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hi welcome to inside the international

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space station flight control room today

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i have a special guest with us we've

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been watching just now some live

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downlink of steve swanson aboard the

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space station who is actually preparing

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one of the spacesuits that he will be

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working

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wearing during a contingency spacewalk

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that is now scheduled to take place on

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april 23rd that is provided the spacex

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dragon is launched on april 18th this

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friday um so today right now i have nasa

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astronaut chris cassidy chris is a

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two-time flyer he flew aboard this space

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shuttle on sts-127

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and then also did a long duration uh

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tour aboard the space station this time

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last year on uh expedition 35 yeah a

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year ago i was up there it's hard to

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believe and he actually did three

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spacewalks and he's actually working to

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help

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come up with the procedures for this

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spacewalk that um will be to prepare um

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to repair the uh what we've been calling

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the mdm it's the multiplexer d

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multiplexer that is outside the space

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station so first of all um

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explain real briefly

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what is the mdm what is that exactly

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it's basically a computer and there are

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several different kinds there's some

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higher level ones control mdms we call

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them tier one and then the tier two

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mdm's these of which the external mdm is

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one of those

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many of them or most of them are inside

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this one happens to be outside and it

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controls the

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some structural and mechanical things

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but what we're carrying what we care

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about this week

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relative to the spacex are the the targe

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angles and the solar array rotary angles

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and if if the second mdm were to fail we

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wouldn't have the ability to control

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those so that's why it's such an

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important piece to the whole equation

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okay well thank you for that um

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real quick also well

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just describe what

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that type what the task is going to be

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at hand that swanson and mrakio have at

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going out and replacing it they're

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actually taking one that is on board

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right now they have a replacement i

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think you have that

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we happen to have one right here as a

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matter of fact so there the spare is

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inside just like you mentioned it's

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inside with them it's older though and

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so they need to do some work on the

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inside to update it and make sure that

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it's got the right software and the

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ground teams are doing all that

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procedure right now once they do that

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and they're ready to go outside next

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week

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this is what the box looks like and

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basically there's computer cards just

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like in your home computer at home

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inside this big metal box what those

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guys will do is uh there's three bolts

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the center one is we call the jacking

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bolt because it actually drives the box

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in and out okay and then these two

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outside both just kind of make it secure

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there's no uh connection this this is

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not

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this connection here won't be on the

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real box all of the electrical

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connections happen on the back side of

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the box we call them

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blind mate connectors because once the

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box slides in as you screw it in all the

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connectors are made in the back okay so

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all they really have to do is these

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three bolts it's pretty pretty

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straightforward in terms of

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eva jobs you know

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we anticipated to go quickly but as with

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anything in space operations

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particularly evas you never know what's

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going to be thrown at you right and you

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would know that yeah more than anyone

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here right um so also just

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briefly just describe for me what um

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what's your involvement in

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coming up with the you know the

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procedure for their spacewalk it's

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actually been kind of fun for me uh just

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like you said last year i was up in

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space and doing my things and plans and

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procedures would would arrive

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electronically and we'd read them and

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and and be ready to go

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now being part of the peop the team of

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folks that are putting all those plans

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and procedures together it's kind of

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kind of neat and there's a a large kind

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of army of folks here in uh right here

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in this building building 30

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putting all that together i'm

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representing the crew office and the

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spacewalk more specifically the

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spacewalk

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branch uh as we kind of figure out all

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the nuances of what is needed to go

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outside right and i understand even um

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in in just coming up with how you would

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go about and do that do the the space

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walk you actually do perform it um under

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the water at the mbl in fact you have a

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run scheduled for friday on friday so

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we'll uh we'll be doing the same the

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same job and and uh going through some

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of the contingencies the what-ifs and we

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call it the crib sheet you know which is

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basically the answer to any uh and all

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problems that we can think of and of

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course we can't possibly think of

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everything but

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as much as best we can we have all those

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answers in our hip pockets so as they

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get thrown at us on the game day

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we can uh give the crew a quick answer

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yeah very good okay and so from a crew

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member's point of view

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explain to me what that's like to get

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that okay you got to get out and do a

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contingency spacewalk because that's

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obviously an interruption in what your

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normal timeline right well to be quite

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honest it's exciting uh it's a spacewalk

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is a highlight of of most crew members

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if they get the chance to get a chance

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to do them and uh

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and

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i was lucky enough to have that happen

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to me so uh

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i remember very specifically uh we had a

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leaky ammonia system that that's there

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was a pump that we had to change out

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back back uh i guess about this time

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with the first one with tom mark tom

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marshburn that's when when he and i woke

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up one morning and we're told to do a

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spacewalk the next day a little bit the

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same situation now and there's it's an

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exciting feeling there's so much you

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have to do and you ha you're very much

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all right

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you put you have a few minutes of just

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your own personal emotions then you get

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onto business with all of the work that

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has to happen to make it make it so

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basically making the spacesuits right

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and making the equipment uh

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ready to go these guys i mean they've

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been working right now and they have the

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added task of dealing with uh some of

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the suit issues that have been the

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problem

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for us for the last i guess what nine

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months or so since last summer when luke

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and i had the water problem or luca luke

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had the water problem in his suit sure

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so and what are they doing about that

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now yeah they're uh

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there are three good spacesuits up there

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turns out the one that luca was wearing

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3011

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is the best suit that we have

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of those three prior to because it

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already had had we call it the fan pump

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separator was changed out and all that

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work was completed it had some flushing

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of the water done so we knew that was

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one again

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going to be one of the two used the

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other two

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were sort of both

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equally suspect if you will and uh just

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recently in the last few days based on

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all a lot of meetings and trying to

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figure out what's the right answer which

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is the right suit

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and we've changed out the fan pump

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separator in 3005

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and those are the two suits that will be

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used

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uh outside it's so it's a lot of work

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you diving into the bowels of that

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backpack of the suit and changing out

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pieces and parts that suit technicians

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do in a lab here in houston with white

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outfits and all kinds of special tools

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not necessarily made to be done

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on board the space station sure yeah

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we've been watching a lot of that take

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place in fact they're still working on

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that today

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again thank you so much for coming out

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and talking with us

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today i think that's about all the time

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we have now but we really do appreciate

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you coming out and good luck on your run