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here with me today i have

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nasa astronaut mike fossum who is a

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veteran of three space flights

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welcome mike thank you for coming and

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coming to talk with us basically he's uh

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three space flights two of them were

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aboard the uh space shuttle and then one

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more recently was aboard a soyuz so he

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knows what that ride is like and so he's

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here to talk to us about that and

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actually today as of today's exactly one

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month since you landed correct after 167

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days in space that's right 167 days in

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space we landed a month ago exactly and

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uh it's great to be in mission control

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watching uh

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uh

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don and his crew take off and head up to

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the space station don was my backup six

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months ago when we launched and so we

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spent a lot of time training around the

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globe together and it's really exciting

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to be in here this morning with his

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special guests in the viewing room to

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watch the launch and kind of relive it

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for me

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and that was an early morning for you i

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suppose huh

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you bet it's an early day but that's

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okay

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all right well um let's just talk about

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that launch experience if you will um

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let's start by what's your day begin i

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mean how is how is that morning

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well your days really get messed up uh

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during that time as you're leading up to

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the launch because for them the launch

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was uh

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uh you know it was night when they

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launched roughly and i don't know the

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local time there it was about 6 20 in

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the in the evening seven no seven about

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7 30 or so 7 20 in the evening anyway so

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that they're about 12 hours out from

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houston and they uh so this one wasn't

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too bad they didn't have to do that much

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of a sleep shift but

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but they the the days are just busy and

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they'll usually will take a nap because

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the day ends up being when they launch

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that time of evening they'll be really

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busy late into the night so they'll take

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a nap before launch which is a little

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hard to do but you are kind of tired

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from the launch preparations

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we go to baikonur cosmodrome in

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kazakhstan about two weeks before launch

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to go through the fit checks and final

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launch preparations it's also a

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quarantine period where we're isolated

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from other people that haven't been

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screened by doctors to help make sure

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that we don't launch with a cold or flu

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or something like that because that

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would be really miserable and could

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affect the mission

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so it's a quarantined period it's also a

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preparation period

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and it all builds up

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uh you know to the launch day

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which really you know gets started in

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earnest

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about five hours before launch as you're

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going through some of the things there's

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a

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your room

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you sign the door and we saw the video

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of the of the guys signing the doors

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they left this morning and don and his

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uh

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typical way he has a lot of fun doing

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this uh and and it's neat to see the

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history that are on these doors as each

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person gets to add his signature and the

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date of the launch

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uh to the door and so these the room

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that you stay in and the door to that

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room becomes part of the space record

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which is kind of a neat thing that must

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be pretty exciting and i'm just even

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just seeing that door i'm here we're

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seeing some footage of that that was

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taken earlier this morning but

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being able to see some of your other

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crew members i mean your your colleagues

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you know their names up there you bet

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you bet and so is uh mickey and the boys

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were there with them and you know your

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spouse's families are there as part of

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that as you're actually signing the door

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and and then walking out for the there's

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a ceremonial greeting with a russian

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orthodox priest who gives you a blessing

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as you head out the door it's a

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it's really a special time and the whole

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the whole process is is just

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awash in traditions as you walk out of

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the building playing the music i don't

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know what that music is but it's really

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cool and

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of course today it was really cold but

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the family and friends you guests that

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have come to the other side of the globe

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or there to uh to

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wave you know wave to you

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and then finally you get on the buses

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and you leave the

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quarantine facility what we call the

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cosmonaut hotel

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and head out toward the

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the launch facility where we you know go

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through the final preparations get in

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the suits and we go as part of the suit

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up then there's a pressure check of each

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suit to verify the integrity and make

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sure that it's all ready and this is all

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part of the part of the process that you

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go through one after the other

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uh

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getting through there and a little bit

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of an oddity with this

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is that it actually takes place in front

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of a large um a viewing gallery and so

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there's family

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uh friends and sometimes some press that

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are just a few feet away you know

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watching as we go through this process

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of inflating the suit

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to about uh

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40 of regular atmospheric pressure and

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make sure that it holds uh that it holds

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tight

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and uh it's i mean there's there's

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symbolism involved but it's of course

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very practical just to make sure there's

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no problems and at this point they still

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have time to deal with anything that

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comes up uh and now before you leave

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there then there's there is one last

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opportunity to uh to talk to your

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families through the glass and it's a

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it's a really special time and and

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once that's done it's time to walk out

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and and uh this is a very you know

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historic uh imagery here of the russian

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space program is that the whole crew

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walks out another the head of the

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russian space agency mr propulsion is

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there and uh so the crew checks in and

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basically says hey boss we're uh

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the crew is uh prepared and ready to go

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and it's uh it's really a neat thing of

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course the

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family friends and members of the press

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are watching from uh from alongside

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there

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and uh it's it's kind of an iconic image

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so here you're on the bus here when you

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do leave and you're heading out that way

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what are your thoughts

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well your thoughts are you know all the

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years of training and uh you know party

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is still coming to grips with the fact

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that we're we're finally here we're

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finally heading to the launch pad of

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course six months ago you know uh you

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know american don pettit was my backup

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and he went out all the way to the pad

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with me

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and uh you know realistically once you

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get suited up you know who's going that

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day but as you step up to the rocket

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then of course a fueled rocket is

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different than an inert one that's

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laying on the ground it's hissing

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breathing there's this uh you know

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kind of a

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fog

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associated with the cold cryogenic fuel

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tanks that's uh that's rolling off of

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the vehicle

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uh and it's uh it's really neat as you

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you stand on the steps here right at the

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foot of the rocket you go up about 20 or

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so steps on this ladder to get to the

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elevator that takes you to the top and

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it's one last pause waving back at the

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manager's family don't go out to the

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rocket with you

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but you're just kind of waving goodbye

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and then you get on a very tiny

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little elevator that takes you up to the

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top you know the uh for me it was it was

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striking because the soyuz rocket is uh

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is significantly smaller than the space

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shuttle

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with which i had the most experience

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and i remember the first time i saw the

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full up soyuz rocket and spacecraft wow

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that really seems different and of

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course it is

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but it it's really good at hauling you

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know people and a few hundred pounds of

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equipment

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it's very efficient for that but you're

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in there tight it's your hip to hip

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shoulder to shoulder in the

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in the capsule the descent module

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as the rocket starts to roar to life it

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seems to take a long time as the engines

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come up to full speed

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and uh and everything kicks in and then

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it uh the whole way of being on the pad

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is different than uh than what we're

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used to

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but it's a gentle lift off and it

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doesn't have i mean it's fairly smooth

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it doesn't have the kind of popping and

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crackling that we're used to from solid

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rocket boosters

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and it you know it accelerates smoothly

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off the pad

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it's a lot quieter inside than you would

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think you know you think looking at all

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this

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flames and rockets that it ought to be

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really noisy and stuff but you just

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don't notice that there's a dull roar

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back there but it's it's not as bad

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and as the rocket starts to climb of

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course you're burning fuel and so the

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acceleration increases

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and it you get pushed back into the

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seats

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with more and more

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force uh at about two minutes these

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there's some boosters that are strapped

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on and they burn out and fall away

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and it's a it's a very subtle change you

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feel a little drop off in the in the in

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the acceleration forces

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uh the the big change comes in about

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five minutes when the first or they call

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it stage two or second stage but it's

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really the first main rocket body when

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it burns out and separates for

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momentarily there's

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you're in weightless

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all of a sudden this this force it's a

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and i don't remember the exact number

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it's about three g's it's pushing on you

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and then very abruptly that force stops

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and you're kind of lurched in the in the

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straps and then

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stage three the next rocket kicks in and

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boom pushes you back into the seat

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and as you continue on the way

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so the whole process just takes

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it's about nine minutes from sitting

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still

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you know on the step kind of of

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kazakhstan to being in orbit and it's a

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it's all very fast uh you know it takes

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a little bit longer than the shuttle is

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about eight and a half minutes

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uh and so this is about nine minutes and

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uh but once i get to orbit it's still a

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very busy time because you're you're

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busy i mean they're they're still going

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through some of the vehicle checks and

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some of the the orbit maneuvers uh that

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are associated with uh with just

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starting the whole

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chase down you know of the space station

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well talk about that a little bit um

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what what why is that important i mean

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how and why does it take you two days to

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get caught up to the international space

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right well it's it's it's just part of

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the design really on on how we we just

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chase it down

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we intentionally launch into an orbit

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that's just a little below the space

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station which means we go around the

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earth a little faster so we're literally

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chasing it down this morning as the as

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the soyuz was launching from kazakhstan

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the space station was over south america

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and and of course that looks wrong

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because you think that the space station

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should be coming overhead and we should

302
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be going straight to it but that's just

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not the way it works and it it by having

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a difference

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it just allows us to it's kind of

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methodically

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uh maneuver and and join up to and so we

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launched into an orbit that's just a

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little under the space station so we're

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going a little faster and so we'll be

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chasing it down and docking takes place

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just about 50 hours after launch so

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we'll be docking you know central time

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it'll be a

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for the actual docking

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well well that sounds very exciting and

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so um also just something else you know

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so you you launch on the soyuz but also

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while you were there aboard the

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international space station serving as

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the commander you actually watched a

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launch as well so tell me what is that

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experience to knowing that hey i'm you

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know the rest of my crew is coming and

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what is that like well we had we had

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some delay in that there was some you

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know a little bit of space drama

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going on for us when the russian

329
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progress cargo ship uh did not reach

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orbit in august it uh they had a

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malfunction and it it went down

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and that rocket is basically the same

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rocket that carries humans upon the

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soyuz spacecraft

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and so that that that changed things uh

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the uh

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ron guerin uh sasha and andre uh they

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extended their stay by just a little bit

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and when it was time for them to come

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home then we just had a crew of three

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for a couple of months

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and we're

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uh

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dan anton and anatoly were

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originally scheduled to be up there

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um

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you know two months ago just a very

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short gap and instead we had a longer

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time with just three people so it was

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really busy the space station takes a

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certain amount of care and feeding and

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we were working hard to keep up with the

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science program and keep everything on

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track which is the three and not the six

355
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that you were shorthanded absolutely so

356
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it was it was a very busy time but you

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know we were by then we were you know

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fully up to speed because we'd been in

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space for a few months so we were ready

360
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for that and it was it was a challenge

361
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getting everything ready uh for uh dan

362
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burbank and his crewmates to arrive you

363
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know late as

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if you will

365
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and they arrived really six days before

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we left

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and so we had a very short overlap time

368
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or hand over time

369
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it was really busy

370
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we

371
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dan burbank and i joke about not

372
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sleeping during that time because there

373
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was just so much to hand over so much to

374
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talk about

375
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but it was exciting when as we were

376
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preparing

377
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and

378
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we were actually sending down videos to

379
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help with the training or the handover

380
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of the different things that we do that

381
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on on the space station part of it's the

382
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normal you know just cleaning and

383
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cleaning filters and and water samples

384
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and also payload operations and

385
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different stuff so it was really neat to

386
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uh when it was finally launched day as

387
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we gathered uh in the

388
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the aft end of the of the the us

389
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laboratory at a computer screen where

390
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they were uplinking uh streaming the

391
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video up to watch them and so we're

392
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cheering and of course uh you know that

393
00:13:35,030 --> 00:13:33,279
was just wow that was just five weeks

394
00:13:36,629 --> 00:13:35,040
ago it's hard to believe

395
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and they were they launched in a

396
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blizzard it was unbelievable

397
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a little different than your your

398
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condition since you launched on june 7th

399
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in the summer correct we launched in the

400
00:13:47,509 --> 00:13:45,839
summertime it was it was it was nice it

401
00:13:50,069 --> 00:13:47,519
was a little warm but it was nice and i

402
00:13:51,430 --> 00:13:50,079
i couldn't believe uh you know what the

403
00:13:52,470 --> 00:13:51,440
conditions were like when they launched

404
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but it was

405
00:13:56,470 --> 00:13:54,000
you know that today's launch of course

406
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was beautiful it was cold you know but

407
00:14:01,189 --> 00:13:59,199
clear and looked really looked great

408
00:14:02,870 --> 00:14:01,199
great well thanks so much for sharing

409
00:14:05,350 --> 00:14:02,880
with us again um you've been sharing

410
00:14:07,030 --> 00:14:05,360
with us since you before you left and

411
00:14:08,870 --> 00:14:07,040
you're still sharing with us but uh

412
00:14:11,750 --> 00:14:08,880
you've been blogging and so for those of

413
00:14:13,750 --> 00:14:11,760
you who want to hear more about um

414
00:14:15,189 --> 00:14:13,760
mike fossum's experience there he talks

415
00:14:16,470 --> 00:14:15,199
about the launch he also talks about

416
00:14:18,949 --> 00:14:16,480
watching the launch waiting for the

417
00:14:21,030 --> 00:14:18,959
launch the delay of the launch

418
00:14:23,269 --> 00:14:21,040
um all of those things you can see at um

419
00:14:24,949 --> 00:14:23,279
his on his blog called titled uh living

420
00:14:27,350 --> 00:14:24,959
the dream where he chronicled his space

421
00:14:30,550 --> 00:14:27,360
flight experience and you can get to

422
00:14:33,829 --> 00:14:30,560
that at www.nasa.gov

423
00:14:36,150 --> 00:14:33,839
or i'm sorry blogs.nasa.gov okay thanks

424
00:14:38,310 --> 00:14:36,160
again for coming for uh to talk with us

425
00:14:39,990 --> 00:14:38,320
and i you know again it is a very

426
00:14:41,670 --> 00:14:40,000
exciting time and it's nice to be able

427
00:14:43,430 --> 00:14:41,680
to see that excitement and

428
00:14:45,670 --> 00:14:43,440
how are you feeling now being back i

429
00:14:47,829 --> 00:14:45,680
mean just only a month

430
00:14:49,990 --> 00:14:47,839
i feel great you know it's uh we go

431
00:14:51,189 --> 00:14:50,000
right now going through medical testing

432
00:14:52,710 --> 00:14:51,199
um to

433
00:14:54,710 --> 00:14:52,720
a lot of what we

434
00:14:56,790 --> 00:14:54,720
a lot of the science that we do involves

435
00:14:59,509 --> 00:14:56,800
us actually serving as the guinea pig

436
00:15:01,269 --> 00:14:59,519
for different muscle and bone studies

437
00:15:03,189 --> 00:15:01,279
and so going through that and

438
00:15:04,629 --> 00:15:03,199
rehabilitation very interesting so i

439
00:15:06,870 --> 00:15:04,639
guess we can still follow you because

440
00:15:08,310 --> 00:15:06,880
you you are you have been tweeting so

441
00:15:10,870 --> 00:15:08,320
perhaps you're you'll share some of

442
00:15:13,750 --> 00:15:10,880
those experiences as well of how he gets

443
00:15:14,949 --> 00:15:13,760
adjusted back to earth you bet and that

444
00:15:17,990 --> 00:15:14,959
is on

445
00:15:22,389 --> 00:15:20,389
astro underscore aggie

446
00:15:24,470 --> 00:15:22,399
thanks again for coming mike you bet

447
00:15:26,710 --> 00:15:24,480
thanks amiko thank you good to be here

448
00:15:28,629 --> 00:15:26,720
and happy holidays to you union you too

449
00:15:31,350 --> 00:15:28,639
and uh thanks for everybody for watching

450
00:15:33,269 --> 00:15:31,360
nasa tv it's a great time in the space

451
00:15:35,430 --> 00:15:33,279
program here where we've got the next

452
00:15:37,350 --> 00:15:35,440
the next crew heading up to the space

453
00:15:39,430 --> 00:15:37,360
station to get back up to a full crew of

454
00:15:41,350 --> 00:15:39,440
six and we're cheering them and

455
00:15:43,590 --> 00:15:41,360
supporting them as best we can from here