Caroline Hyde

Sana, it's been a busy week.

Thanks for joining us.

Sana Vashankar there, our space reporter.

Let's get even more with Laurie Leshin.

She's a professor of space future at Arizona State University, former head of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, first woman ever to do that.

And just the scale of the anxiety as we wait for them for this splashdown at 5 p.m.

Pacific time, 8 p.m.

here in New York.

Yeah, I mean, it's definitely one of those pins and needles moments.

We tend to, you know, it's a little bit like waiting in line for a roller coaster.

You're both nervous and excited.

We're so thrilled to have the astronauts coming back down.

But it is going to be a pins and needles moment for sure until they are safely back on the ship after they land in the ocean.

Talk about some of the numbers here.

10 metric ton Orion capsule.

about twice the mass of the Apollo capsule, as you put it, Laurie.

And what speeds are they hitting?

And how hard is this to scientifically ensure that the heat protection's there?

Yeah, so it is.

It's a 10 metric ton capsule, about twice the mass of Apollo when it, you know, reentered the atmosphere.