>>Mark Kelly: Well, flying in space is an
incredible privilege.
I mean, I am very thankful that I had the
opportunity to do that not once, but four
times, and I -- you know, I really treasure
every day I've got to spend in space.
My -- the part I like the most is the rocket
launch.
[ Laughter ]
>>Mark Kelly: I mean, you can't --
>>John Battelle: The G forces.
>>Mark Kelly: Well, it's not the G forces.
It's the matter that you climb into this rocket
ship about three hours before liftoff, you're
laying on your back, you got all this stuff
you got to turn on, the countdown clock is
heading towards zero.
Six seconds, the main engines start.
You don't go anywhere because you're literally
bolted to the launchpad.
Then the clock hits zero, those bolts explode,
solid rocket boosters light.
It's literally like the hand of God coming
down and ripping you off the planet.
Incredible amount of vibration.
You accelerate from zero to 17,500 miles an
hour in just 8 1/2 minutes.
Two minutes into the flight -- you guys have
seen this -- the solids come off.
They go in the ocean.
NASA goes and picks those up, reuses them.
I think they're only slightly more expensive
to reuse.
[ Laughter ]
>>Mark Kelly: And then we continue to go uphill.
At the end of that 8 1/2 minutes, the tank
comes off and you're whipping around the planet
every -- every 90 minutes.
And it's amazing to see this big blue marble
just floating in the blackness of space, no
strings attached.
You know, just as a globe.
It's just an incredible experience.
Hope to get to do it again sometime.
