Precis

In the tiny Texan hamlet of Boca Chica, a huge rocket is being built and tested. It's Elon Musk's Starship, a 120-metre-high spacecraft whose mission is to transport humans to the moon and beyond, to Mars.

Musk and his company SpaceX are at the forefront of what's being called 'New Space',
the rush to commercialise the space sector.

His ambition is extraordinary; he wants to colonise the Red Planet.

"It's helpful to have the objective of a self-sustaining city on Mars. This has to be the objective," says Musk.

In his quest to perfect the Starship, Musk has been blowing up prototypes.

"He doesn't really care if it's messy, he doesn't really care if it appears to be chaotic, he's trying to go forward into the future as fast as possible," says space writer Eric Berger.

But the mighty rocket has its critics, including a former head of NASA, Charlie Bolden.

"The difficulty for me as a huge fan of SpaceX, but a huge sceptic about Starship is the fact that it's so big, it's so massive," says Bolden. "If Neil Armstrong were alive today to talk to them, he would probably say, 'That is the dumbest thing I've ever heard'."

In a cracking season finale, US correspondent Sarah Ferguson heads to Texas to see Musk's space base up close. She joins a band of devotees in Boca Chica, from Gene the local surfer to MaryLiz and Ryan who've dedicated their lives to documenting the billionaire's space odyssey.

She speaks to members of the "space establishment' — former and current NASA executives who've decided to accept and work with the great disruptor. NASA recently awarded Musk a multi-billion-dollar contract to build its next moon lander.

"I think actually this will be a perfect example of 'new space' and 'old space' meeting together in a great new mission," says Kathy Lueders, head of the NASA mission to send humans back to the moon.

Sarah travels to Florida's space coast to witness the launch of SpaceX's Inspiration 4, the first time civilians have flown into orbit.

Musk is a polarising figure. But he's changed forever how humans view space.

Starbase rockets, Texas. Sunset

Music

00:10:

SARAH FERGUSON, Reporter:  There’s something remarkable going on in a remote corner of south east Texas. Something vast and visionary. Just above the sand dunes of Boca Chica beach,

00:23

Musk at Starbase

one of the world’s richest men is building Starships to take humans back to the moon and on to Mars.

ELON MUSK: For the first orbital launch our goal is  to make it to orbit without blowing up.  To be totally frank, if it takes off without blowing up the stand, the stage zero, that would be a victory. Please do not blow up on the stand.

00:38

Berger interview

ERIC BERGER: I think what you're seeing is organised chaos and what you're seeing really is the personality of Musk writ large. And he doesn't really care

00:59

if it's messy, he doesn’t really care if it appears to be chaotic, he's trying to go forward into the future as fast as possible.

01:07

Exploding Starships

SARAH FERGUSON, Reporter: Elon Musk is building his massive Starships through trial and error.

ELON MUSK: Starship does not have anyone on board so we can blow things up. That's really helpful.

01:16

Musk

We actually want to push the envelope. And if you don't push the envelope, you cannot achieve the goal of a fully and rapidly reusable rocket.

01:32

NASA Starship astronauts

SARAH FERGUSON, Reporter:  This year Musk won a multi-billion dollar NASA contract for his Starship to be their moon lander.

01:41

Musk with Charlie Bolden

One former NASA boss is not convinced.

01:50

Charlie interview

CHARLIE BOLDEN: The difficulty me for me as a huge fan of SpaceX, but a huge sceptic about Starship is the fact that it's so big, it's so massive. If Neil Armstrong were alive today to talk to them, he would probably say, "That is the dumbest thing I've ever heard."

01:54

Musk watches launch/Starbase tour

SARAH FERGUSON, Reporter: But the self-titled chief engineer of SpaceX keeps proving his doubters wrong. It’s called “New Space” because entrepreneurs are taking the lead, and Elon Musk is its defining genius.

TIM DODD: I feel like he's a Howard Hughes meets Edison meets Steve Jobs. A whole bunch of figureheads mashed together.

02:07

Tim interview

I think in the grand scheme of things, especially if he gets us to Mars is like, that's probably going to be near the top of the list of historical figures.

02:34

Crowd watch Inspiration4 launch

Crowd: "Three… two… one…"

02:41

SARAH FERGUSON, Reporter: Two weeks ago SpaceX made history again by sending four civilians into orbit and bringing them back safely. Now his acolytes are convinced the wild ride with Elon Musk will take us all the way to Mars.

02:50

Title: Destination Mars

03:13

Boat journey, dawn.  Super:
Boca Chica
South east Texas

03:21

Sarah in boat. Super:
Sarah Ferguson
Reporter

03:29

MaryLiz making music with gloves

03:39

MaryLiz and Ryan set up camera, dawn

RYAN: This is the little spot right over here.

SARAH FERGUSON, Reporter: Ryan and MaryLiz are rocket chasers.

03:55

RYAN:  So if we’re lucky this morning we might see a 70-metre tall first stage of the world’s largest rocket just driving down the road. So, a pretty exciting morning and we’re going to set up some cameras here, hopefully to capture the beginning of rollout. Nice view.

04:05

MARYLIZ: There’s really nothing like seeing this massive hardware roll down the street. I don’t think people understand, this is the largest most powerful rocket that’s ever existed in human history. Much larger even than the Saturn 5, more powerful and so, what we always try to do is gift the awe, and the actual feeling, the actual experience. What it’s like to be on the side of the road right next to the rocket as it’s rolling by.

04:29

RYAN: Alright, recording.

04:56

Rockets at Stargate/Setting up cameras

SARAH FERGUSON, Reporter: Inspired by Elon Musk’s Starship program, the couple moved from Florida’s space coast to Boca Chica to document each step of its evolution.

05:01

MARYLIZ:  The booster is going to come out of the high bay very slowly, roll out onto this highway, highway 4, we call it the road to Mars, and then it's going to slowly track all the way down two kilometres, all the way to the launch site to where the orbital launch tower is. That’s waiting for the booster for its test campaign to begin.

05:13

Ryan getting into car

RYAN: Ready to go?

MARYLIZ:  Yeah.

05:32

Driving to launch site

Music

05:40

Sarah in boat with Gene

GENE: See the other two starships from here, I usually get up on top, you can see a little bit better.

SARAH FERGUSON, Reporter: Local surfer Gene Gore showed me the view of Starbase from the ocean, the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico.

05:54

GENE: Good morning Starship.

SARAH FERGUSON, Reporter: Since testing began here in 2019, Gene has filmed and photographed every launch.

06:07

GENE: I just love all the different angles you can get out here, go back and look. Oh that one is good!

SARAH FERGUSON, Reporter: So you weren't a big space nerd before?

GENE: Oh, heck no.

SARAH FERGUSON, Reporter: No, nothing? Weren't into it?

GENE: Surfer.

SARAH FERGUSON, Reporter:  Yeah.

06:18

View of launch site from boat

What is it that got into your imagination?

GENE: You just said the word, imagination. The possibilities, going setting up a base on Mars.

06:29

Sarah and Gene on  boat

SARAH FERGUSON, Reporter: What do you think about Elon Musk?

GENE: He’s cool and he's a big dork.

SARAH FERGUSON, Reporter: He’s a big what?

GENE: No I like him. He’s so outgoing and friendly and normal.

06:39

SARAH FERGUSON, Reporter: Nothing normal about what's happening here, though.

GENE: No man, I love it. He dreams big. Goes for it.

SARAH FERGUSON, Reporter: Would you go if you could?

GENE: To Mars? No, there’s no surf there.

06:57

MaryLiz sets up camera

SARAH FERGUSON, Reporter: MaryLiz and Ryan post their material on their YouTube channel Cosmic Perspective to a new generation of space enthusiasts.

MARYLIZ: We can zoom in a lot. I'm going to take some panoramas and then do some zooms.

SARAH FERGUSON, Reporter: And what did you say that one was? The…?

MARYLIZ: Starhopper.

SARAH FERGUSON, Reporter: The one that looks like an old NASA

07:20

Starhopper

piece of…

MARYLIZ:  Yeah. Or a C3P0.

SARAH FERGUSON, Reporter:  This Stars Wars throw-back was the prototype of the starship.

07:40

MaryLiz films

But right now, MaryLiz is focussed on a close friend who really is about to go into space.

MARYLIZ: Just two to  three  weeks  ago, 

07:49

MaryLiz interview

my  friend  Sian  came  here  to  visit  for  the  first  time. It  was her last real vacation she could take before quarantine, before getting ready for her flight on the Crew Dragon.

07:57

YouTube selfie MaryLiz and Sian

08:06

Sian at Starbase

SIAN: Isn't it gorgeous?

MARYLIZ:  It's unbelievable.

SARAH FERGUSON, Reporter: Sian Proctor was one of the Inspiration4 civilian astronauts chosen for a trip into orbit on another SpaceX rocket.

SIAN:  This is the beginning of us becoming a multi planetary species.

08:11

Sian YouTube

This is ground zero for that.

08:33

Sian on beach

And then here I am going up.

MARYLIZ: That's  what  we  were  talking  about when  she  and  I  were  on  the  dunes  

08:36

MaryLiz interview

a  couple  of  weeks  ago,  we  just  kept  saying,  man,  as science communicators we’ve been talking about this new era of private space travel that’s coming and that access is going to open up to private citizens around the world. But even as we’re saying it, it's kind of like, God I hope that’s really true, right? And then she gets selected to go and it's all so true.

08:41

Booster rolling out of base and on to highway

SARAH FERGUSON, Reporter: As the Texas temperatures rise at the base, Ryan’s remote cameras capture the giant booster called ‘Super Heavy’ rolling out of the production site, and then trundling down the road.

08:59

Sarah to camera

It is absolutely breathtaking seeing it this close. It does change your perspective on this. I’m beginning to see what it is that draws all these people here.

09:21

Music

09:31

Jenny interview

JENNY: It’s coming down the aisle. This one has all the right stuff. This is the right love potion that the Cosmos knows itself to be true. This is faith in determination, this is faith in determination for our country, for our planet, for our cosmos at an apex. This is like an apex predator right here, because it’s been founded based on a wave of love.

09:37

SARAH FERGUSON, Reporter: Musk is preparing Starship for its first orbital launch.

10:02

Sarah to camera on highway

This is where you understand how different SpaceX is to NASA. Not only is this an open road, but there’s virtually no security, just a flimsy yellow tape a couple of security guards here, and just a few hundred meters away Starship 20 itself that’s going to go into orbit pushed there by this giant booster number 4.

10:07

Ryan

RYAN: It looks like they’re moving into position to lift it onto the orbital launch mount, so that’s a really special treat to see. We’ll see it lift, and we will actually see the 29 raptor engines from below. 

10:28

Tim Dodd

TIM DODD:  Oh my gosh. People are so tuned in to every bolt of every piece of anything that moves around at Starbase that it's like almost, it's almost become its own level of obsession, you know? And obviously like I have to say, I've fed that monster myself.

10:38

Montage. Online space programs

SARAH FERGUSON, Reporter:  New Space has spawned a new breed of online science communicators. As The Everyday Astronaut Tim Dodd has a huge following. It helps that he caught Elon Musk’s attention.

10:56

Tim at Starship event

TIM DODD:  In 2019, I remember we were at a Starship event and I was with the press and said, hey, I'm Tim Dodd.

11:10

Tim: "Elon, Tim Dodd, the Everyday Astronaut, how are you?"

ELON MUSK: "Good, good, you have great questions online."

Tim: "Thanks. You have great answers."

ELON MUSK: "You're welcome."

SARAH FERGUSON, Reporter: Musk was so taken with Tim Dodd he agreed to give him

11:14

Musk gives tour of Starbase

an unconventional tour of Starbase.

ELON MUSK: "I’ll get my camera out so I can take a video of you guys taking a video."

Tim: "Make sure this is going through there. Just shoot the screen the whole time. I don't want anything else."

ELON MUSK: "All right. So this, this is okay. So this is I'm being videoed here. And then the video of the video."

11:28

SARAH FERGUSON, Reporter: Musk calls himself the chief engineer of SpaceX and it’s obvious that’s no honorary title.

11:49

ELON MUSK:  If you look at like the various reasons, like why we blew up a star ships, you looked at the risk list, none of the reasons it  blew up were on the risk list.

TIM: Really?'

ELON MUSK: Yeah. It was like, no, maybe you could argue, like, one of them maybe was on somebody's risk list, but it wasn't brought up beforehand, put it that way.

11:55

I mean, there's a crazy amount of new technology happening here, and it's all evolving simultaneously. So we, we need to iron out like the unknown unknowns, so to speak.

12:13

Musk, tour continues

SARAH FERGUSON, Reporter: Part of that constant evolution are their own powerful Raptor engines that will lift the Starship into deep space.

12:26

TIM: This is insane.

ELON MUSK:  I won’t tell you all secrets, but since the engines are, it's hard to have people not see them. Yeah.  This sort of maze of plumbing and wiring doesn't exist on Raptor 2.

TIM:  It's already slimmed down a ton from like the, you know…

ELON MUSK: They used to look like a freaking Christmas tree. Like, you couldn't even see the engine for all the stuff that was around it.

TIM: No you really couldn’t.

12:35

Tim interview

Seeing a whole like set of Raptor engines, dozens of Raptor engines in front of me, is unbelievable,

because two years ago, this engine barely existed. And now they have dozens of these things and they're ramping them up like crazy.

13:00

Tour continues

SARAH FERGUSON, Reporter:  Musk talked frankly about the trial and error process he’s using to fast track the development of the Starship.

13:13

Launch footage

ELON MUSK: For Starships we're iterating rapidly in order to create the first ever fully reusable rocket, orbital rocket. Reusable in a, in a way that is like an aircraft.  That's the fundamental holy grail for making life multi-planetary

13:19

Starships exploding

SARAH FERGUSON, Reporter: Only Elon Musk seems to have the resources to blow up prototype Starships one after the other in the pursuit of perfection.

TIM DODD:  Starship is such a blank slate.

13:38

Tim interview

No one's really ever had that freedom when designing a rocket to just push the envelope on it and try crazy things and not care whether or not the whole thing works perfectly from front to back.

13:53

Starships exploding

And so if it fails, as long as they're learning something and realise what went wrong and can figure out why that went wrong and make sure it doesn't happen on the next one.

ERIC BERGER: There's still lots of resistance in the industry

14:03

Eric Berger interview. Super:
Eric Berger
Author & space journalist

and there's constant lobbying about SpaceX. Like you can't trust Musk. He's not a reliable partner. You know, look at their rockets that have blown up. That kind of thing. It becomes more difficult to make that argument when SpaceX launches

 more rockets than any company in the world. You can add up all the rockets launched by other rocket companies in the United States, and it doesn't come close to what SpaceX is doing.

14:17

Sarah at NASA looking at rocket

SARAH FERGUSON, Reporter: Since the days of the Apollo mission in the 1960s, great big rockets like the Saturn 5 whose massive engines powered the lunar module into space, have been built for NASA by the aerospace establishment, old companies long used to winning the lion’s share of government space contracts.

14:39

Eric Berger interview

ERIC BERGER:  In the United States, the largest and most powerful companies are the biggest contractors to the US Government and that's the aerospace industry. And so that's the Lockheed Martins, that's the Boeings, that's the Northrop Grumanns. 

15:07

SpaceX launch footage

SARAH FERGUSON, Reporter: The audacious rise of Elon Musk’s SpaceX has totally disrupted the industry.

ERIC BERGER:  You had to have a little bit of a manic quality to think you could take on the Boeings and the Lockheeds and sort of, you know, eat their lunch. 

15:18

Eric Berger interview

One of the early engineers, a guy named Zach Dunn described it to me is that, you know, the existing rocket industry was kind of bucolic classical music. You know, everyone was kind of polite manners and in comes SpaceX, which is headbanging band, you know, riffing on guitars, making as much noise and, you know, smashing their guitars at the end of their sets.

15:35

Charlie interview. Super:
Charlie Bolden
NASA administrator (2009-2017)

CHARLIE BOLDEN: If we lost rockets at the rate that Elon Musk loses his big starship, NASA would have been out of business. Congress would have shut us down. If we lost one starship, let alone six or however many it's been, we can't do that.

15:58

NASA/Charlie at conference/Photo Charlie astronaut

SARAH FERGUSON, Reporter: To beat the aerospace establishment, Musk had first to win over NASA, including NASA administrator, Charlie Bolden who had been an astronaut on the space shuttle.

16:13

Space shuttle launch

CHARLIE BOLDEN: In the case of shuttle, you're in a 200,000-pound spacecraft that's being pushed along by a million and a half pounds of force. That's a lot.

16:28

Charlie interview

What I wasn't ready for was the… vibration where the rockets are just causing everything to vibrate.

16:39

Charlie weightless/Photos Charlie with Obama

SARAH FERGUSON, Reporter: The former Marine pilot Bolden was an astronaut for 14 years.  In 2009, Bolden was President Obama’s pick to run the space agency. After a career working for government he wasn’t ready for commercial space.

16:45

Charlie interview

CHARLIE BOLDEN: I was an extreme sceptic-

SARAH FERGUSON, Reporter: Extreme sceptic?

CHARLIE BOLDEN: Extreme sceptic.

17:01

I went from being the President’s selection to be the NASA administrator to being probably one of the most despised people in the President's orbit because I did not fall in line. I did not fall in love with the concept of commercial space. I was not an ideologue like many around me who felt that all we need to do is take NASA's budget, take everything for human spaceflight and give it to Elon Musk and SpaceX.

17:05

Charlie file footage NASA

"The US will remain the world’s leader in space exploration..."

SARAH FERGUSON, Reporter: There was a sharp philosophical divide at the top of NASA between Bolden and his deputy Lori Garver.

17:31

Lori Garver interview

LORI GARVER: In my view, the government doesn't need to, and therefore shouldn't be using the public's money to develop launch vehicles when the private sector has this capability.

17:42

Capitol building, night

SARAH FERGUSON, Reporter: Garver wanted to commercialise the building of rockets, but in the US congress powerful political figures were opposed to the idea.

ERIC BERGER: Congress threw a fit because the space shuttle was retiring in 2011

17:54

Eric Berger interview

and all of those big contractors stood to lose. And so Congress people were accustomed to having thousands of jobs in their districts, and especially around their field centres in Florida and Texas and Alabama, they were stood to lose hundreds or thousands of jobs.  And so Congress said, well, let's come up with a plan that both allows NASA to build a big rocket, but keeps all of those same employees employed.

18:09

Space Launch System animation

SARAH FERGUSON, Reporter: The big rocket Congress ordered up is called the Space Launch System. On top of it is the Orion capsule, designed to take astronauts into lunar orbit. The whole thing will cost the US tax payer more than 40 billion US dollars. But it won't go all the way to the moon. The plan is for it to meet up with Elon Musk’s Starship to take the astronauts down to the lunar surface.

18:32

Sarah walks with Kathy Leuder

It’s Kathy Lueders’ job to co-ordinate the mission. 

19:03

Kathy Leuder interview

KATHY LUEDER:  We awarded a contract last spring to, you know, obviously to SpaceX to do a demonstration lander, and they'll be doing the first human demonstration landing on the moon. What they'll be doing is they'll be taking their human landing system up. We'll be transferring crews out of the Orion into the SpaceX human landing system and landing on the moon.

19:09

Artemis rocket

So I think actually this will be a perfect example of new space and old space meeting together into a great new mission.

SARAH FERGUSON, Reporter:  Except that after a decade of development NASA’s rocket still hasn’t flown and is billions over budget.

ERIC BERGER: Finally, after 10 years, the first rocket is almost ready, but this is an expendable rocket.

19:33

Eric Berger interview

It costs $2 billion per launch. It has a flight rate of at most one per year. So it really constrains your space program if you've got a big rocket that can only fly once a year at most.

19:58

Musk and Robert Zubrin, Zoom interview

Elon: "Is that better or is that worse?

Robert Zubrin:  I think you were better before...."

SARAH FERGUSON, Reporter: Speaking to the Mars Society during lockdown last year, Elon Musk was typically blunt.

20:10

ELON MUSK: Expendable rockets are the absolute, are just utterly stupid in my opinion, utterly stupid. They’re a complete waste of time. People should stop wasting their time. It would be an absurd thing to for them sell a single use aircraft, but they feel quite comfortable with selling a single use rocket.  

20:21

Falcon9 launch

SARAH FERGUSON, Reporter: Musk says he will fund his ambitions to go to Mars with his controversial plans to put 40,000 communications satellites into low earth orbit – accessing a global internet market worth more than 1 trillion US dollars.

20:38

Charlie Bolden interview

CHARLIE BOLDEN: Right now Mars is the only destination for humans if we want to do like -- Elon Musk uses the term multi-planet species. If we want to be a multi-planet species in the near term, the only place that's Earth-like where we can go and live for long periods of time is Mars.

21:01

Booster on to launch platform

SARAH FERGUSON, Reporter: In Boca Chica the giant booster is being lifted onto its launch platform for engine testing. Environmental concerns and regulatory issues have delayed plans to put Starship into orbit, knocking Musk off his fast track.

21:26

ELON MUSK: I think if we operate with extreme urgency, then we have a chance of making life multi-planetary. Just a chance.

21:45

Musk at Starbase tour

Not for sure. If we don't act with extreme urgency, that chance is probably zero. I mean, I'll be long dead before, you know, Mars is self-sustaining, but hopefully the momentum is strong in that direction by the time I die, which hopefully isn't soon.

ERIC BERGER:  SpaceX looks at the rules of play and sees where it can bend them. It's really about

21:54

Eric Berger interview

how can I go as fast as possible. And he really runs into regulators because they're there to sort of make sure all the rules are followed and that slows things down.

22:20

Starship

SARAH FERGUSON, Reporter: NASA has invested $2.8 billion US dollars in Musk’s 50 metre high Starship as its moon lander, but its technology is far from proven.

22:29

Musk Starbase tour

ELON MUSK: This is the tentative design right now, but with the agreement of NASA, I think we may see that design evolve and it may be better actually.

22:45

Apollo moon landing photos

SARAH FERGUSON, Reporter: Starship towers over the tiny Apollo lunar lander that NASA built for the first moon mission.

Neil Armstrong: "The eagle has landed."

22:58

Starship

SARAH FERGUSON, Reporter: Musk is alarmingly frank about how hard it is to land such a large ship on the surface of the moon.

ELON MUSK:  A big question here is like, can you, can you land on the moon with the main engines

23:12

Musk Starbase tour

or do you need a separate thruster system that's way up there? Like, basically, if you ran with the main engines, you're going to dig a big ditch in the moon and then fall over because you landed in a ditch that you dug, literally dig your own grave. That would be obviously bad.

23:23

Charlie Bolden interview

CHARLIE BOLDEN: The difficulty me for me as a huge fan of SpaceX, but a huge sceptic about Starship, is the fact that it's so big, it's so massive. The lunar surface is pockmarked beyond belief.

23:41

Lunar rover photo

The astronauts in the lunar rovers found that, boy, it's treacherous getting around the lunar surface because we're going to places that we don't have any imagery.  

23:52

Charlie Bolden interview

They'll learn when they go to the moon. Landing on the... If Neil Armstrong were alive today to talk to them, he would probably say, "That is the dumbest thing I've ever heard".

24:03

Sarah sitting in dunes, Victor video interview

SARAH FERGUSON, Reporter: Hi, Victor. Good to talk to you. Is it true that your call sign is Ike?

VICTOR GLOVER:  Yes, that is my call sign. It, it stands for 'I know everything.'

24:14

Victor. Photos, in training

SARAH FERGUSON, Reporter: If Elon Musk’s Starship does go to the moon there’s a good chance Victor Glover will be on it. He’s one of NASA’s 18 Artemis astronauts now training for the mission.

24:28

Victor interview

SARAH FERGUSON, Reporter: What would it mean to you, personally, to go to the moon?

24:41

VICTOR GLOVER: Wow, that's a big question. Wow. Personally, it would be the realisation of a dream. To be able to work on the surface of the moon. Whoever we've sent, they're going to have a great story to tell. They're going to have a great way to connect to people all over the world, because they've unified humanity behind this one really powerful idea, our generation's moon shot.

24:44

Victor. Archive of Crew Dragon flight to space station

SARAH FERGUSON, Reporter: In November 2020 Victor Glover piloted a SpaceX capsule to the International Space Station.

You piloted the first operational flight of SpaceX’s Crew Dragon. What do you think about the speed that they're moving at now?

25:06

Victor interview

VICTOR GLOVER: I think that really fast evolution is a part of a much larger move to this new idea of space and what space can be, but also relying on the heritage of what space has been in the teamwork and the partnership that has grown out of that. It really can serve as a model for how we're going to tackle the lunar missions and how we're going to tackle moving humans onto Mars.

25:25

MaryLiz on beach for SpaceX launch, making music

Music

25:47

SARAH FERGUSON, Reporter: Sunrise on Florida’s space coast. The rocket chasers are here to watch SpaceX launch four civilians into orbit. MaryLiz has written a piece for her friend Sian who won a place on the Inspiration4 flight.

25:58

MARYLIZ: I composed it last night, I think it was about 1:30-2.00am, when I was sitting at my computer, just trying to put into sound the way that I was feeling. Getting into the flow of listening to this song as I'm playing it. And I started to see Sian take off. And then there was a contrail in this sky and I was like, oh my God, that's going to be her soon achieving her dreams.

26:17

Photo. Inspiration4 crew

SARAH FERGUSON, Reporter: The Inspiration4 crew – led by billionaire Jared Isaacman, who was paying for the flight, gave a final press conference.

26:47

Sian at press conference

SIAN PROCTOR: As we move to the Moon and Mars and beyond, we’re writing the narrative of human space flight right now. So when we do that we need to think about Jedi space – Just Equitable Diverse and Inclusive Space for all of humanity, because we’re on starship earth and we want to bring everybody along with us.

26:57

Tim Dodd interview

TIM DODD: Just even knowing someone that's riding on a rocket to space is just, it's just insane. You know, it's just, it's just crazy.

27:19

Tim in hammock

SARAH FERGUSON, Reporter: Tim Dodd, the Everyday Astronaut was here in Florida to live stream the launch.

27:24

TIM DODD: I think it'll be pretty profound. I think it might be another level of emotion for me personally.

27:32

Gene on boat

GENE GORE: She's very brave and she's an awesome woman. And she's going to have the time of her life. I don't think I’m going to be able to sleep for the next three days watching her, you know .

27:41

SARAH FERGUSON, Reporter: Rocket chaser and surfer Gene chartered a boat for closer look at the SpaceX rocket on its pad in Cape Canaveral.

27:52

GENE GORE: Wow. There it is.  The capsule looks so small, you know, from here, like a little marshmallow.

28:02

Inspiration4 on launchpad

Music

28:16

Crowd at launch

COMMENTATOR:  "There they are our first all civilian crew walking out of hangar X. They look so excited…"

28:22

CHARLIE BOLDER: I’m so excited to be here this evening for this launch. It’s the complete cycle of a tale to get us to where it was nothing but government to where now we can actually have an all civilian, all commercial flight.

28:37

Everyday Astronaut broadcast

TIM DODD: Hello and good afternoon evening. I'm Tim Dodd, the Everyday Astronaut. You can see me sitting in the car. Welcome to my coverage of a really, really, exciting mission today.

28:54

MaryLiz on beach/Inspiration4 crew

Music

29:11

MARYLIZ: I can just see Sian’s smile and I feel light inside of it. She and I have talked about it. She knows the risks and she's ready to do this.

29:27

Launch countdown and launch

COMMENTATOR: "Dragon SpaceX confirm crew displays are configured for launch."

CREW MEMBER: "SpaceX Dragon, our displays are configured for launch."

TIM DODD: My heart is racing right now, this is getting very real.

29:33

COMMENTATOR: "TMinus 15 seconds."

29:44

TIM DODD: Oh my God. I’m shaking.

30:21

Music

30:24

Sarah to camera at launch

SARAH FERGUSON, Reporter: My heart is still pounding at the thought of those three ordinary people hurtling into space. They say it's the dawn of a new era in space travel for ordinary people like you and me -- that’s assuming you can find a friendly billionaire to pay for your ride. But for today these people have allowed all of us to dream. One small step towards Mars and beyond.

30:34

Launch footage

TIM DODD: I've never seen this. I've never seen a twilight phenomenon launch like this. I wish you could see what we're seeing right now. You can see the thrusters firing from the first stage. Wow! That's incredible.

31:06

Credits [see below]

31:28

COMMENTATOR: There's the crew on the right hand side of your screen. I think I see some more thumbs up there. Dr. Proctor is clearly excited that she's finally in space.

31:34

Outpoint

31:51