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Polaris Dawn Set to Splash Down; Harris Speaks at Congressional Black Caucus Event; Trump's Dangerous Rhetoric on Immigrants. Aired 3- 4a ET

Aired September 15, 2024 - 03:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

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[03:00:00]

ANNA COREN, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and welcome to all our viewers watching from around the world. I'm Anna Coren.

Ahead on CNN Newsroom, mission complete, the Polaris Dawn crew will splash down the Gulf of Mexico just minutes from now after a history- making spacewalk.

Doubling down on fear and conspiracy, Donald Trump speaks of an immigrant takeover after spreading falsehoods about migrants eating pets.

And a missile launched from Yemen lands in Central Israel, setting off air raid sirens and sending residents running for shelter.

We are just minutes away and counting down to splashdown of the historic Polaris Dawn mission. SpaceX has just provided video of the crew and the spaceship as it heads down to Earth. And we're looking at live pictures with the astronauts in their seats and the nose cone closing.

The civilian crew of the SpaceX rocket lifted off on Tuesday looking to a new era in commercial space travel and exploration. They've been farther from the Earth than any human since the Apollo astronauts more than 50 years ago. They've become the first commercial crew to walk in space. A little while ago they started their de-orbit engine burn and, as we say, have closed the nose cone. A recovery ship is waiting in the Gulf of Mexico for their arrival.

Well, CNN's Brian Abel has more on this historic mission and what it means for the future of space exploration.

BRIAN ABEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The significance of this mission, it cannot be overstated both for how it moves the ball closer to deeper exploration of space, like missions to Mars, but also for what it means for civilians getting to experience space at this level.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ABEL (voice over): SpaceX mission control erupting in cheers as the hatch of the Crew Dragon capsule opens, exposing the four crew members inside to the vacuum of space. Over the following two hours, billionaire tech CEO Jared Isaacman and SpaceX Engineer Sarah Gillis complete the world's first commercial spacewalk for about ten minutes each.

From outside the capsule, Isaacman taking in views of Earth passing by some 450 miles below.

JARED ISAACMAN, POLARIS DAWN MISSION COMMANDER: Back at home, we all have a lot of work to do. But from here, it sure looks like a perfect world.

ABEL: The mission commander also bending and stretching. This space dance meant to test how their suits move.

CHRIS HADFIELD, FORMER NASA ASTRONAUT, ISS COMMANDER: No one has ever used this space suit out in space before, so it opens up a whole new capability. We haven't had a new space suit in over 40 years. So, all the latest technology since then integrated into a new tech suit.

ABEL: Former International Space Station Commander Chris Hadfield says Thursday's mission opens the door to exciting new opportunities.

HADFIELD: The SpaceX capsule has never gone down to the zero pressure vacuum of space before, testing the hatches and all the equipment inside that everything worked.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ABEL (on camera): And this historic mission surpassed a few records, including the first spacewalk of non government astronauts, the highest orbit around Earth, the first time for astronauts were simultaneously exposed to the vacuum of space. Also the two women of the crew becoming the first ever to travel so far from our planet and the farthest any human has traveled from Earth since the Apollo program ended in 1972.

In Washington, I'm Brian Abel reporting.

COREN: I'm joined live now by CNN Aerospace Analyst Miles O'Brien and Janet Ivey of the National Space Board of Governors. Great to have you both with us.

Miles, let's start with you. What can we anticipate over the next 30 or so minutes for the Polaris Dawn?

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN AEROSPACE ANALYST: Well, we're going to see them re enter the atmosphere of Earth, and that is a very critical moment for any space mission, of course. The temperatures on the outside will be on the order of 2,000 degrees Celsius and you want to make sure the crew inside is protected from that.

[03:05:02]

So, there is a heat shield beneath them. It's called an ablative heat shield, meaning pieces of it sort of burn away as they come in, dissipating the heat. And the SpaceX Dragon capsule has flown now 54 times. And it has -- excuse me, 14 times with 54 people on board without any problems.

So, we shouldn't expect any -- this is the nail-biting moment of a mission when they come home.

COREN: 3:36 A Eastern, that is when we are expecting splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico, just off the coast of Florida. And we are looking at live pictures of SpaceX's mission control. Janet, talk us through the risks of the Polaris Dawn returning to Earth and that splashdown off the coast of Florida.

JANET IVEY, CEO AND FOUNDER, JANET'S PLANET: Well, like you were saying the capsule itself is feeling, you know, over 2,000 degrees Celsius and it's hurtling along. You have to come in at just the right angle and trajectory. But the most amazing thing is that by the time those parachutes deploy and it is actually splashing down in the ocean, that spacecraft has gone from traveling thousands of miles an hour to only going about 20 miles an hour. And then it's up to the folks who go out there and get that capsule.

But I think for this particular crew, most of the risk is over. They are just now calculating everything to perfection to re-enter the Earth's atmosphere. It's been an incredible mission to watch by this all-civilian crew.

COREN: It is quite extraordinary, isn't it? Because, you know, many experts were saying there were so many risks involved in this mission. And yet, as you saw, they are 30 minutes exactly to returning. Miles, explain to me what the crew the four crew members, two men, two women, would be experiencing right now.

O'BRIEN: Well, they're going to be experiencing something they haven't felt for about five days, slowly but surely, the effects of gravity, as they were in orbit. The world microgravity is a different place as you kind of float around in a free fall, essentially. But as that speed dissipates from about 28,000 kilometers per hour to about 20 in a short period of time, they're going to start feeling some additional forces. We call them G forces as they come in.

And G forces are just a multiple of actual gravity, so two, three times the force of gravity as they start feeling the effects coming down.

So, it'll be a little bit of awakening after they've had that the blissful five days of floating around. But mostly what they do at this point on the Dragon capsule is monitor systems. It's an automated aircraft or spacecraft in almost every way.

COREN: Janet, this mission, as you said earlier, has been an absolute success. Talk us through what they have achieved.

IVEY: I mean, it's like when you start talking milestones, I mean, they've gone now further than any spacecraft has ever flown from Earth, surpassing Gemini 11's 853 miles above the Earth to 875 miles. A woman has actually gone for a spacewalk at this incredible kind of like, you know, above the Earth that many miles. Two women have gone now further than any two women have ever gone away from Earth in orbit. We've seen spacewalks by an all civilian crew.

And the quote that you guys played, where Jared kind of comes up and is egressing for the first time, and you see that beautiful, blue thin line of our atmosphere, and he goes, you know, I know things are not perfect down there, but from up here, it looks like a perfect world. They've tested out even kind of like the Starlink's lasers and beam down music, you know, Sarah's a violinist. And so we got to hear this beautiful Star Wars theme with musicians from around the world.

But more importantly, they have tested out some amazing things for health and safety of future astronauts, from ultrasounds to gathering how much radiation as they travel through the Van Allen radiation belts. They're going to provide biological samples towards multi omics analysis for long-term effects of being in microgravity and in those kind of spheres of radiation.

[03:10:02]

And, again, they're going to be even looking further into that neuro ocular syndrome, which a lot of times in microgravity, all those fluids of the body, put a lot of pressure on that occipital bone, causing headaches, causing some vision problems.

So, the things that all 36 experiments are too many to really name, they have really set the bar so high that the future of space exploration really is looking at this moment as an acceleration of things to come for humanity's place in space.

COREN: Janet We're just looking at the clock now, 26 minutes until splashdown.

Miles, there were concerns at the beginning, you know, that private citizens weren't up for the mission. You know, what business did they have being up in space considering, you know, they were not professional astronauts? Does this mission and its success perhaps silence the critics and the doubters?

O'BRIEN: Well, I'm sure it will. But if you look at their resumes, Anna, these are not people who just kind of walked in randomly off the street and strapped themselves into a rocket. Jared Isaacman, the billionaire who wrote the check to make this all happen, and you got to hand it to Elon Musk for finding a way not to have to pay a commander, instead it's the opposite. He writes a big check to him for the privilege.

But he's got 7,000 hours of aviation experience. He owns a small armada of fighter jets that he flies in tight formation, with the pilot beside him, who is Kidd Poteet, a former Thunderbirds pilot for the Air Force. And the other, the two women are senior engineers at SpaceX involved in crew training and design of spacecraft.

So, these are people who are very much enmeshed in the world of aviation and space and have a tremendous amount of experience. And I think when we say that they're, you know, quote unquote, civilian, it makes it sound like they're dilettantes and tourists, but these are very accomplished individuals who happen to be there on a private dime as opposed to NASA.

COREN: Janet Miles O'Brien, Janet Ivey, we certainly appreciate you putting it all into perspective for us. We'll come back to both of you for our live coverage of the splashdown now in just 24 minutes.

Well, still to come here on CNN Newsroom, Donald Trump doubles down on his falsehoods and fear mongering about immigration while Kamala Harris speaks at a Congressional Black Caucus event. The latest from the campaign trail just ahead.

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COREN: Election Day is fast approaching in the U.S. now just about seven weeks away. Kamala Harris spoke at an event on Saturday hosted by the Congressional Black Caucus in Washington, D.C., alongside President Joe Biden.

[03:15:00]

She criticized Donald Trump for his failure to outline his health care plans during Tuesday's presidential debate. And President Biden denounced the Republican nominee for spreading falsehoods and fear about immigrants.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, U.S. PRESIDENT: He says immigrants, black and brown immigrants, poison the blood of our country. Right now, his running mate is attacking Haitian-Americans in Ohio. It's wrong. It's got to stop. Any president should reject hate in America and incite not incite it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COREN: Well, CNN's Eva McKend was there at the event and filed this report.

EVA MCKEND, CNN NATIONAL POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: The vice president applauding members of the Congressional Black Caucus for their vision as she outlined her vision for a Harris administration.

Talking about the economy, reproductive rights, health care, needling the former president, arguing that Democrats have a plan for health care and not just concepts of a plan. That, of course, was a comment that the former president made during the debate. But, ultimately, Harris using the platform as a call to action, leaning on members of the CBC and their allies to do all they could to turn out the vote.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAMALA HARRIS, U.S. VICE PRESIDENT, DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Generations of Americans before us led the fight for freedom and for the future. And now the baton is in our hands. I truly believe that America is ready to turn the page on the politics of division and hate. And to do it, our nation is counting on the leadership in this room. (END VIDEO CLIP)

MCKEND: And the vice president picks up with an aggressive campaign schedule this week in a tour of the blue wall states. She'll make stops this week in Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin.

Eva McKend, CNN, Washington.

COREN: Well, meanwhile, former President Donald Trump was campaigning in Nevada over the weekend. He met with local law enforcement officials in Las Vegas on Saturday, and he once again stoked fear of immigrants.

Trump also denied knowing about the bomb threats that have triggered evacuations at two schools and the city hall in Springfield, Ohio, last week. The threats came after false and offensive claims by Trump and his campaign about Haitian immigrants eating pets in Springfield. Police and local officials have said there is no truth to those claims.

CNN's Alayna Treene breaks down Donald Trump's comments and their context.

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN REPORTER: On Saturday, Donald Trump made a brief visit to the Las Vegas Police Protective Association, where he thanked local law enforcement on the ground. And he also lobbed attacks at Vice President Kamala Harris and falsely claimed that she has no support from U.S. law enforcement.

But what I found interesting was when a reporter asked him at the end there about whether he denounces some of the bomb threats that have been reported in Springfield, Ohio. They have led to two consecutive days of evacuations in schools. And this comes after both Donald Trump but also his running mate, J.D. Vance, have been spreading and promoting these rumors about Haitian migrants eating their pets, rumors that we know the Republican governor of Ohio, the police chief, the mayor of Springfield have all said are made without evidence.

I want you to listen to what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REPORTER: Do you announce the bomb threats in Springfield, Ohio?

DONALD TRUMP (R), FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT, 2024 PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: I don't know what happened with the bomb threats. I know that it's been taken over by illegal migrants, and that's a terrible thing that happened. Springfield was this beautiful town and now they're going through hell. It's a sad thing. Not going to happen with me, I can tell you right now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TREENE: Okay, so a few things there. One is that he said that the city of Springfield has been taken over by illegal immigrants. Just to note, many of the migrants in Springfield, Ohio, are there legally. They have temporary protective status. But the other part of this as well is that he said he didn't know anything about these threats.

However, on Friday, a reporter asked him during a press conference in Los Angeles specifically about these bomb threats. I want you to listen to that exchange as well.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REPORTER: The mayor of Springfield, Ohio, the police chief, the Republican governor of Ohio have all debunked this story about people eating pets. And now there are bomb threats at schools and kids being evacuated. Why do you still spread this false story?

TRUMP: No. The real threat is what's happening at our border, because you have thousands of people being killed by illegal migrants coming in.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TREENE: Okay, so a few things to break down there. One is that some of these bomb threats have been happening after Donald Trump and his running mate J.D. Vance have continued to promote these rumors about Haitian migrants in the city eating their pets, even though the mayor of Springfield, the Republican governor of Ohio, as well as the city's police chief have all said that there is no evidence for those claims.

But I think the big picture, just to take a step back here, about why Donald Trump is talking about this is because it fits into his rhetoric regarding allegations that migrants, whether they're here legally or illegally, are engaging in acts of violence and criminal activity.

[03:20:08]

Now, let's take a look this is all kind of rhetoric that we know he has used in the lead up to 2016, as well as in 2020, really trying to stoke fears about undocumented immigrants in this country. And when I've talked to Donald Trump's advisors about this, as well as people close to the former president, they say, whether or not these rumors in Springfield end up being true, it's gotten people talking about it. So, keep that in mind as we continue to cover this.

Alayna Treene, CNN, Las Vegas.

COREN: Venezuela is accusing the CIA of orchestrating a plot to assassinate President Nicolas Maduro and other top officials, it says, to destabilize the country after a disputed presidential election. In a news conference, Venezuela's interior minister said 400 U.S. rifles were seized and six foreigners were arrested, including a U.S. Navy SEAL and two other Americans.

The U.S. State Department calls Venezuela's accusations, quote, categorically false and says the U.S. continues to support a democratic solution to the country's political crisis.

More than 200 soldiers on both sides are back home after the latest prisoner swap between Russia and Ukraine. Kyiv says, more than a hundred Ukrainians released on Saturday had been held captive since the early months of the war. Among them soldiers who fought in the brutal three-month battle for the city of Mariupol more than two years ago.

They were exchanged for the same number of Russians who were captured in Ukraine's recent incursion to the Kursk region. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is crediting that operation for bringing the Ukrainian troops home.

The U.S. and Britain are keeping their cards close to the vest over Ukraine's request to use western-supplied missiles for strikes deeper inside Russia. President Joe Biden and Prime Minister Keir Starmer didn't make any announcements about the issue after their talks in Washington on Friday, but as CNN's Kevin Liptak reports, the discussions are far from over.

KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: President Biden is expressing new openness to allow Ukraine to fire western long range missiles deep into Russian territory. This is a step that he has long resisted, but the fact that he is open to it now really speaks to the enormous amount of pressure that he is facing, not only from the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, but also from senior members of Congress here in the United States, including some Democrats on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, to ease some of these restrictions that the president has placed not only on American weapons but also weapons from the United Kingdom and France.

And this was a topic of discussion between President Biden and the British prime minister, Keir Starmer, here at the White House on Friday.

When you talk to American officials, they do say they still have some concerns about taking this step. Some of the concerns are practical. You heard this from the defense secretary, Lloyd Austin, who said that a number of high value Russian targets have already been moved out of range of these missiles.

You also hear concerns about escalation, and certainly that has been at the front of President Biden's mind every time a new capability comes on the table when it comes to Ukraine. And certainly, we have heard the Russian president, Vladimir Putin ratcheting up his rhetoric, saying that if President Biden takes this step, it would mean that Russia is directly at war with NATO.

In his meeting with Keir Starmer, President Biden reacted to those comments. Listen to what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REPORTER: What do you say to Vladimir Putin's threat of war, Mr. President?

BIDEN: I don't think much about Vladimir Putin.

(END VIDEO CLIP) LIPTAK: Now, neither leader emerged from those talks with a decision or an announcement, and we had been told ahead of time that that wasn't expected. But we did hear from Keir Starmer later that a decision could be coming within a matter of weeks. He said this was a discussion that would be continued at the United Nations General Assembly talks later this month. And we do know that President Zelenskyy will meet with President Biden on the margins of those talks.

Of course, looming in the backdrop of all of this is the American election and former President Trump's stance on Ukraine. He was asked at the debate last week whether he would support Ukraine, and he declined multiple times to say that he was committed to Ukrainian victory. And when you talk to officials in Europe and the United States, they make clear that they want to do everything they can possibly do to position Ukraine for victory before November's election.

Kevin Liptak, CNN, the White House.

[03:25:00]

COREN: Well, still to come, the countdown is almost over as a historic mission to space comes to an end. We're moments away from the Polaris Dawn crew's return to Earth.

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COREN: Welcome back. We are just moments away from another milestone in the commercialization of outer space. The private Polaris Dawn mission capsule from SpaceX is expected to splash down in the Gulf of Mexico off the Florida Coast within minutes.

[03:30:08]

You are now watching live pictures leading up to the splashdown.

The all-civilian crew includes mission commander Jared Isaacman, mission pilot Kidd Poteet and mission specialist Sarah Gillis and mission specialist medical officer Anna Menon. Well, Isaacman is a billionaire who financed the flight.

We're waiting for the parachutes to deploy. That should happen in the next few minutes. And then a recovery ship is on standby to take the astronauts off the capsule and pull the spaceship out of the water.

CNN Space and Defense Correspondent Kristin Fisher sat down with the crew before they took off. They explained what the mission means to them and why it's so important.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KRISTIN FISHER, CNN SPACE AND DEFENSE CORRESPONDENT (voice over): SpaceX's Polaris Dawn mission, funded in part by billionaire businessman and philanthropist Jared Isaacman, who first flew to space three years ago as commander of SpaceX's Inspiration4, the first all- civilian mission to orbit.

Jared, some people are going to see the headlines and say, you know, oh, this is just another billionaire going on a joyride to space. But what you are doing is actually quite different.

ISAACMAN: The connotation is often negative, but in reality, it's just people taking the resources that they're lucky enough to accumulate in life and try and do something positive with it for the benefit of everyone.

SARAH GILLIS, SPACEX ENGINEER: SpaceX has these huge objectives, and to get there, there is so much that we need to go and solve. And so Polaris is all about accelerating the technology development

FISHER: Technology like the first new American-made extravehicular activity suit or EVA suit in more than 40 years. NASA has been trying to get new ones for its astronauts for two decades. SpaceX developed this one in just 2.5 years.

ISAACMAN: We're all really confident that, you know, some iteration of it is going to be worn by somebody walking on Mars someday and that just makes it even more of a privilege to be part of it.

FISHER: Scott Kidd Poteet is the mission's pilot, a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel and test pilot.

You've been wanting to go to space your whole life.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you calling me old?

FISHER: No.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm glad I have this crew.

FISHER: Mission Specialist Sarah Gillis is SpaceX's lead astronaut trainer for all astronauts that fly on a Dragon, including NASA astronauts and Jared on his first mission,

ISAACMAN: The person who's in charge of training all the astronauts for it should have that experience themselves.

FISHER: The final crew member is Mission Specialist and Medical Officer Anna Mennon, also a SpaceX employee whose life is now in the hands of her co-workers.

ANNA MENON, SPACEX ENGINEER: These are not just engineers. These are also my friends. So, I know the people that are putting us on that rocket and supporting us from the ground, and I have just the utmost trust in every single one of them.

FISHER: Anna, your husband is a NASA astronaut. You're beating him to space, essentially. How does that family dynamic play out?

MENON: Oh, he is the most supportive person ever. I am incredibly grateful to have him on my side. And, honestly, I think he's doing the hard job right now. (END VIDEOTAPE)

COREN: I'm joined live once again by CNN Aerospace Analysts Miles O'Brien and Janet Ivey of the National Space Board of Governors.

Janet, tell us, what are we looking at? These are the live pictures of the spaceship coming back.

IVEY: You know, it's just thrilling, and I can only imagine, you know, the full G forces their bodies are feeling as they are heading back to Earth. But what this crew has to celebrate is so monumental from the space tech that they were able to test out to the successful kind of like Starlink space lasers and the downlinks that were done there. And, you know, they've trained for two years together as a team for this entire mission. And I think it's been inspiring to watch and what's going to be really exciting is what else will be accomplished because of their efforts.

COREN: And, Janet, I'm just going to jump in here because you're looking at these grainy pictures, but it appears that the parachutes have been open. Perhaps we should listen in to SpaceX mission control.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Dragon SpaceX visual on two healthy drogues.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Stopping at 36, we show the same.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: These drogue parachutes help to stabilize the Dragon capsule and get it into the right orientation before those main parachutes pop out, as well as providing that initial deceleration.

This is such a great thermal shot of the dragon capsule. You can see it turning a little bit with the drogue parachutes. And there are the four main chutes now deployed. They'll slowly open up to their full deployment here in just a few seconds.

[03:35:00]

Incredible views of the Polaris Dawn crew returning to Earth after five days in Earth's orbit. The crowd here at mission control and (INAUDIBLE) cheering.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE).

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's a beautiful sight to see.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Copy 1,000.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Beautiful sight to see those four healthy main parachutes. So great. In about two minutes we expect our splashdown to occur.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And you may hear the crew and the core talking, they're communicating about their altitude as they make their way back down to Earth.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We should start -- UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 800.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, there it is. So we should start to hear an -- our hearing. Our commander, Jared Isaacman, call out the altitude as they descend to the ocean's surface.

We can see the Polaris Dawn crew nestled in their seats there on the left hand side of your screen as they anticipate their splashdown.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Copy six.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You can see the difference in velocity. This is a lot gentler than just a few minutes ago. The Dragon is coming back down to Earth.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Absolutely. These main parachutes deploy at about 119 miles per hour and help slow the dragon capsule down to about 15 miles per hour when it makes contact with the ocean.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You can also see that the capsule is now -- the capsule is now stabilized. It's no longer spinning like we saw it with the drogue parachutes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 200, we're bracing.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Copy, 200 embraced.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Bracing for splashdown.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That will be the final call we hear from Jared until contact with the ocean surface.

Standing by for a splashdown of the Polaris Dawn crew.

And there you can see --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE).

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: As you can see on your screen and by the cheers behind us, the Polaris Dawn crew has successfully splashed down.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Welcome back to planet Earth, Polaris Dawn.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: SpaceX recovery team now moving into place to begin the process of strapping the Dragon capsule up with the necessary rigging in order to lift it onto the recovery vessel.

COREN: Welcome back to planet Earth, Polaris Dawn. What a beautiful sight indeed. I don't know if both of you were just holding your breath like I was as it slowly descended.

But, Miles, I mean, talk me through that. Those four parachutes came out, I'm sure for the astronauts, that must have just been extraordinary, you know, moments away from splashing down.

O'BRIEN: Well, Jared Isaacman, when he was doing his spacewalk, talked about the perfect world beneath him. But I have a feeling looking up at those parachutes, the four perfect parachutes probably were his second favorite side of this mission because that when you see those, you know your home.

And what beautiful thermal imagery we've gotten from the Dry Tortugas at the Gulf of Mexico. Watching that ever so hot capsule, as you can see, because it's bright white and those billowing parachutes doing their job, bringing this crew of four home, a successful mission and a real milestone in the history of commercial space activity, which, after years of talk, and, you know, many years of development, really has taken off in the past few years. And we're entering a new era here, which portends the possibility of many more people having access to space, Anna. And that's an exciting prospect.

COREN: And, Janet, I mean, this mission has really gone off without a hitch. There were a lot of people beforehand talking about the risks, the challenges involved, but here it has achieved what so many didn't think was possible.

[03:40:10]

IVEY: It's been nothing short of amazing, but the truth is, these are incredible professionals that have spent the last couple of years training together, scuba diving together, hiking together. They have been on a mission to make sure that everything worked as perfectly. They trained diligently.

And, you know, it was really impressive for Jared to see that. I want to say that Sarah, who has trained many of the astronauts that have flown on the Dragon capsule before, should also experience what she's actually training those astronauts for. So, again, another incredible kind of like story they're all going to have to tell. I can't wait to kind of see them egress from their capsule and see the smiles as they are back here on Earth.

But something to remember, that it was December of 1903 when the Wright brothers actually kind of conquered human space flight and powered flight for the first time. So, here we are almost 121 years later, and we're seeing another new development in flight and aerospace. And that's just amazing, because even the suits they're wearing, SpaceX took the last 2.5 years to develop. And, again, these suits could one day, or some iteration thereof, be the ones that humans will be walking about on Mars in.

And so, again, for all of the science that they did, all of the medical testing, everything that -- all the data they're going to bring back, again, well done all. Bravo and brava. It's been a quite a mission to follow.

COREN: Miles, we've just seen a boat come into the screen. It's gone off the screen now. But talk us through what happens from here. There's a ship that is standing by obviously to collect the crew and then collect the spaceship. Yes, walk us through that.

O'BRIEN: Well, they'll grab the spaceship, bring it back to the recovery vehicle and the crew will leave the capsule once it's on the vehicle. It's not quite like they used to do it back in the Apollo days. So, they're going to sit there and test their ability to handle motion sickness after what they've just been through.

It looks like a pretty calm sea, which is, of course, very specifically forecast and what they were looking for in this case. And then they'll get on helicopters, make their way to land and be reunited with loved ones. And I know that'll be a special moment for all of them.

COREN: Janet, talk us through this process of acclimatization, because what they've put their bodies through the last five days, I guess no one has done to for a very long time. I mean, they have exposed themselves to high levels of radiation than the astronauts on the International Space Station. They now have to, you know, I guess, as I say, acclimatize being back on Earth. Talk us through what they will be going through.

IVEY: Well, every astronaut I've ever spoken to says that upon landing, you have this weird sensation of just heaviness. You've had this experience of lightness of being in microgravity, and then all of a sudden, you're very aware of how heavy everything feels.

And I can imagine they're going, wait a minute, it's like, you know, again, this feeling again the amount of like G's they've been, you know, kind of through as they re-entered the Earth's atmosphere, then all of a sudden, again, that kind of soft landing.

So, I'm sure their inner ear -- it's weird. In microgravity, we can't tell what is up or down. And so, again, that part of our cochlea helps us kind of orient and create -- that creates equilibrium for us. The part of that is probably just their brain reprocessing all of the things that are part of being in a one G environment. But, again, part of that heaviness that they feel has to also be part exhilaration knowing all that they've accomplished.

COREN: Miles, it looks like there are a couple of speedboats and they've hooked on to the spaceship, which you can see bobbing in the water. So, is a ship going to come along and take the spaceship out of the water? How does it work?

O'BRIEN: Yes. They're going to rendezvous in the water there. The crew right now is attaching various pieces of rigging and so forth that make all this, facilitates this process of getting the capsule onto the recovery vessel. And you'll notice that they're wearing respirators because there are hypergolic fuels involved, meaning these are chemicals that combust in the presence of each other.

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And you've got to be very careful because there could be some remnants of that around the capsule.

And so they want to sort of, you know, electronically sniff the air, make sure it's safe for them to egress, because you they're going to be walking out into whatever that micro atmosphere is. So, the process right now is about just getting the capsule kind of -- well, I guess, you know, you can call it like netting the capsule, I suppose, without the debt, but reeling it in, getting it onto the larger ship and allowing the crew to get back on and then get onto a helicopter.

COREN: The water looks incredibly still. Obviously, the weather was a huge component of all of this. There was that delay in Polaris Dawn launching. It was supposed to happen last month. And then on the actual day that it launched, it had to be delayed a couple of hours because of thunderstorms. But it would seem very still, Janet. Tell us how important, I guess, the weather was for this splashdown.

IVEY: Again, when you're splashing down, you also don't want to be combating hurricane kinds of winds or waves and any kind of real turbulence there, especially after reentry and everything. So, the weather's hugely important. Again, the most important resource and all of human spaceflight are humans. So, you're going to want to make sure that every kind of scenario is favorable.

And so it was super wise for them to wait. I'm sure that it was a little daunting to be, you know, ready to go and then have to wait day after day and that. But, again, we're seeing completely calm seas and that's exactly what this crew deserves upon arrival back on Earth.

COREN: Miles, I'm interested in the medical checks now that the crew will go through considering what they have put their body through these past five days.

O'BRIEN: Well, you know, a big part of this mission was, in fact, making themselves lab rats, if you will, Anna. They the first thing they did was they flew to this very high altitude. And part of the reason they did that was to put themselves what are known as the Van Allen belts, which are an area of particularly high radiation environment.

And if you're ever going to send humans to Mars, we're going to have to spend a lot -- understanding exactly that environment and how you might shield them against it to keep them safe is an important piece of this, which hasn't been really fully solved as we think about long duration space flights to Mars with the current chemical rockets we have.

But in addition to that, they have all kinds of medical experiments going on them, including in the case of Kidd Poteet, he has an implant to help them further understand what's been happening to him physiologically.

Now, five days is, you know, not a particularly long mission by today's standards. We have astronauts who've gone well past a year. We've been talking a lot about that crew, you know, quote/unquote, stranded on the International Space Station and how they will spend a year there. What we find with astronauts who spend a long time in the absence of gravity is you lose a lot of calcium in your bones. Your bones become more brittle and weak. Your cardiovascular system degrades quite a bit. You end up, believe it or not, Anna, I don't fully understand it, except it has something to do with the way fluids are distributed in our systems. But some astronauts experience long- term vision loss, believe it or not.

All these things NASA has been working on throughout the course of the International Space Station. But each time you answer a question, there's another question that comes up. And so this crew was a part of pushing that even further forward.

So, they will be spending a lot of time downloading data for their bodies, if you will, to compare it to what they were like before, what happened during and what happened after to get some good science,

COREN: Janet, just before we go, this, of course, is the first of three planned missions as part of the Polaris program. What is next in store, perhaps for this team?

IVEY: You know, I think for this team, they've got an incredible story to tell. I know that Jared himself is looking forward to, you know, the next two missions that are currently planned. I think, truthfully, it's going to only amp up in kind of like more and more kind of like adventurous kinds of things that they're going to attempt.

[03:50:01]

I mean, when you think about that entire capsule was open to the vacuum of space, it was quite risky for the entire team, but so valuable to learn what is possible in these EVA suits.

So, I think we're going to see amazing kinds of science and other plans. And, you know, I think. I can see that if Jared -- you know, he's got a heart for philanthropy, the millions of dollars that both Inspiration4 and Polaris Dawn have raised for St. Jude's Children's Hospital. I like his idea that whatever the next two missions entail, I think you're going to see them actually by the third mission, they will be even kind of like testing at one of SpaceX new heavier rockets in the future. But, again, I think whatever he's doing out there in space, he still has an eye on benefiting the children of Earth by donating and raising money for St. Jude's Children's Hospital.

So, both of those things are exciting, but I think we'll see different capsules. We'll probably see some different kinds of -- and other kind of science there. And, again, they will be experimenting, I think, by the third one, one of the heavier rockets of SpaceX.

COREN: Well, it really is extraordinary what we have just witnessed, the safe return of Polaris Dawn with that splashed down into the Gulf of Mexico off the Coast of Florida. I'm so pleased we all got to experience it with you, Miles O'Brien and Janet Ivey. Thank you for your expertise and for walking us through it.

Stay with CNN, much more after the break.

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[03:55:00] COREN: The civilian crew of the SpaceX Polaris Dawn are back on Earth. The four astronauts splashed down off the Gulf Coast of Florida moments ago. The mission included the first commercial spacewalk carried out by a civilian crew. It also marked the farthest any human has traveled since NASA's Apollo program ended in 1972.

Well, I'm Anna Coren in Hong Kong. Thank you so much for your company. My colleague, Kim Brunhuber will be here for another hour of CNN newsroom after this short break.

Stay with CNN.

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