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>> There is another first

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for the International Space
Station coming up today.

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The next Progress vehicle
is due to not only launch

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from the Baikonur Cosmodrome
this afternoon but to dock

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to the International
Space Station tonight.

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It will be the first time that a
vehicle has launched and docked

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to the station at the same time.

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We're going to get
an update on --

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all of the preparations for
that and the reasons behind it

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on the Expedition 32 Lead
Flight Director Dina Contella.

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Dina, thanks for
taking a few minutes.

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Set the stage for us.

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All previous progresses in
Soyuz have taken about two days

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to get to the station.

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Presumably there's a very good
reason that they've done so.

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What is it?

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>> Well, there's
several good reasons.

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So the first is, it takes a --

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you have a lot longer time
between the launch and the time

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that you dock and so that adds a
lot of flexibility to the plan.

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For example if you had a booster
dispersion or you had some need

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to do more ground tracking
to narrow in on the Nav state

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or if you had a failure that
you wanted to analyze prior

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to the plan docking time.

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Then you would have
more time to do so.

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One of the major reasons
has to do with the location

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of ISS relative to
the launch site.

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In the case of a two day
rendezvous you have a lot longer

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time to basically
allow the vehicle --

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the two vehicles to meet up so
for the launch vehicle to catch

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up to the Space Station.

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If you try to hurry that scheme
then as ISS flies over it has

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to be in a very more
specific location relative

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to the launch location
and so that can help --

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that tends to narrow your
launch opportunity capability.

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So that's another reason why
four orbit scheme is a little

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bit more difficult.

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Four orbit being this you know,

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flight day one tend
to rendezvous.

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So and then, you know,

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additionally what
this does associated

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with the launch window
is it gives us fewer days

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that we can actually meet our
launch window, our opportunity.

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We try to make sure that
the orbital plane is aligned

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with the launch site and so we
already have that constraint

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and when you narrow this window
of opportunity where ISS is,

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you know, more directly above
the launch site then you end

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up with fewer days
that you can launch.

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So for example with the
34 Orbit longer scheme,

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this two day scheme you
can launch about two

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out of every three days
on a Soyuz, you know,

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that's when all the
parameters all line up.

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>> As you say, you had
more time after launch then

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to refine the approach to
make adjustments in order

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to bring the two
vehicles together.

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>> Well, that's true.

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That's true and also of
course, that, you know,

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it affects your opportunity
for launch.

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So you know, you can't
launch when ISS is

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on the other side of the world.

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They get more flexibility

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if you have a lot
longer rendezvous scheme

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versus if you have
a much shorter one.

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>> More time to make
up the difference.

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>> That's right.

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Exactly.

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>> What advantages then are --

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could be gained from
doing it this way

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and doing it on the same day?

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>> Well, so this is the
intended applicability for this.

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It's actually for the Soyuz
which is what, you know,

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we use to carry the --
to carry our crew members

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to the space station.

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And so there is a few advantages
from a human perspective.

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First of all, the Soyuz
vehicle, you know,

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if you get there faster, you
can imagine the crew discomfort

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being in a cramped vehicle,
and would be reduced.

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And also the vehicle
itself, it does a solar --

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it doesn't do a solar
spin attitude for part

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of it's trajectory on the
way to the Space Station

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so it has a very -- it has a
spin associated with it which,

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you know, is not
necessarily always noticeable

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but it could be, it could cause
more discomfort for the crew.

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>> I don't think most
people are aware of that.

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This is not a fast spin.

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>> No, no, it's not.

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It's just something that allows
for better pointing to the sun

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for power generation but it's
not like an extremely fast spin.

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It's just something that some
crew members have noticed

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in the past as something
that in this period

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of space adaptation right
after launch it would be better

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if they were in more
stable environment.

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So trying to get to the
amenities of ISS, you know,

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with the full toilet and a sleep
station and all those things,

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you know, trying to get there
in a hurry, you could see

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that there would be
an advantage to that.

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And from a vehicle perspective
you have a limited number

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of consumables on board the
Soyuz so if you save some

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of those type of
life support type

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of consumables then you would
have that on the back end.

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So after Soyuz docks
now you have some margin

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in case you need
it for, you know,

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after undocking then
you would have more life

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support capability.

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So there are a few
advantages to doing this

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with the four orbit
scheme as well.

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>> I think that we've
heard in the past that one

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of the advantages of the
longer trip of two days was

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to give crew members
an opportunity

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to become adapted
to the environment.

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I suppose they can do that
adaptation in a larger area.

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>> Well, that's true.

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And so we still have
kind of a lot of work

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to make sure we understand
exactly the space adaptation

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piece of it.

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You know, I think
getting there sooner

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in this particular case
it's much, much sooner

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and we were talking we launch
and then six hours later you're

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at the Space Station
so it could be

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that you actually arrive
before you are really

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into a space adaptation
situation, you know,

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as opposed to something
in between.

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So anyway, but our astronaut
core will be looking at this

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from a Soyuz perspective
pretty carefully

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to make sure we understand,
you know, are we going

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to get an opportunity
to have the comers get

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out of their SoCal suits, their
space suits, in this time frame

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and we have a few
questions associated with it

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but probability all in all

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from a crew comfort standpoint
there could be some advantages.

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>> And as you say, the ultimate
design here is to use this

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for Soyuz is not
to necessarily use

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if for progresses all the time.

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This is a test.

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>> That's exactly right.

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Its intended applicability
like I said, is for the Soyuz.

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They have done -- they have
done some testing on Progresses

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and their going to
do more testing

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on Progresses before
we try it on the Soyuz.

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So it will be closer
to more than a year

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out before we would even
attempt it with the Soyuz.

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>> From the point of you
and your team in this room,

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how does it change your
preparations in getting ready

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and executing what's
going to happen today?

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>> Well, from the mission
control standpoint, you know,

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we've had a trajectory
off a Soyuz

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and visiting officers have
been studying the situation

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and working with the Russian
colleagues for quite some time.

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So the sort of preparation
leading

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up to today has been
pretty extensive.

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But, you know, we're ready
and our, both our trajectory

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and our visiting
vehicle folks are going

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to be carefully monitoring the
progress of the Progress today.

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And from this standpoint,
you know,

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if anything it's a much
shorter shift, you know,

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instead of two days it's a day.

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So it's going to be interesting
to see it all happen in one day.

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Also from a planning perspective
with our crew members

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for a docking, we typically
would have our crew awake

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and so we have six
crew members on board.

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Three of them are Russian

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and those three Russians
are sleep-shifting

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and so they're going
to go to bed

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at a different time then
our US crew members.

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This is kind of a new
way to do business.

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And then our US crew members
are going to have a sleep period

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through the docking time frame
that are going to get up just

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to see the docking just in
case some contingency happens

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and that sort of thing and
just to monitor the docking.

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So we are doing what's
called a split shift

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and so it's a little bit
different and stuff but,

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you know, our planners have
been working very closely

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with the Russian planners
and trying to make sure

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that we don't accidentally
wake up the Russian crew

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when they're asleep, when
we're done docking the US crew

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and trying to make sure that
the activities and, you know,

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we have a Russian crew member
that sleeps in the US segment

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and try to make sure that we
don't do any activities right

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in his module and
that sort of thing.

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So there have been a
few other preparations

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that I would consider
non-standard.

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But we're actually learning
there is some advantages

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to doing this and it really
helps our US crew members

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to not have to sleep-shift
and sleep-shift back

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and that sort of thing.

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So we are seeing, we're finding
a lot out that actually we

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like about this scheme.

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>> Would you imagine
then that this afternoon

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and this evening what
actually gets done

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in this room is the same as what
was done before just shorter?

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>> That's exactly right.

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So the change here is really
in the first two orbits,

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the first two orbits of the
Progress and then around two

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and a half hours or so prior

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to the docking everything
becomes standard.

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So it's exactly the
same rendezvous

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that we've always done and
it's the same for the crew,

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there are no new procedures,
no training differences

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or anything like that.

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So really what's changed
is the first two orbits.

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We're getting there faster and
we're getting up to the point

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of the automated rendezvous
docking sequence a lot faster.

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And nothing after
that has changed.

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So I anticipate that watching
the rendezvous docking will be

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just like any other rendezvous
docking case that we've had

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and we're just extremely
interested

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in seeing this first
couple orbits

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and making sure that
that goes well.

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I do want to mention this.

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Those first two orbits that
at the 47 Progress launch,

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they did try a scheme like this
with a similar ground targeting

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but of course they took the full
amount of time to get there,

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the full 34 orbits
to get to station.

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But they did do some testing
on the 47 Progress launch.

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So I'm feeling like this
should probably go well today.

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>> I assume that at some
point, or up to some point

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that you could change
your mind and go back

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to the regular two day approach.

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Yeah, so we have had a lot
of discussions about that

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and we are absolutely ready to
download to a 34 orbit scheme.

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We have all of our analysis in
place for all of our solar rays

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and we are definitely
good to go.

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That would put it on Friday,
that would put our docking

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on Friday and our
team is prepared to go

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and execute that plan as well.

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So if our Russian colleagues
get uncomfortable or they find

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that they can't do the scheme

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that they had planned then
our plan is just to download

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to a nominal standard
docking timeframe.

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>> Is there some
deadline by which you have

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to make that decision?

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>> Well, you know, I talked
about two and a half hours prior

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to the start of docking
is when they kick

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of the automated rendezvous
and docking sequence.

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And so really, any time up to
then we could make that call.

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It could be that right
away that aside, you know,

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they have some sort of issue
with the ground targeting

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or something like that and
then we all know in advance.

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And then it could be that you're
leading right up to the event

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and you realize that, you know,
maybe you're not in the spot

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that you had anticipated
that you would be

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and so it's time to call it off.

243
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And then once you get into
the automated rendezvous

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and docking sequence you
can always call it off

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at that point just as we always
can with standard aborts.

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00:10:17,210 --> 00:10:18,210
>> As we learned last week.

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>> That's right, exactly.

248
00:10:20,120 --> 00:10:21,850
>> So everything -- at this
point everything is still

249
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on schedule and ready to go?

250
00:10:23,350 --> 00:10:26,580
>> Yes. So this morning we
did what's called a optimal

251
00:10:26,580 --> 00:10:28,710
propellant maneuver
which is a new maneuver

252
00:10:28,710 --> 00:10:30,950
that we just happened to have
a new maneuver associated

253
00:10:30,950 --> 00:10:35,880
with the same Progress vehicle
where we flew a trajectory

254
00:10:35,880 --> 00:10:40,230
which is a very propellant smart
trajectory which helps us save

255
00:10:40,230 --> 00:10:42,470
on our propellant and --

256
00:10:42,470 --> 00:10:44,790
>> You're talking about
the station's trajectory?

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00:10:44,790 --> 00:10:45,800
>> The station, that right.

258
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So the Space Station
and it had to go

259
00:10:47,590 --> 00:10:49,410
through a very large maneuver.

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It's pretty unusual for us but
because of the way the vehicle,

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00:10:52,760 --> 00:10:54,300
the drag on the vehicle
it's very,

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very limited atmosphere that's
up there, we are able to send --

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00:10:57,900 --> 00:10:59,780
we did send a bunch
of series of commands

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to maneuver the station's very
propellant optimal trajectory

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and it was the first
time we had done that.

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00:11:05,500 --> 00:11:07,540
We did it this morning
with no issues at all.

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So we're very excited,
we're in -- we're basically,

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00:11:10,120 --> 00:11:12,770
mostly in the -- in our
attitude that is needed

269
00:11:12,770 --> 00:11:16,040
for the docking tonight and
all the other preparations are

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00:11:16,040 --> 00:11:17,250
going fine.

271
00:11:17,250 --> 00:11:19,840
>> Great. Dina, thanks for
the -- thanks for the update.

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I appreciate it.