Boeing is

almost ready to send humans to the space station in its new capsule.

So what could that mean for NASA?

If something were to happen to say SpaceX is Falcon 9 rocket. That could possibly ground the crew. So

NASA really wants to have these redundant crews going back and forth. It's Friday

May 10th and it's also Science Friday.

I'm Scifry producer D. Peter Schmidt. NASA's been mainly relying on Russia to get astronauts and supplies to

the International Space Station since 2011,

but eventually it wants to rely on private companies to get there.

SpaceX has helped out with that and after years of delays Boeing is set to launch its first

crewed mission next week. But why has it taken Boeing so long? But first here's

guest host Sophie Bushwick discussing the biggest news in science this week.

Researchers this week announced a landmark discovery.

Using the James Webb Space Telescope,

they discovered an atmosphere around a rocky Earth-like planet,

a first for astronomers.

Here to explain what this means for the future of exoplanet exploration and what a

distant world could tell us about Earth's past is Jason Din, climate editor at Atmos.

Welcome to Science Friday.

Thanks for having me.

So tell us about this exoplanet discovery.

Why is this a big deal?

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