The Next Astronauts Part III: What It Takes

How It Happened

Axios

News, History, Politics

4.8 • 4.6K Ratings

🗓️ 7 September 2021

⏱️ 23 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Axios space reporter Miriam Kramer goes inside SpaceX's headquarters in Hawthorne, California, to see the factory floor, the Inspiration4 crew's training regimen and how this mission fits into SpaceX's broader goals. Kramer speaks with SpaceX senior leadership and tours the facility, culminating in a chance to see a brand new bubble window built specifically for the Inspiration4 crew. She gets to sit in on the crew training in a cockpit simulator and learn about the various scenarios they are learning to anticipate. She also peers inside the Dragon capsule simulator — a mock-up of the capsule they'll fly in — and hears the crew's testimony of a harrowing 30-hour simulation of their mission as the capstone of their training. Credits: The Next Astronauts is reported and produced by Miriam Kramer, Amy Pedulla, Naomi Shavin, and Alice Wilder. Dan Bobkoff is Executive Producer. Mixing, sound design, and music supervision by Alex Sugiura. Theme music and original score by Michael Hanf. Fact-checking and research by Jacob Knutson. Alison Snyder is a managing editor at Axios and Sara Kehaulani Goo is executive editor. Special thanks to Axios co-founders Mike Allen, Jim VandeHei and Roy Schwartz.

Transcript

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0:00.0	If you were to drive past SpaceX's headquarters near LAX, the only thing that would tell you
0:06.2	it's a special place is a rocket booster over a story tall looming above a courtyard.
0:12.3	But if you walk inside, through the lobby, pass the coffee table modeled from a rocket
0:18.6	part, and head through the doors, pass the travel posters for Mars.
0:23.6	You'll see SpaceX's past, present, and future hit you all at once.
0:29.8	When you're right is Mission Control, a room only separated from the rest of the building
0:34.4	by glass.
0:35.8	Giant screens with live shots of launch pads and rows of desks and computers.
0:41.6	Hanging above you on the ceiling is one of the company's first dragon capsules to fly to
0:46.7	space.
0:47.7	And on your left, a line of 20-something employees snakes around by Mission Control, all of them
0:53.5	waiting for the coffee bar.
0:56.2	Straight ahead, the rocket factory.
0:59.0	Engine's being assembled, full-size rockets being checked and rechecked, nose cones meant
1:04.4	to keep satellites safe on their way to orbit.
1:07.6	Almost everything happening in this room, in this building, isn't about sending for
1:12.8	ordinary people to orbit.
1:14.8	It's all really about one specific goal.
1:18.9	Getting lots and lots of people to Mars.
1:23.9	That's actually what people at the highest levels of the company will tell you.
1:28.3	Like Benji Reed, the director of human spaceflight.
1:31.6	SpaceX's job is to develop the technology to send people to Mars and colonize Mars.
	...

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