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welcome back to the mission control

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center uh john steinmeier john is the

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senior uh project manager for the launch

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systems group at orbital sciences and um

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for those that uh tuned in back in april

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john was uh very

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nice to come and join me for the uh the

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launch activities for that test flight

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and so welcome back john it's good to

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have you thanks kyle it's great to be

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back and as you said we're all uh

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eagerly anticipating our launch tomorrow

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our cots demo launch which will as you

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saw in the video clip utilize our new

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antares launch vehicle

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and also demonstrate our newly developed

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cygnus cargo transfer vehicle

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let's talk about uh antares for a second

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obviously because that's the that's the

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booster that gets it there um the the

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test flight back in april it had the

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mass simulator uh to demonstrate the

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cygnus but um

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that was obviously part of it but

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proving antares on a first flight that

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was a big deal yes it was that was a a

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very important milestone for us the

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first milestone in the uh the cots

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commercial orbital transportation system

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uh contract

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the launch

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when we were here doing the play-by-play

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looked very good

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and on further review

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it was as good as it looked

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we were able to

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verify

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all the major objectives for that test

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launch

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verify all the requirements that

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were

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elements of that test launch

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we've made

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only very slight corrections

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uh to uh some systems for the following

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launch so uh it was a great launch for

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an inaugural launch and we're certainly

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looking forward to duplicating that

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tomorrow and so the antares um obviously

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uh

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you know you have to go pour over all

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that data for quite some time i mean

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it's you know how it performed because

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it delivered the mass simulator right

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where you wanted it uh but you still had

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to go over a pretty long period of time

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where you had to

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had to review all of that just to make

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sure that everything worked the way it

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needed to yeah it's been a busy five

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months uh going over the post flight

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data in

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in thorough detail um

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a series of

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post-flight reviews um

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including outside experts who reviewed

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that data with us and verified that yes

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indeed we verified

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all the objectives

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right in addition and during these past

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five months we've had two other very

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important launches for nasa and we were

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able to uh launch the iris mission on

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our pegasus launch vehicle in

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in june and then just uh a week ago

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friday we launched the the lady mission

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for uh nasa on our minotaur five launch

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vehicle

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and so now it's uh sets the stage for um

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um this next flight of course and we've

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been showing a little bit this morning

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the the view from the launch pad

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beautiful day there at least today so

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hopefully we'll get that the same view

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that we're looking at right there we'll

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get that uh hopefully tomorrow um

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the latest report i heard was about 75

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percent of favorable weather maybe some

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clouds

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you know that may be in the area but of

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course the weather forecast

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is something that they'll start looking

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at a lot more closely once that

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countdown begins which

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is roughly about eight hours uh or so

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before uh launch

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um talk about cygnus now i mean that's

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that's the whole um

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reason for the antares is to deliver

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that and and uh it's been a long time

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coming to five or six years in the in

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the making for this

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you're right it's been about five years

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in development uh

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both for the launch vehicle and the the

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cygnus system

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um as you can well imagine it's very

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complex system

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as you saw in the video clip it consists

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of two primary elements

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a pressurized cargo element that

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contains or

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is able to contain about 19 cubic meters

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of cargo

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and then a service module

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which uh propels the cygnus vehicle

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maneuvers the cygnus vehicle and that's

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largely developed from our own in-house

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uh spacecraft propulsion components yeah

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so there's you know it's like historical

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components that are proven um that you

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guys have been working on

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and evolving into what we're going to

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see with with cygnus and this delivery

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to the station and cygnus is going to

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rendezvous flying will perform a number

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of steps on the way to this station to

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to prove it as a

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rendezvous vehicle as well yeah that's

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correct as you mentioned earlier in the

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broadcast it's about a four-day

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mission before we are able to birth with

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the space station during that time we'll

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execute a number of burns to

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essentially catch up to the space

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station maneuver within range of the

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space station

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we need to verify some systems on board

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the cygnus as part of the cot's

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milestone objectives

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and verify that the vehicle is safe and

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fully operational and

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ready to do its job to deliver cargo to

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the space station

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even though this is a demonstration

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mission we've already uh loaded about

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1300 pounds

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of cargo into cygnus and

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are planning to deliver that

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on sunday

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and we were just looking at the

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rendezvous profile but uh

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uh it's a fairly standard uh

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profile for

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uh the automatic phase and then of

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course the crew will uh

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take over for the actual uh grapple and

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birthing to the harmony module node

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two's uh nader or earth-facing port so

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you can see the the approach and over

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the course of time it's about a five-day

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from four day from launch to

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to

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and then a cygnus of course will stay

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for about a month or so at the station

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before it heads home and obviously it

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will

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take

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trash unneeded items away from the

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station that and then it'll burn up in

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the atmosphere yeah that's the idea as

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you mentioned it'll be birthed for about

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a month and allow the crew to transfer

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whatever unneeded elements

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that they have and

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once uh the cygnus is complete or has

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done its job it will uh

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will uh return her

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to through the atmosphere and

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and dispose of the trash uh effectively

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just like the the progress vehicle the

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htv the atv

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all of those have the same type of

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profile in terms of returning um but uh

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their their main mission obvious to

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sustain the station uh as a laboratory

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and a home

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away from home for for these crew

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members

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again we're talking with john steinmeier

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who's a senior project manager for

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orbital sciences launch systems group

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and we appreciate you dropping by john

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will be here with us throughout the

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coverage wednesday

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beginning at 9 15 central time 10 15

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eastern and on console here in the room

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overseeing this team will be courtney

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mcmillan she'll be the flight director

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she's followed this along with a a whole

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host of uh

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folks from orbital nasa and uh even the

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japanese aerospace exploration agency

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so it's a it's a great team that's uh

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greatly anticipating uh uh this the

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launch and arrival of cygnus yeah we're