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hi so i'm here with astronaut megan

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macarthur who has a long history of

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being friends and coworkers with karen

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nyberg thanks for joining us to talk a

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little bit more about this special lady

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that we have in space sure

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why don't you tell us a little bit about

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when you first met karen and how that

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friendship developed well karen and i

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were hired together in the class of 2000

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astronaut candidates so karen was

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actually pretty much the first person i

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met when i stepped off the plane in

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houston we were going together with

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another one of our classmates drew

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feustel to a training event in florida

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that we had to get done before the rest

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of the astronaut candidates showed up so

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really we've been friends from that

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point from the first moment that i that

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i set foot in houston and it's been it's

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been a great adventure together we've

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done a lot of training and and been

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through a lot of uh life challenges

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together she was um my house flooded

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about three weeks before i was supposed

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to launch in space in 2008 and she was

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right there with me helping sort through

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through the debris with some of our

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other good friends so you know you can't

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say better than that she's been a very

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good friend to me for the 13 years that

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we've been together at nasa i think

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there's always a special bond with

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people that were your classmates from

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arriving at nasa

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um so tell us a little bit about karen

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what is she like on this friend level uh

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karen is a great friend like i said

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she's been she's really been there for

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me through a lot of things uh both in

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training and in life and she's a lot of

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fun she has a great sense of humor

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she's a big runner of course everybody

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that knows karen knows that about her

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and so she even got me running a little

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bit uh with her in the in especially in

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the early days she's very dedicated uh

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to her career and she also has a lot of

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very interesting hobbies which i've

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learned about her over the years yeah so

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tell us a little bit i think we're all

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starting to learn and see some of her

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her handiworks and her first sewing and

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things that she's sharing on pinterest

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and twitter but when did you start to

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see that side of her well when i had

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been here for a couple of weeks she

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invited me over to her house karen lived

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in houston already she'd already been

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working for nasa when we started in the

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astronaut program and so she invited me

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over to her house and as i was walking

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up to the door i hear this beautiful

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piano concerto pouring you know off the

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stereo and i thought wow you know she

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really likes classical music and then i

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ring the doorbell and the music suddenly

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cuts off and she opened the door and i

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realized she was actually playing the

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piano

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it was this beautiful music

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as i was walking up to the house so that

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was sort of my first clue and then you

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see the paintings that she has in her

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home and you ask about them and you find

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out that she's actually done them she

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sews some of her own clothing

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she really just has this broad spectrum

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of talents creative talents that are

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very well developed not just dabbling i

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mean there's something she's very you

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know very detail oriented

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and you see that in all of the things

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that she does wow so a perfectionist

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through and throughout absolutely yeah

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absolutely so that you know sort of

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mirrors the technical side

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she's very

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accomplished in engineering which also

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requires a really detail-oriented

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mindset and then she's very accomplished

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in all of her creative hobbies as well

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so i see that as kind of the reflection

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of each other that's one thing that i

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think is interesting is that some of us

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would make this assumption that if

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you're a technical

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person working in a technical field or

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you've got a technical background in

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this case engineering that you wouldn't

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have this this other side that's

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considered more creative but really even

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with some of these creative hobbies that

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she has there are technical aspects i'm

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learning more and more about the

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quilting and that's actually a lot of

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math involved in geometry and technical

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so what would you say to people who

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might make that assumption well i think

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they definitely are complementary like

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you said there's a lot of technical

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aspects in the type of craft work that

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she does very detail-oriented um and in

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addition to which you know solving even

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in an engineering sense can be very

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creative and so having that creative

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mindset is um is very helpful for for

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even technical problem solving so i

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think that they're very complimentary

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and not that surprising we have a number

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of people

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i think in the astronaut office that

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have similar type of complementary

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skills

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so you touched on a little bit of that

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you've seen some of the beautiful things

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that she's done and i know i've seen a

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few photos can you tell us about some of

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the the gifts or items that you've seen

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or received from karen absolutely as a

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wedding gift she gave me this beautiful

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hand-painted tray

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and in fact she wasn't at the party when

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i received the gift so i initially

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thought that she had purchased it

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somewhere and i wondered where she had

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found it and you know when i finally

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spoke to her and thanked her for it she

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started making some apologies for it

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that it wasn't absolutely perfect and i

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didn't quite understand until i realized

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she had actually painted it and and

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finished it herself and of course it's

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completely perfect and and only karen's

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eye could find any any blemish in it

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it's a beautiful

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tray with a painting of a flower and a

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ladybug our class nickname is the bugs

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and so you know we would joke that the

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three women in our class were the three

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ladybugs and so it was this beautiful

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painting that has a lot of meaning for

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our friendship as well as just being a

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beautiful work of art for my home so

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it's something i really treasure wow

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well thank you so much for sharing some

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of this background with us i think we're

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all very fortunate to have karen on

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board willing to share this side and

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using her creative talents to kind of

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help share her experience so thanks so

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much for opening up and sharing a little

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more insight into karen and your