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[ Music ]

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>> Welcome to the mission
brief for Flight 168.

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>> We'll taxi into position
at Runway 25.

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We'll go out and make a right
down on the departure towards Daggett VOR.

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>> Going to be taking
off almost on the hour.

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It's 2 minutes prior,
and you're going

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to be making a right hand
turn proceeding to the first

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science point.

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>> What we're looking at is
a galaxy which is known

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to have a super massive
black hole at its center.

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>>What we need to do is to
point the telescope

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at 45 degrees elevation.

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>> If we see this, it'll only be
I think the 3rd time a supernova

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like this has ever
been seen in the mid-infrared.

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[ Music ]

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>> The doors have
been all armed.

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Everyone has been trained
on how to open them.

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As you push the door, make
sure you let it go

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or you will exit a lot
quicker than you wanted to.

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[ Music ]

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[Radio chatter]

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>> I was born in the generation

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where the Apollo astronauts
started to walk on the moon.

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That got me very
excited about wanting

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to be an astronaut myself.

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I think a lot of kids really
wanted to be an astronaut

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when they were younger.

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>> I grew up with the
space shuttle program.

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One of my dreams as a kid
was to become an astronaut.

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>> From 6th grade, when I went to
space camp for the first time.

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I kind of always had this
dream of something with NASA.

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>> When I was young,
I always dreamed

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about being an astronaut,
getting into space.

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It's so exciting that NASA
has given me this opportunity

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to participate in this program.

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>>Now I have an actual
chance to fly.

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On SOFIA.

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>> This is fulfilling that
one...one of my lifelong dreams.

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>> This gives me my chance

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to actually be part
of a NASA mission.

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>> Now, Pamela, are
these nodding

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and chopping things
normal functions?

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>> Yes. Nod, chop, and dither.

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Chop is a secondary mirror.

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Nod is the primary mirror.

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Dither has to do
with the light coming

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down the bore sight to the instrument.

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And they'll move it around so

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where there's a bad
pixel or channel.

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You don't have a
hole in your data.

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>> We have 2 cameras.

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One operates from
5 to 25 microns,

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the other from 25 to 40 microns.

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And with a dichroic beam
splitter, you can image

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in both wave lengths at once.

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>> I like supernovae in
particular because everything

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that we're made of, all the
atoms that you see around us.

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All that was made
inside of a star.

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The universe would be a
boring place without stars.

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So supernovae are
actually responsible

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for everything that's
interesting

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in the universe including
planets

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and people and things like that.

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The way these supernova happen
is these are very massive stars.

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Much more massive than the sun.

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Massive stars just tend to be
very violent, very short lived.

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They throw off a
lot of material.

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And then the shock wave from
the supernova goes out and runs

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into that and heats
all that material up to

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where we can see it again.

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We had detected this

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with another telescope
called Spitzer,

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which is a space telescope.

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But Spitzer doesn't go out as
far in wave length as SOFIA.

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So that's kind of what
we're trying to do here.

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Is get this longer wave
length observation.

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It'll look just like a star if
we end up seeing anything.

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They didn't see anything
last night either.

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>> The scientist who is
investigating the supernova,

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they actually haven't
found any data.

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This is an important
part of science I'm going

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to bring back to the students.

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Is that sometimes
hypotheses are not supported.

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And this is just as important
as if they were supported.

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>> We can turn all
of these things

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into teachable moments
in our classroom.

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Teaching about measurements,
conversions, and units,

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and then real life application
of engineer design process.

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How in the world is this
plane even up in the air

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with the side of it open?

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>> The telescope is actually
run by some gyroscopes.

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The gyroscopes actually
help to keep the pointing

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of the telescope aimed
at the right spot.

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I have a little demonstration
here I'd like to show

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with a toy gyroscope
and my toy airplane.

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By the law of conservation

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of angular momentum, when
the telescope moves one way,

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the gyroscope is going
to move the other way

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to keep everything in balance.

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There we go.

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So now we've got it.

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And I'm going to be jiggling
the airplane a little bit

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to keep it on the board.

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And this motion is very similar
to the motion of the telescope

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and trying to maintain pointing
as the airplane is moving.

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This is a magnetometer
in a bottle.

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And it's a real simple device.

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Anybody can build it.

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It's basically inside the
bottle I have a mirror

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and I have a magnet
hooked on to that mirror.

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And it's hanging by a string.

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Over here on this side,
I have a laser pointer.

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And that laser pointer is
pointing right at that mirror.

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And it's reflecting over to
the card on the back here

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where we have it scaled.

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And so as we travel through the
various latitudes and longitudes

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of the Earth's magnetic field
while we're on the airplane,

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this is going to
move back and forth.

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This is important to
SOFIA because a lot

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of the instruments
are very sensitive

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with the Earth's magnetic field.

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>>So the grism, it splits the light,

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and then it defracts it.
So does it actually take

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and make a finer set of spectra?

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>> The prism itself will
produce the dispersion.

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What the grating does is it
selects the order of how

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that dispersion falls
on the detector.

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The advantage of a
grism is the grism,

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you can use a smaller
optical component

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to get the same dispersion.

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And we can put those grisms
right in the filter wheels.

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Basically, it allows you
to switch back and forth

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between imaging and
spectroscopy on the fly.

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>> In talking to the astronomers

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and astrophysicists
here tonight,

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provided great background
and great context

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for when I integrate a lot
of the engineering challenges

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that go along with
SOFIA into my curriculum.

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>> So there's this
ring of dust and gas

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about 3 light years' radius
around the central cluster,

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that super massive black hole.

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If you look more closely,

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you'll see that there's
these dark bands

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at some fixed distance away
from that central cluster.

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These are some of the contours
from what we took from FORCAST.

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So this is at 37 microns and you
can see that the contours line

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up pretty well with where
those dark bands are located.

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There's no other
observatory that's capable

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of looking at 37 microns.

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But SOFIA is the only
observatory capable

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of getting this information
right now.

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>> This is very exciting to
see the actual data being taken

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and then eventually
being able to be used

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in research papers and research.

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>> We've looked at supernova.

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We looked at a donut
ring around the galaxy.

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We're looking at other
objects in the sky.

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A big red giant and
the discs around it.

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And all of these are
parts of astronomy.

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And astronomy is really amazing
because if you look at it

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in the infrared light, you're
going to see it differently

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than when you look at
it in the visible light.

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We'll be able to take some of
the content we've learned here

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and teach incoming 7th,
8th, and 9th graders.

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At Air Camp U.S.A. all

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about the infrared spectrum, different aspects

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to the engineer design
process with AFRL

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at Wright-Patt in Dayton, Ohio.

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And then also be able to show
other applications of mapping,

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of flight plans, the integration
of the total systems.

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>> One of the things

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that I always thought was
just incredible was the idea

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of just exploration for the sake
of exploration and to learn more

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about our origins or
possibly where we're going.

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If my students were
here tonight,

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I would say that this
SOFIA mission proves

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that there is a purpose
to learning.

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There are so many
applications in math, science,

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and engineering that are being
demonstrated here this evening.

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That there are practical
applications for things

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that you wouldn't ordinarily
think that you would use.

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So it's kind of nice that I can
use this as a reference point

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when my students
say, Mr. Jenkins,

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why are we learning this?

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And I can give them
a specific example

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and I could even tell them
some of the wonderful people

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that we've worked with tonight.

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To accomplish this
wonderful exploration.

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>> The kids have sent
me a lot of emails.

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And they're just really
anxious for me to get back

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and tell them all
about this opportunity.

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I would definitely want
to share to them all

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of the different
people that are involved

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in getting this flight
off the ground.

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I think it's amazing how
many paths people take

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to come work at NASA.

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How there's so many
different jobs

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and how well coordinated it is

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to get this aircraft
off the ground

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and to get the science running

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and to get the telescope
running,

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and to collect the data and
everything that's involved

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so that they realize that this
is not just a one-man operation,

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that NASA

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is a lot of different
people with a lot

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of different backgrounds
coming together

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and getting this science done.