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joining me now is kenny todd the

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operation integrations manager for the

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international space station now kenny

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first off thanks for joining me uh so

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you were here last week when we were

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just starting to look at the problem and

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analyze it why don't you just give me

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kind of an update what happened over the

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weekend and where are we now

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sure you bet um let's see when we talked

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last week at that time we were still

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pretty fresh into this

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this particular issue and the the

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flow control valve was really the focus

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of our our effort in trying to recover

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it and

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since that time frame it's become

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apparent to us through all the

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evaluations that we've done that the

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flow control valve is not available to

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us to to continue regulating temperature

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in this this particular ammonia loop

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at that point we uh we started expanding

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out from that valve looking at the rest

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of the system and looking to see if

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there's other ways that we could provide

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some temperature control into that loop

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um and uh and we did uh find and i what

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we term an isolation valve that is just

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upstream of this of this particular flow

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in the current way it was being used it

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was a binary valve it was either open or

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closed

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for the for the ammonia coming from the

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radiator

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and so the team did a great job at

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looking and seeing can we use that

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particular valve as as a a regulator if

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you will to uh to

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restrict the flow coming from the

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radiator and by doing that that would

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that would help to bring the temperature

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in the in the loop a little warmer and

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hopefully to the point that we can start

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to reintegrate it back into the to the

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bigger thermal control system and

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control control some of these loads of

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the heat loads

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inside the station

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um we've uh we've been focusing on that

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for the last couple of days um i think

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uh

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we're taking a valve that that and using

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it for a different purpose than what we

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originally intended so we didn't have a

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a controller in place to go in and and

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basically control this valve at the

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small increments

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that

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for

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we've been working with the vendor the

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hardware vendor for this particular

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valve and they say absolutely it could

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be controlled in the manner that you

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want

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so what we've been doing for the last

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couple of days is trying to put the

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right systems in place software on the

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ground commanding capabilities if you

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will to try to allow us to be able to to

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control that valve in a manner that

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allows us to to stop it where we want to

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stop it

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and so

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as of this morning the team is is

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continuing that effort

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it seems like as we as we move along and

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learn more about this valve and the way

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to command it

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it's clear that we have to operate in

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very small increments on the order of

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100 milliseconds and and putting the

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capability in the control center here to

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allow us to do that has uh has been has

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been a

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quite an effort over the last two days

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and so

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this morning the team is going through

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that effort um to uh to command this

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valve and do it in its in small

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increments and so um that's uh i mean

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we're it's kind of a

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turn the valve watch it for a little bit

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see what the temperatures do see what

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the flow rates do and we're having some

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success with regard to characterizing

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the system

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using this particular method

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whether or not it will be enough to

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allow us to

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put heat loads back onto the system from

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other parts of the loop but we can't

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tell yet

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given that

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kind of developing a new philosophy for

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how to manage the loop using this this

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valve um along with some other parts of

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the system i would say it's still very

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much in work and and whether or not we

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can pull it off i would uh

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i would i would hazard to to give you

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any kind of percentage at this point but

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the team is working very hard to

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to do that and and again having some

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degree of success this morning and

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trying to at least

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characterize the system a little better

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with this particular valve so so we're

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pretty excited about that we'll see how

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things go go the rest of the day okay

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and just for a quick snapshot right so

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where what condition is the loop in

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right now like what kind of loads are

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you guys actually placing on and what

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systems are on a different lube shutdown

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sure uh relative to this loop we call it

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loop a

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there are some external loads we have

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some what we call a main bus switching

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unit that's external to the station

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that has to be heated there's some cold

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plates out there with it that have

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ammonia running through them but it's

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it's all just external equipment that's

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being being

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right now cooled or

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warmed through this particular part of

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the ammonia loop

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at some point whenever we can

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characterize this this operation this

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particular loop a little bit better with

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this with this new uh valve

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modulation philosophy that we're trying

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to use then then we can get into the

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point where we can talk about

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introducing that ammonia into the heat

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exchanger

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at the node 2 or on the u.s lab and

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start trying to draw some of the heat

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loads off the station so we're not quite

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there yet

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and and so at this point we're still

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basically from a loop a standpoint at

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the same place we were last week in

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terms of the

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what what the ammonia is actually

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touching at this point okay so and so

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the team's continuing to work on this

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you know very creative inventive fix to

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try and get the loop you know in a month

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much more functional level would that be

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a permanent fix or what is spacewalk i

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know the spacewalk the astronauts are

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preparing for it this week but we don't

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know for sure yet if that's going to

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happen would a spacewalk still be

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necessary to bring this back up to kind

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of like its full

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you know 100 functionality

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well you know it whenever we whenever we

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figure out just how hard this

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we might we call it limping along

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sometimes you can figure out a way to

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limp along for two months four months

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six months and a lot of that's going to

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be driven by

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how operationally complex it is to try

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to to live with a particular issue

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and until we understand exactly you know

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how this system gets characterized and

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what it means to try to operate with the

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limits that we'll have to operate within

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given given this particular valve and

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any other other options that are

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available to us we may or may not be

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able to do that for an extended period

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of time

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if we can't do it for you know the

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foreseeable future for an extended

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period of time then then obviously we

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got to look at other options but but

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clearly at some point in the future

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we're going to want to go

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get the system back to its it's nominal

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uh you know uh situation with the pump

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module and and so uh that's

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it's just a matter of timing and when we

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do that so i i hope that that would be

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our clear path at some point to do that

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okay well again kenny todd ops

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integration manager for the station

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teams continuing to work here in mission

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control to try and get that loop

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back up to where it was uh before the

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issue cropped up last week uh kenny

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thanks for giving us a quick update

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really appreciate it we're going to