Transcripts of Nelson_canned_OFT2



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[slate] Starliner is our second crew module to take astronauts launched at the Kennedy Space Center, all the way to the International Space Station. Dock, perform their tasks and to return home. And Starliner will actually land not in the ocean like the Dragon spacecraft does, but instead landing on the desert floor in the Western United States 

[slate] Just like the Space Shuttle which helped us build the International Space Station - which by the way is a 120 yards long. In other words from one goal post in a football field to the other goal post. - That’s how big it is. Well the commercial crew program is taking our crew to and from the International Space Station and of course what we are doing is as we adapt to long durations in zero gravity, as we build new technology and new procedures, it’s going to help us on these much longer durations back to the Moon and eventually to Mars. 

[slate] As we continue to develop new spacecraft and as we continue to develop spacecraft that we can reuse, and as we start to use 3D manufacturing all of this is bringing down the cost of rockets and spacecraft. So that it become much more available to the average person to be able to go into space. And I think one day we will see the average person be able to go and fly among the stars. 

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[slate] This is another repeat of the first test of an unscrewed Starliner spacecraft. The first one had a malfunction in the software. So NASA is very careful we want this one to go perfectly all the way to the International Space Station to dock autonomously and then to return home with a landing in the desert in the Western U.S. We want that to go perfectly before we put human astronauts on the first actual flight with humans. That is the reason we are doing the second orbital flight test.