Hello and welcome to the G0 World podcast.

This is where you'll find extended versions of my interviews on public television.

I'm Ian Bremmer, and today we are blasting off far into the Great Beyond.

That's right.

We're talking about space, a fascinating topic with outsized implications for global security,

international cooperation

and scientific discovery.

Space has been in the news a lot recently.

You've got the malfunctioning Boeing Starliner that stranded two NASA astronauts on the space station.

Can't get back.

To China, returning samples from the far side of the moon,

to Russia, possibly launching a counter-space weapon. We are long overdue for a discussion

about the future of U.S. space policy. So today, I am talking to a man who knows space and security

better than anyone else in Congress and better than most in the country,

Senator Mark Kelly.

Late this summer, Kelly's name was floated as being on the shortlist for Kamala Harris's

VP pick.

But when I spoke with him, he was best known for a different kind of floating, logging more

than 50 days in low Earth orbit.

The former NASA astronaut and space shuttle commander currently sits on the Senate Intelligence

and Armed Services Committees.

We talk about space defense, exploration, and the new space race with China.

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