch the rock it actually fly is going to be absolutely an indescribable feeling ended tests are always happening here at blue you've been down here for these tests before right i have and you can hear it you can feel it it's truly unbelievable and because we're here in this valley it just shakes the entire valley as sophia said in the video you just feel it rumbling in your in your body and i just love that video because it gives an opportunity to shine a light on somebody like sophia porter who herself you know she started out in college as an intern here and just a couple of years out of college she is managing that test facility i mean that is a big deal and that's the type of stuff that you get to do here at blue origin here's one of her beautiful uh her beautiful tests that we had going on down in texas that just happened just a couple of days ago it's a beautiful pick absolutely and we've been testing be4 and be3 and be3u out in west texas for years at this point and so there's a lot of amazing test time out here at our private engine test facility and our testing capabilities are actually going to be expanding in a big way down at huntsville in nasa marshall space flight center we're actually we've taken over historic test stand 4670 it's tested saturn 5 for apollo space shuttle main engines in the early rd-180s it's been unutilized government property for almost two decades and so that stan's going to come back to life and do a lot of our hot fires as well in addition to our west texas capability and i don't know how we're going to form the list but i have to be there for that that first test oh for the process or let me say for all of them because i mean you're basically going to live in or in the control center if you do that no i mean as jack you mentioned that so we're going to continue to do engine testing out here in west texas is where we do a lot of our development testing on our engines we've got two major test centers uh you saw zeke's there we also have geeks as we call it which is the other test stand that focuses more on our blue engine three the the engine that is going to be uh propelling new shepard into space but also the be3u which is the upper stage variant they're going to be two of those be 3us on the upper stage of new glenn so they're going to continue to do the development testing out here in west texas and what's the beauty of being able to use 4670 is basically we produce the rocket engines at our huntsville facility and basically drive it down the road a couple of miles where we can do acceptance testing as you mentioned before we uh ship them down to the cape so a really exciting activity from our engines group that have been working absolutely and you know one of the other beauties of huntsville is we're close to our customer united launch alliance two be4 engines will be on their vulcan and so when we're hot firing out in huntsville we'll be able to ship them right up to decatur which is just a short drive just uh just a short drive there yeah so some when we talk about designing rockets and and making them operationally reusable it's it's one thing to think about the operations but there's also that that same mentality and theme that is driven into the manufacturing element of it as well so i mean it's uh uh you know exciting things that we've got going on all right we are at t minus 54 seconds to go t minus 54 minutes and 30 seconds excuse me got a little bit more time than that to go until launch my understanding is that uh crew member seven sarah knights is ready for the special coin ceremony to seal their training and get them underway why don't we watch that now who's going to tell us when we're oh we're on okay fantastic all right astronauts i have one last special thing for you um this is a challenge coin that i have right here challenge coins have a long history but classically they're awarded to show that you belong and that you've achieved something of particular interest right this is only awarded by crew member seven to astronauts who have passed training and are just about to fly on new shepard all of you have passed with beautiful colors over the last couple of days and it's my very great honor to present this to you for your flight today each of you are just helping us take that step on the road space and to enable a future where we have millions of people living and working in space to benefit earth and you are one of these very few few very first explorers and adventurers taking that path with us so i'm giving this to you today so you can put it in your flight suit pocket take it with you on your historic journey as you go up and with this you are go for lunch on new all right congratulations chris thank you oh congratulations glenn thank you congratulations audrey can you read that one congratulations bill thank you that's beautiful you'll be known in history for taking a pioneering first step well that was really special super touch and incidentally once that crew flies past the carmen line that internationally recognized line of space they'll be recognized by the world as astronauts and will soon be receiving another special recognition item their astronaut wings so also flying to space with each one of those astronauts in addition to the coin they're going to put in their flight suit is a postcard from blue origin's club for the future each astronaut made their own postcard during training yeah and you can see them here those that art is pretty impressive i definitely couldn't do that that kind of a job my artistry peaked at about age seven so the figures are about my ability um there's also thousands of additional postcards flying in the capsule with our crew today to date we've flown and returned over 137 000 postcards to all of you out there who've participated keep sending them we'll keep flying them so while we're talking about club we wanted to give you an update on a few of the 19 nine pro non-profits who received a one million dollar grant from club for the future in aggregate these organizations are collectively impacting tens of millions of students each year and it's not just sparking their imaginations but it's materially impacting their education and ultimately their passions and this is done through immersive curriculum access to access to experts and opportunities to fly payloads like on new shepard and much more why don't we take a look at the latest from several club for the future partners i'm here at space center houston it's a non-profit organization we rely on charitable support to fulfill our goals and aspirations the grant from club for the future is going to enable us to involve tens of thousands of youth to have this grant from club for the future will allow us to accelerate our efforts outside of aerospace to create a broad membership of women in stem so that the young women that we work with can see the wide variety of possible careers we at aia have the goal of impacting one million students a year rayon is an example of exactly the kind of people we need for this industry my name is rayon harris i am 25 years old and i am currently an aeronautical design engineer my dreams my passion was always airplanes joining an organization known as american institute aeronautics and astronautics a double a the diversity scholar program really accelerated my path to really pursue my passion after i graduated from a doubles i was definitely going to give back so i was a match with caleb a few months ago with the mentor match program and so it's really awesome to be able to use experience which you've learned yourself to really give back to them and also make their experience as easy as possible also get them as excited as possible because it is very exciting caleb is a 13 year old engineering student at georgia tech helping us build our future my name is caleb anderson and i am a third year at georgia technical college and i'm currently studying to be an aerospace engineer um i've really been interested in it space in general just like all my life it's really cool that's what i think a club of the future for doing something like this i think having so much money be able to be donated to an organization like this is absolutely amazing it can really turn the future the aerospace in the right direction i love hearing those inspirational stories from club and their partner organizations i mean rayon and caleb in that video pretty impressive keep up the amazing work you guys yeah we've we're inadequate yeah let's be honest you guys are kicking butt keep keep it up we can't wait to pass the torch onto you to continue on this road to space yes and it's exciting to see club for the future growing and making a difference it's also exciting to see these partner organizations making such great progress club is very much a collaborative effort and let's highlight another key partner doing some incredible work with middle school students project yanos our mission at project janos is to engage and educate students with the wonders of space and to inspire them to become explorers of it we do this through a two-pronged approach the first is a set of videos in which i as the host ask questions of subject matter experts working on the front lines of space flight thanks to our partnership with club for the future students get to meet space architects engineers scientists and others at blue origin the second is the curriculum of standards aligned activities designed to inspire students to become explorers of space themselves we are teachers making lessons for teachers we know what will keep the students engaged and because this is a project with nasa every aspect of it is going to be a mission based set of activities students perform data literacy skills engineering design loop processes and prototype testing and building of concepts after watching a video on rocket propulsion students get to build an engine testing chamber and mix baking soda and vinegar to study rocket propellant ratios and thanks to club for the future project yano's students can design postcards that are actually flown into space students today will have the opportunity to live and work in space when humans return to the moon in a few years it'll be to stay we believe the best preparation for that new reality is project janus a unique program that instills students with the skill set and mindset needed to be explorers of space very impressive stuff over at project giano's my friend josh bernstein you know he's had a couple of um successful tv shows on the history channel on the discovery channel and it's really lovely to see how somebody like him wants to give back wants to give back you know his ability to touch a lot of people and he's doing that to harness you know the the potential of the next generation so kudos to him and to all the kids uh coming up coming up along this road to space future's looking pretty bright i mean what a time that students at all ages in their schools can have a space program i mean it really i know we said it before it's an incredible era i'm blown away by all the brilliant kids out there the future where millions of people live and work in space isn't a tomorrow thing or a next year thing it's going to be that next generation now i should say you know we mentioned club for the future uh has all sorts of partners that are doing extraordinary work the club itself does some wonderful work and actually down here in van horn our home away from home away from home it's van horn our our local team does a lot of work with the with the local community i want to highlight one of the projects that we did in some of the local high school students we collaborated and they are going to they have designed and built in fact the very first post box to space let's check it out the post box to space is the world's very first mailbox that will take letters from the earth send them to space and then return them to the senders what a great drawing this has been really an unprecedented collaboration between club for the future horn high school and blue origin it is an immense project that's been taken on by seven juniors and seniors of van horn high school who've decided that they have an interest in welding they have worked very hard from design all the way up through manufacturing well we first started off with the cardboard template after a few weeks of planning and designing we eventually got into the shop started welding together the base we took the rocket kind of design put some legs on it and we're going to make them look like fins we've had a huge number of blue employees who've cycled through here to help us out in really substantial ways it would not have been possible without the support of a large number of blue origin folks it is really great what club for the future is doing that they're even giving us this opportunity to do things like this coming every week and providing supplies paint metal i learned how to use a torch to learn how to weld better i learned a little bit more about the process in designing and mocking up a prototype i truly hope that the students fully recognize how substantial their post box is going to be as a landmark in van horn i'd like to invite the students to be the very first to use our post box and hopefully will be an inspiration to all of the students who come through the school so great to see again the the hard work that our team down here in west texas does not only on testing rocket engines and and launching rockets but also giving back to the community they said that the relationship that we have is is wonderful it really it it is home away from home it feels really nice the people who are always very welcoming you know they see us walking around in our bloors and gear give us high fives it's a it's a wonderful place to be it is i drove past the post box to space the other day and just love seeing that new landmark in downtown van horn it was really awesome all right we are at t minus 45 minutes to go until launch we are in a brief hold here we've said it before on on webcast prior we want to make sure that our teams are all aligned um i do understand that our astronauts have made it into the rivians there they are and look who their chauffeur is none other than jeff bezos also in his flight suit jackie this makes me a little bit concerned uh you had a hypothesis that jeff might just stay on the rocket uh that's not the plan for today just to be very clear he's ready though if that opportunity arises and he's uh you know again from having flown just a couple of months ago on our first human flight of course with his brother mark with wally funk national treasure wally funk as well as our first uh astronaut customer oliver damon uh you know he's uh he's he's got some important knowledge to impart upon our next to next crew here look they're they're having a good conversation in there absolutely and you know we'll have to ask the crew how many stars they would give jeff for his his driving performance what is his rating you know we'll have to check in on that after well look i mean if it starts with the with the wheels there i mean the rivien is a it's a it's a nice ride it's talk about rocket ships have you been in one yet did you get a chance i haven't i've driven past them but i have not had the opportunity to be inside it is no blue cocktails for me no being inside the ribbon we're going to work on these things jackie we're going to work on these things but no i mean it really is the first time i gotten one uh the the gentleman who was driving was like you might want to put your head back against the seat and i was like what are you talking about it's fine he goes no i'm serious and he accelerates i'm like oh we are out of here it is so much fun those cars so yeah some pretty sweet rides sorry jackie again we're working on we're working on it all right we are continue to to be in a hold here we've said it before you know we spent years uh designing and building these rockets months designing these missions and if we need a couple of minutes there that is to to get the teams aligned then uh then we're going to take them so with that why don't we take a look at new shepard out on the pad as she awaits her astronauts uh in their in the arabian chariots to bring them out to the pad so right uh all right thank you everybody for joining us live from west texas at our launch site one we're at t minus 45 minutes and of one second to go until launch we are in a brief hold here of course we want to make sure that our teams are all aligned that the uh that the winds are inbounds of course that has been the story of the last couple of days or those gusty winds um but again want to make sure that everything is all sorted for our launch but while we have a minute here i want to you know we just saw the crew in the rivien vehicles um and they've been down here the last couple of days but you know the launch to space the training is part of the experience but so is kind of the hospitality component component at our astronaut village so i want to show you a little bit more about our uh our astronaut village here we've got um so the astronaut village itself is just about 10 minutes away from the launch site itself you can see nestled in the the beautiful valley of west texas it's built around that that fire pit but each astronaut gets this pretty luxe airstream it's kitted out on the inside very very nicely and our hospitality team they've got decades of experience uh and they really make you make you feel like you are you know like you are part of an adventure um i can say i had the the good opportunity of being able to experience this just a couple of months ago as i got to go through my training and it it it really it really rounds it out you know and when we built uh the the astronaut village and the hospitality component of this we wanted we wanted to build something that that really felt part of this texas environment it's not something big and elaborate it's something that is part of the environment but of course at the same time we want you to feel comfortable so we brought in a wonderful uh catering staff um you know there's nothing like going to space you're talking about champagne showers after the uh after the launch you know but the but the the food and beverage uh is uh is very nice there's nothing nothing like a glass of champagne around the uh around the campfire absolutely and as you can see you know everything is very designed so that the crew can get to know each other and relax and have that comfort as they prepare for their flight to space um oh there's aureon right there with audrey powers who's also also going out to fly the the bonding i think that's a really important point that you bring up jackie is the bonding component you know i had the i was chatting with uh with chris uh boss housing who actually is a good friend of mine and he uh you know he was saying one of the things that he's really loved so far about this experience is he really feels so close now and they haven't gone to space yet but so close to you know to to audrey and to glenn and to and to bill through this experience and and again we have thought about it in a in a holistic uh in a holistic kind of way so to all of you that are out there watching if you want to experience this the the flight to space the the the hospitality the the the bonding it is really cool we really we encourage you to go to blue origin.com click on the link there fly to space and uh and let us know and we'll reach out uh to you after the after the flight okay we're at t-minus 45 minutes to go we continue to be in a hold here while we've got some more time why don't we throw it back to the rocket uh so thank you again everybody for joining us live from west texas at our launch site one for our second human flight ns18 we're at t-minus 45 minutes to go until launch we continue to be in a brief hold here well have you got some time let's continue to watch our beautiful new shepard rocket as she awaits her astronauts thank you again everybody for joining us live for ns18 our second human flight here at blue origin our team is working uh on the vehicle readiness we've got a couple of items that were taken off here this is normal in rocket launch land so why don't we continue to check out new shepard as she readies for her flight to space and back today so fighting sounds good all right everybody welcome back we are t minus 45 minutes to go until launch we are continuing to be in a hold here as we uh make sure that our rocket is ready to go to space otherwise everything else looking good we are going to continue to watch new shepard on the pad is she ready to go to space and back today so all right thank you everybody for joining us live for ns18 blue origin second human flight we are t minus 44 minutes and 27 seconds to go thank you so much for your patience as our team worked to make sure that our vehicle is ready for flight and it looks like everything is all set and sorted and my understanding is you know what we are go for astronaut load how exciting is that let's check out the uh let's check out the astronauts back in their riviens here there they are ready to go to space you see in the uh back left that is audrey powers in the front right there's chris smiles and waves smiles and there they go chris boss housing glenn devries audrey powers and captain kirk himself william shatner have just started their journey to the launch pad into the crew capsule and off to space you can just i i have goose bumps i can feel their anticipation looking at the oh this is awesome words of encouragement from team blue along the way absolutely there to get the the cheers and the the hoots and the hollers from team blue once they pass uh they they're gonna drive about another couple hundred yards out to uh towards in front of the mission control facility there get a couple more words of words of encouragement that there in fact is their friends and family that have that have flown down here to texas to watch them go to space and back and here they come they're approaching our mission control center and just on the right there you can see what we call the barn that is the facility where we keep our rockets of course we've got the rocket out there on the pad as well as the second rocket that flew just a couple of weeks ago that one is dedicated to payload flights it's really amazing to see all the demand we've seen for those payload flights to the point where we're able to have a full separate booster specifically dedicated to doing this important research in science and you know jackie one day we are going to combine those payloads and the astronauts to do some tended payload flights uh just a a wonderful opportunity for many scientists and engineers around the world who want to develop their technology maybe they don't need to go to orbital space they just need a couple minutes of beautiful clean micro gs and that's what they get with these uh with these flights on new shepard now you see the two vehicles have taken a left and they are on their road to space jackie i can tell you from having done the uh the the uh the astronaut training just a couple of months ago so i got to do everything minus get inside of uh of a rocket that was up on the launch tower but we did all of this because we had to coordinate it of course um and that the drive out there there's there's this this interesting mix of adrenaline because you're you're basically harnessing and and containing your own adrenaline you're trying to kind of level it out but it's also very peaceful right it is this two mile uh road that goes out to the launch pad out to the rocket and you're there with your thoughts you know i these these four astronauts have been thinking about going to space for a long long time and this moment is here i have to know what was on the playlist when you drove down the road to space i know that mine would have an excessive amount of pit bull i don't know if that's a little too hyped for this experience but hopefully they're listening to some rocket man or something yeah exactly rocketman was definitely on the uh on the playlist as we as we head out there now jackie once they uh they head out the road to space there is the ring road uh that goes around the launch pad they're going to go to the north end of the ring road and they're going to stop and take a photo take a couple of beautiful photos right before their uh they get back in the the riviens head back to the base of the launch tower where they will ascend the the tower and stop in the safety shelter first yeah and you can see a good view of that safety shelter right now that's that white box on top of the launch tower you can tell those that pensive look they're all taking in taking in the moment as they should i can only can only imagine being in that i see all smiles from astronaut powers so that's very exciting have a good view of that ring road now which is that circular ring surrounding the launch pad as ariane mentioned they go they're checking it out now from the training to cruising in your riviens to the launch to the landing this really is a once in a lifetime opportunity if you guys are watching out there and you want to be one of those astronauts on on the way to space really encourage you visit gloria.com and click on fly to space we'd love to see you on that rocket and uh let's be honest frankly we'd love to be on that rocket with you if you could put in your note that you specifically want to fly with jackie and ariane maybe we'll see what can be done there the astronauts are getting out of their rivien getting those smiles ready for that ring road crew photo and ariane like you've mentioned multiple times new shepard is alive at this point that booster is just waiting for its crew and it's ready to go on the right of this shot you do see sarah knights our crew member seven she's gonna accompany the crew up to the tower and make sure they're situated in the capsule in just a little bit here that is a good looking crew in fact while we got a moment here they're going to get back into the riviens why don't we get to know sarah knight and our capcom kevin sprogue just a little bit better we've got a wonderful video to introduce them to you the entire vision of blue origin is we want to democratize space you don't need to be a nasa astronaut you don't need to be a trained engineer we want artists and poets and teachers and scientists to be able to go to space the shepherd has cleared the tower crew member seven is a position unique to blue two assigned to each launch there are six people that can fly in our crew capsule the seventh person is the crew member seven this is for real that's it the other crew member seven is called capsule communicator and they represent all of mission control and launch operations to the astronauts it took me a long road to get here i spent over 20 years as a fighter pilot at the united states navy but since i've been eight years old i wanted to be in space coming here to blue origin is the realization of a childhood dream of mine my background is in physics and astronomy i went into stem education i was a teacher for many years and when the physician opened up a blue i knew that was me the fact that i'm crew member seven and the visible point of our entire team it's such an honor the ascent decent position is crew member seven is our teacher part trainer and part guy they're embedded with the astronauts they're truly a member of the crew they're going to live with you at the astronaut village and conduct all of your astronaut training space flight is complicated but our astronauts that fly with us will not need to have a complicated view of what's happening the rocket is autonomous and all of the safety systems are hardwired into the core on launch day crewmember 7 is actually going to walk you up the tower put you in your seat in the capsule close the hatch the capcom will then take over as the astronauts take their journey to space and then as soon as they land crew member 7 will be there to help open the hatch and whisk them away to the celebration our astronauts are one part of a very historic journey we're trying to build the infrastructure to get millions of people living and working in space so the people who come here will truly be helping us take that first step they are in wonderful hands with kevin and sarah you can say that again i mean you know with kevin's military background that that discipline the rigor you've got sarah with her academic background she's uh an incredible teacher the two of them work together so where they're very different styles but they work together so well i can't imagine a better team to be guiding our astronauts through this entire experience thank you again everybody for joining us live if you've just joined us we're at t minus 33 minutes to go until launch our second human flight our astronauts are ascending the tower here as you can see we've got uh the great william shatner we have our blue origins very own audrey powers as well as our two customers uh glenn devries and chris boshhausen who are ascending the tower as well and they are being uh they are being greeted uh and hosted up the tower by uh our founder jeff bezos so an incredible uh morning for all of them as well as for us at blue uh cannot wait it's the same energy that was that we felt down here just a couple of months ago when we had our first human flight and let me tell you this doesn't get old when you put people on board a rocket this doesn't get old and i can tell you you know i'm very close with audrey powers of course as a close friend and colleague i've known chris for over a decade it's not just putting people on board but you know when you know them this i've i'm i'm having i'm having a moment myself honestly and when they take off it's uh glad you guys are going to be watching the rocket because i might lose it a little bit i do have to say also know audrey very well and got a chance to talk to glenn a little bit and actually glenn and i are both carnegie mellon alumni i had to toss that in i know tartan's in space you know we have to um and i know that everyone you know glenn's from new york everyone in new york is watching and his adopted pittsburgh family i'm sure is watching as well so it's it's very personal seeing this crew fly today well and in addition to you know chris is the first full australian to fly to space there have been other australians but they've been dual citizens chris is the first full aussie to fly so hello to all of our international viewers especially those down under we're so excited to have you joining us and of course of course to all the trekkies out there that are joining us thank you so much it is a pleasure and an honor to be sending uh captain kirk to space today this is going to be a really really cool moment uh and when i say you know it comes from all of us there you see are a shot there just a moment ago of mission control they are you know focused and it's a very disciplined team team that has been trained over over months and years in the case of many of our team members there right and they're led today by nick patrick flight director nasa astronaut they're in very good hands and here we have the crew they're entering the shelter just to await their ingress across the bridge then the gantry and of course into their seats in the crew capsule each of our astronauts is looking great and ready to fly today in those blue origin flight suits fantastic so you see sarah knights at the bottom of your screen or crewmember 7 she in just a moment here is going to go she's going to leave the shelter she's going to go out across the bridge just check in with the tower crew make sure that we're all ready to go and then she's going to come back to the shelter and take the astronauts out out to the rocket and once the astronauts head out of the shelter you will see them ring a fun ceremonial bell so that'll come up later if you're wondering what they're doing at that point it's a little tradition that we started at blue make some noise before you get in your crew cabinet that's right that's right let uh let everybody up in space know that you're coming they can't hear you up there just just just as a reminder but hey we are at t minus 29 minutes to go here why don't we take a moment and check out new shepard as she awaits her astronauts and here they go there's glenn devries chris boshausen william shatner and audrey powers and today's special crew member 8 jeff bezos and crew member 7 sarah knights there we have our awesome tower crew ready to welcome them there you see audrey giving some hugs to the tower crew she is of course our vice president of mission ops for new shepard so of course she knows the whole team very intimately a lot of the team today are launching their their boss to space first first jeff now and there goes glenn into the hatch he goes all of this is very carefully coordinated you practice this many times during the rehearsal you know you basically you go in walk in you kind of walk uh clockwise around the uh the escape motor which is in the center of the capsule and take your seat that of course uh then you're you harness in you have practiced this many many many times during the uh during the training uh and then you'll have uh crew member seven sarah knights in this case who's going to come around make sure you're properly harnessed in and make sure things are nice and tight yeah and ariana i know you've mentioned me before you board from the highest seat number first and then the seat number one is the last board which is of course audrey powers today and there goes william shatner one last photo off before what a surreal moment captain james tiberius kirk is boarding our blue origin spaceship ariane i know you've discussed your astronaut training extensively now obviously buckling the seat belt is a very important part and they've practiced this at this point what hundreds of times i don't know about hundreds but certainly dozens and dozens of times you can do this as i've said before upside down inside out upward backwards and forwards and by the way it's important that you can do so this is probably the easiest moment a little bit more complex is of course when you're getting back into your seat after you've been up there at zero g to get the harness to get into the harness and then of course buckle it properly but again under the guide of uh of sarah knights they they know how to do this i was actually asking them earlier uh you know who's who's the fastest at it and they said of course audrey powers was because she's done this even more than they have so she had kind of a leg up on them there was chris boshausen in the window on the left and there goes sarah knights our crew member seven into the capsule to do last minute harness and safety checks on the astronaut there is audrey on the left once crew member 7 is of course comfortable that all of our astronauts look at their smiling faces from those big beautiful windows once sarah makes sure all of our astronauts are ready to fly today and they close that that hatch of course we'll turn it over at that point to crewmember seven's other half kevin sprogue who'll be the voice from above the capsule communicator watch blue control has first step clear and there you heard some initial communications between capcom and the capsule there it goes sarah knights making sure the harness is nice and tight we see just the just in the corner there the hands of glenda reese quick thumbs up two big thumbs ups yes i had the chance to chat with him uh just a little bit the other night and it was it was wonderful i said you know glenn what do you think you're going to think about once you're harnessed in he said he said as much as i've been dreaming a

2021-10-15 21:46

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