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joining me here on console is quincy

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harp who is the mission designer for the

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htv activities thanks for joining us

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quincy ah thanks for having me here so

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first of all i think this is the first

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time i've heard of a mission designer it

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sounds very glamorous can you explain to

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us just a little bit about what that job

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entails sure thing well in robotics

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we've kind of got uh two kind of

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positions we've got our lead robotics

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officer and his primary job is to

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integrate with the rest of the team and

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for this mission his name is john

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bellingham he's actually canadian and he

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works with us through this canadian

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space agency and my job is the mission

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designer and in that position we

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basically look at the requirements of

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where hardware comes up or where entire

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vehicles come up and where they need to

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be installed and we design the path in

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between those two those two spots and

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you were explaining to me this this

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process started at least a year ago the

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two of you were working together on this

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uh missions typically start being

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planned about a year ahead i was not

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assigned to this one until about eight

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months ago but typically there's about a

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year-long process with looking at the

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information and getting ready to go and

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going forward you hit the ground running

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very quickly very quickly and how how

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big of a team does it take to support

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these types of activities uh it varies

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from time to time uh typically you'll

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have about a three-person team that

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follows the entire mission the whole way

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through

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but when it comes down to the actual

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execution you have

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largely as many people as you need

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whether it's the three people that are

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on console actually executing or the

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next three people that are coming on

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after that team

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so bring us up to speed a lot's gone on

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everything's gone really smoothly but

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can you talk to us a little bit about

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especially the things that occurred over

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the weekend sure thing it's been a great

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last weekend so far

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we actually captured the vehicle on a

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friday the crew used the space station

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robotic arm or cannon arm 2 to capture

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the vehicle and

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then from that point on the ground took

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control of it in order to help save the

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crew time give them their time back and

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we were able to maneuver the htv vehicle

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all the way to its install location and

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install it thereby giving the crew back

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all the time that they needed

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after that was completed we had kind of

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one day off before we came back on

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yesterday sunday and then continued on

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with a lot of our ground commanded

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activities to extract the exposed pallet

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from the htv and it's coming up carrying

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a couple different experiments for us as

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well as a couple different replacement

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pieces of hardware for the space station

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we extracted that then we maneuvered it

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to position handed off to the japanese

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robotic arm which they also controlled

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from the ground and from that point they

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took it and installed it on their back

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porch kind of their exposed facility is

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what it's actually called and once it

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was there

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it's ready for its transfers now

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so this was a lot of teamwork with the

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crew

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a lot of things that you guys were

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taking versus parts that you know they

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were picking up and operating from the

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space station

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so it really exemplifies kind of the

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ultimate teamwork if you will ground

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control teams and honorable members

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absolutely and very international too

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we've got u.s and european crew members

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on orbit executing steps as well as both

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canadian and american robotics experts

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executing their steps and japanese

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experts

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executing their steps so it's truly

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showing the international space station

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so

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everything that's that happened starting

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friday and over the weekend uh sounds

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really critical but you were telling me

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that really you guys have some of your

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biggest milestones are yet to come

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absolutely a lot of the dynamic parts

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happen on friday but when it comes to a

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lot of the the down and dirty kind of uh

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ground control work a lot of that's

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coming up in about two weeks where we're

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going to use again canadarm2 along with

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dexter the small dexterous robot that we

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have to transfer those

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pieces of hardware that came up on that

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exposed pallet and get those to their

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final locations on the space station

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that's going to take about six days of

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ground control operations

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but we're looking forward to that it's a

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significant amount of work to do but we

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expect it to go well so i'm curious

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what's been

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which of all these activities is the

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most challenging

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uh typically the capture and the release

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of htv itself is the most challenging

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just because you've got two vehicles

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flying in space at extreme amounts of

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speed

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and they've got to come together you've

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got a lot of integration that has to go

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on with the entire team to make sure

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that those things turn out well

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while robotically those are complex

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probably the most complex for us is

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those upcoming operations we have in

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about two weeks

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and that's just because there's so much

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to happen exactly so you said six days

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worth

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of weeks

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yeah we're expecting pretty full days uh

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six solid days of those operations to

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get all those things going and uh it's

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pretty small interfaces that you're

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operating from the ground here uh up to

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a robot in space so it's it's a cool

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factor to the job but it is a

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complication yeah i think sometimes we

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make things look so easy because they

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they go well but so much time and effort

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goes into that that pre-planning can you

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tell us a little you know you mentioned

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the two vehicles traveling and those

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dynamic operations can you maybe explain

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for some some folks who can't really

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appreciate how challenging that might be

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what really goes into that and when do

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you guys really get to breathe a sigh of

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relief oh yeah um

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from the overall perspective it's

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definitely a significant rendezvous

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problem if nothing else to put these two

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vehicles in the same space is amazing

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and i don't know rendezvous very well

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but i've heard it described as trying to

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stand in the backyard and throw a tennis

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ball while somebody in the front yard

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tries to throw a tennis ball and make

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them touch just slightly on the way

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across so that's always very complicated

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um as well as doing the constant

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robotics that we're doing

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we've built a lot of good techniques

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over the years with a lot of the ground

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control and everything else to make

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things better but it still is very

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complicated but in the end we really

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aren't comfortable until we finally get

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to that final release day on htv and we

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see the vehicle departing and

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everything's completed well at that

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point then we'll be able to relax a

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little bit

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well we hope that everything continues

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to go well and why we have you can you

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just tell us a little bit about your

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background and what

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led you to this position that you have

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now oh it's a bit of a long story but

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i'll shorten it up uh i've lived in the

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area in high school and i always kind of

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wanted to work at nasa so i started in

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some early student programs uh an actual

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high school program and i transitioned

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that into what's called a co-op program

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when i was in college and even

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transitioned into graduate co-op so i

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got a lot of time to see a lot of things

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going on at johnson space center and

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ended up liking working in robotics and

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robotics flight control and have been

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doing that job for the most part ever

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since i did a brief stint in a russian

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support group so i spent some time in

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moscow but

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otherwise it's been great being in

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robotics

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well again congratulations on all the

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activities this weekend and we will all

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continue to watch and look forward to

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the upcoming activities and um hope that

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we can have that same relief with you

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whenever the release happens and all

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that goes well so thanks so much for

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joining us thank you again quincy harp

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the mission designer as it were for the