SpaceX launch gets U.S. out of Russian monopoly on space station transport: Fmr. NASA Astronaut

Former NASA Astronaut Tom Jones joins Zack Guzman to discuss the upcoming SpaceX Crew Dragon launch slated for Saturday.

Video Transcript

ZACK GUZMAN: Plans tomorrow for SpaceX to once again try and launch the first-ever commercial launch with humans to the International Space Station. It scrapped its launch on Wednesday after weather spoiled that, but fingers crossed for a successful launch here tomorrow. For more on those plans, I want to bring on Tom Jones, a former NASA astronaut, who was, of course, part of the first human mission to the International Space Station here in this century.

So I appreciate chatting with you, Mr. Jones, today. When we look at it, I mean, obviously, it's a big change when we think about missions of the past now shifting over to a private company in SpaceX. How big of a change does that really amount to in your eyes?

TOM JONES: Zack, it's really a seismic shift for NASA to switch over its low-Earth orbit services from a government-owned vehicle to-- like the space shuttle that I flew-- to commercial providers like Boeing and SpaceX. So this is really important. It gets us out from underneath the Russian monopoly of transport to the Space Station, where we've been buying seats at $80 million a pop for the last nine years.

And now, we get our own transport capability back. You know, you're going to be a spacefaring nation, you have to be able to launch your own astronauts into space. And beyond that, the lowering costs of getting people to orbit and hauling cargo to the Space Station, as an example, will drop the overall cost to the taxpayer and funding things like a return to the Moon and then eventual expeditions to Mars.

ZACK GUZMAN: Yeah, I mean, when you talk about all the money that is potentially being saved, there is also a lot of money poured into these private entities when we're thinking about developing these. Boeing has their Starliner, SpaceX the Crew Dragon capsule, which will be on display tomorrow.

When we look at it, about $7 billion dollars in taxpayer money went into these programs. What's your take on how that's actually paying off now as we finally arrive at the moment that these companies are able to put humans up at ISS?

TOM JONES: First of all, we should admit that they're about three years late getting this capability provided to NASA. And that was caused by some overconfidence, technically, by the two companies, a lack of push from the last administration, and then Congress dragging its feet in providing the necessary funding. So there's lots of blame to go around.

But now, we're on the verge of instituting these commercial services. And I think that the message here is that we've got two providers now, with competition between them. And if one goes down because of a technical problem or, God forbid, an accident, we have another one to keep NASA on its feet and keep the Space Station supplied. So this is really important that we get this capability back.

ZACK GUZMAN: Yeah, and a lot of people are ready. They were ready on Wednesday. They really wanted to see it. Now, hopefully, they'll be able to see it happen tomorrow. One interesting thing, before we let you go, to highlight here as well-- when we think about-- space has always been cool, but now, also Hollywood taking note-- potential plans here to shoot something up in the International Space Station, with Tom Cruise here also getting the backing, or at least the idea of this being able to be done, from the current head of NASA. What's your take as a former astronaut on maybe a movie filming up there? And what would have to go into that to get things right and be safe?

TOM JONES: It's a good development. I think it shows the commercial potential of the International Space Station. It can be spun off commercially, I hope, in the years ahead. You know, there's a company called Axiom that wants to bring a private commercial module up to the Space Station, where it can do everything from entertainment to research activities.

So the Cruise movie might be a great entertainment vehicle. It'll showcase some of NASA's capabilities. And I think it's important that we realize that low-Earth orbit now it's going to be turned over to the private sector for tourism, industrial activity, research, laboratories. And then NASA can still use that base to go out on the frontier.

I think it's more important for national prestige to still be out there at the Moon and then heading towards Mars soon. But there's no mistaking the trend of moving from government completely owning the whole space theater to having commercial take over these much-used and valuable sectors in low-Earth orbit.

ZACK GUZMAN: And as someone who came up in the old way of thinking in terms of what we were doing before and now seeing it play out in the shift that you're highlighting here, is there any fears in something that might be being missed by all these people thinking about space exploration and everything else? Anything that you say, oh, I wouldn't be so quick on that one?

TOM JONES: Well, let's do what we can do well. And let's use the Space Station. And I think SpaceX and Elon Musk have proven they know how to get back and forth from low-Earth orbit. But spaceflight is never easy whether it's a SpaceX Crew Dragon or a Starliner or Orion to the Moon capsule. And we've gotta remember that this is a very unforgiving environment.

So let's be careful. Now, let's make smart decisions that are informed by the risks that we recognize. And I think we're going to have to accept the risk and the chance of failure. That's got to be part of our future as well as these successes.

ZACK GUZMAN: Yeah, and Saturday, as we noted, the next chance at success. If not Saturday-- if weather gets in the way of that one again-- next chance Sunday afternoon as well. Tom Jones, former NASA astronaut, I appreciate you taking the time and weighing in on all of this. Thanks again, my friend.

TOM JONES: You bet.