[Music] let's bring in Keith coing editor of NASA watch.com Keith thanks for joining us of course safety has been emphasized here about why these astronauts couldn't return but this was a test flight wasn't it well it's a test flight but at some point say you don't normally put your crew into a vehicle until you think well I'm going to get them back so they they're not going to die so at some point they decided the spacecraft was safe enough to fly to the space station and come back however once they got up there they realized that there was a problem with the steering Jets and after months and months of trying to figure out what was going on they aired on the side of safety for the crew because they do have another option to bring them home that is been proven many times the SpaceX spacecraft as being safe and this is essentially an eight-day Mission that's been extended to an 8mon expedition but these These are veteran astronauts regardless what kind kind of you know psychological impact would this have on them well I I've been doing this for a long time I have a number of friends who are astronauts I've been on several expeditions to remote places with them and I know Sunny Williams one of the two Astron and I I got to tell you if you're up there in outer space and nasza calls up and says hey you gota spend an extra couple weeks in outer space everybody's always smiling and of course there's a difference between a few days or a few weeks and months and so again you don't get on these flights unless are ready for the unexpected and sunny has lived up there several times so it's like old old home week for her I just hope they're sending up clean clothing underwear and you know uh snacks on the next cargo flight and some good books perhaps but of course this this is a new industry isn't it where airline companies are developing space travel but if something goes wrong and people get stuck in space like this it raises a lot of questions about the industry's feasibility doesn't doesn't it well you would think it would except that the idea behind this was when we lost Colombia and we had to depend on the Russians we didn't really think it was a good idea so NASA said let's find a couple of companies that can develop a spacecraft and if one doesn't work the other will be there and they went and did it SpaceX you know did it they've been flying you know ever since then almost perfectly Boeing got more money but they didn't they had a problem so on one hand one of the options isn't working out but the whole idea was to have two in case one didn't work out and that is so it it depends how want to look at it we we still have a way to get to the space station and it'll be remains to be seen whether Boeing will be part of that solution or if they will just decide to stop it and go find another way well that's what I was going to ask next I mean we've have Boeing behind the star uh the Starliner and Elon musk's company behind Space X what does this mean essentially for Boeing and you know why is NASA using these private companies well it is cheaper uh to do this well it should be cheaper one of our government Accounting Office report showed that the way that SpaceX developed a rocket in the capsule was billions of dollars cheaper than if the government went and did it so you take that as one thing but then on the other hand you know you're giving these companies money they're going to make a profit and you're expecting to get something in return again with SpaceX they got exactly what they hoped for and then some but with Boeing you didn't so you know I don't know it's h the old fashioned Aerospace giants like Boeing who built the Apollo spacecraft don't seem to be able to do anymore and they also build a giant Moon rocket which is years late so we're at a sort of a hinge in history where the old way of doing things is phasing out and the new way is being phased in all right Keith calling really appreciate your time my pleasure [Music]