[Baldwin:] You know what, I have to give a lot of you credit, because a lot of you helped us capture this story, this history here today. The farewell flight of the space shuttle Discovery. We got all kinds of i-Reports all up and down the East Coast as the space shuttle essentially rode piggy back on a modified 747 to its new home, the Smithsonian Museum in Chantilly, Virginia. That's right near Dulles. This video, this was taken in Cocoa Beach, Florida, by i-Reporter Cicely Johnson. Just listen. And then you can hear some people, look at them just oohing and ahhing, taking pictures, I know I would be, as they're watching this thing loop around the National Mall a couple of times before it landed there in Washington this morning. The site wowed Washington for 45 minutes. Finally making there you go a picture perfect landing in Dulles. John Zarrella was there for the discovery play by play, at least on the Florida side of things this morning. He's joining me live there at Kennedy. John, I was up with you this morning. I tell you, I was watching, I was tweeting, I was oohing and ahhing myself from the comfort of my own home. Just paint the picture for us what is was like being there. Who was there at Kennedy?
[John Zarrella, Cnn Correspondent:] Yes, well, you know, it was just surreal because you see that vehicle on the back of the 747. And they drove down they road down the runway and they stopped midpoint on the runway before taking off so that all of the bus loads of NASA employees, former space shuttle workers could see it. You had the six member crew from STS 133, that February 24th mission, a year, 14 months ago, they were on hand. And, you know, in fact, I was with Rob Bob Cabana, the director of the Kennedy Space Center, four-time shuttle flyer, flew as the pilot on Discovery twice. His first flight ever was on Discovery. And we were talking just as Discovery lifted off behind us. And you could see him he had said to me, he said, you know, John, I thought that I was past this. That I wouldn't well up. I wouldn't get teary eyed. But he did because, you know, we keep using that word bittersweet, but it really is.
[Baldwin:] I know. It's the perfect word.
[Zarrella:] So many jobs lost here. And, you know, it's just a sad time here on the space coast. You know, great for the Smithsonian getting this spectacular vehicle.
[Baldwin:] Yes.
[Zarrella:] Thirty-nine missions, 148 million miles flown. But tough here for a lot of people.
[Baldwin:] No, I know it is tough and bittersweet is, you know, albeit cliche, it's the perfect word for this occasion. I want to talk to you about the future of space flight in just a moment, but I know you were tagging teaming this thing with Lizzie O'Leary, who was on the ground in Washington.
[Zarrella:] Yes.
[Baldwin:] And I tell you, my brother works on Capitol Hill and I said, get outside. Go take a look. Tell me a little bit about the fight. I mean didn't it circle the National Mall some three times before landing at Dulles?
[Zarrella:] It took for like forever, you know. It left here just before 7:00 a.m. Eastern Time. And, boy, it was four hours. I looked at it. It was about four hours and 10 minutes almost on the nose to the time it touched down. And at one point it came in very low over Dulles. And I'm looking at it and I'm on the air with Carol Costello and I'm like, you know, the landing gear aren't down, so it's not landing this time. So it was almost like an extra fly-by that they got. And I had been told early on, you know, nobody knew exactly what to expect. A lot was going to be determined by, you know, how much air traffic was in the area and exactly what the crew of on board there was able to do as far as flying it all over Washington.
[Baldwin:] Yes.
[Zarrella:] And what a spectacular show for everybody up there.
[Baldwin:] Amazing. And people were tweeting me. They were stopping along the highways. You know, on top of friend's rooftops in apartment buildings and that kind of thing.
[Zarrella:] Yes.
[Baldwin:] We're work on getting, I know, the curator from the Smithsonian. It's going to end up at the Chantilly facility for the Air and Space Museum. Do you know when folks will be able to finally see this in person, John?
[Zarrella:] Yes, just a couple of days. What's today? I've lost track. Wednesday right. Today's
[Baldwin:] Today's Tuesday.
[Zarrella:] It will be Friday. This Friday.
[Baldwin:] OK.
[Zarrella:] Today's Tuesday. OK. I've been up since 3:00 this morning. I've already forgotten what day it is.
[Baldwin:] We'll forgive you. We'll forgive you. So in a couple of days.
[Zarrella:] Yes, Friday. They'll be able to start going through it on Friday. They'll have Enterprise, which is there. They've got to get it out and then it will go on back of that 747 because they're flying that up to New York because eventually it's going to be over there at the Intrepid Air and Sea Museum, where it will be on display.
[Baldwin:] Right. Right.
[Zarrella:] So next week next week they're flying that out. And I think it's going to be like barged up the Hudson River at some point. That's going to be pretty cool too.
[Baldwin:] Awesome. Well, then I can't wait to see that as well. In the meantime, while I still have you, I do want to talk the future of space.
[Zarrella:] Yes.
[Baldwin:] You know, as commercial space grows space
[Zarrella:] Sure.
[Baldwin:] I know they're testing out, what is it, the dragon at the end of this month.
[Zarrella:] Yes.
[Baldwin:] What is NASA's role as we really look forward?
[Zarrella:] You know, you look forward, it's split now. What NASA did was they decided that they were going to go in a different direction. Get out of the low earth orbit business, turn all that over to the commercial companies as soon as quickly as possible. So SpaceX, Orbital, Blue Horizon, you know, Blue Origins, a bunch of these different companies are vying to start taking humans to the International Space Station. Two weeks from now, Elon Musk, SpaceX, seems to be in the driver's seat ahead of everybody else at this point.
[Baldwin:] Yes.
[Zarrella:] They're going to be flying and trying to rendezvous and berth with the International Space Station. No commercial company in history has ever accomplished that. Then he'll start taking cargo and eventually these commercial companies will start taking humans back and forth to the Space Station by the 2016 timetable. What this does, Brooke, is it frees up NASA's limited resources so that they can start doing what they have always done best.
[Baldwin:] So we can get some boot prints on Mars?
[Zarrella:] Right.
[Baldwin:] Yes.
[Zarrella:] Go to Mars. Go to an asteroid. Do the things that NASA's always done best. Put people on the moon, right? I mean that's the marquee.
[Baldwin:] John Zarrella, I look forward to covering those stories with you, sir, when we're talking boot prints on Mars in our lifetime.
[Zarrella:] It will be a lot of fun. A lot of fun. Yes.
[Baldwin:] John, thank you. Coming up, another event that makes us stop and watch. Certainly a car chase. There it was. This is Kentucky. Went through three countries. But it's the end that you want to watch.