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while activities on the space station

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continue uh with the complex in overall

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excellent uh shape

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there's a uh

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what's known as a big move planned

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beginning tonight here in the clear lake

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houston area an iconic piece of nasa's

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history

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which never flew in space but without it

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proving the aerodynamic flight qualities

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of the space shuttle would have been

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very difficult as would have been moving

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the orbiters from coast to coast for

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refurbishment and upgrades between

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missions

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the boeing 747 shuttle carrier aircraft

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with the callsign nasa 905 that handled

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most of the shuttle ferry flights has

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been retired and now will make its home

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at space center houston just down the

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road from the johnson space center

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i recently talked with paul spana

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exhibits manager at space center houston

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and i asked him why the visitor center

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wanted the sca

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we want it because we're

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we are nasa's johnson space center

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official visitor center

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and it's our responsibility

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to represent nasa to be

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a gateway for the visitors to come in

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and learn about johnson space center and

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all the work that goes on here

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so

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that's the next step in in our

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progression of the timeline of the

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history of nasa

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after apollo

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the shuttle program the shuttle program

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went on for for 30 years and we wanted

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to

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represent that in a great way

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and the ability to have the same or the

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opportunity i should say to have the sca

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there

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is an awesome way to be able to display

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that and tell a piece of that history of

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the program

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what did it take to actually get the

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sca

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at space center houston and not

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necessarily the move yet but right just

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to just to get to this point there was a

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lot of work just to get to this point we

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started

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a year and a half almost two two years

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ago

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we worked very closely with nasa a

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johnson space center

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there was a lot of work that johnson

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space center had to do on this end to

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make it all possible for us and they

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helped

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lay the groundwork to make that possible

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so the plane came to houston

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it was presented to us the opportunity

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was there

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and then it was up to us at space center

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houston to uh to make sure that uh we

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could get it from

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ellingson airport over to

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our visitor center

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well now let's talk about

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moving a 747 i mean anybody who's seen a

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747 obviously knows how large this

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aircraft is and and obviously you know

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they've seen that the iconic moves with

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a space shuttle on the back but right

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but now you have to move it from one

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location to another from ellington to

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space center houston what what what is

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it taking you know it's amazing how big

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it is i think the average person their

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only experience with a an aircraft is

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being inside of it

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and on the outside of it it's walking

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through the jet way so it's it's a

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awesome feeling to be standing kind of

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surreal underneath the airplane

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especially one that's that that large

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right we've been working on the airplane

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for uh almost two months now around the

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clock 12 hours a day seven days a week

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taking big pieces off and it's amazing

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with as much of huge pieces we've taken

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off it's still big

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this was all made possible by the boeing

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company because they agreed to donate

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their services to take it apart and put

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it back together again and make it look

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like it had never been taken apart

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so the planning for that started back in

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august of last year so

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we have a team at space center houston

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and we've been working very closely with

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boeing

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starting then

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first was to secure for

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any possible hurricanes as we were

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entering into hurricane season

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then after that we started

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coming up with a detail plan on how we

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were going to dissect it and take it

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apart

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there is a

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a team of special mechanics that came in

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from boeing called the aircraft on

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ground team it's kind of like their

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special forces of mechanics uh they came

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in and what they did was they first took

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they started taking apart the wings not

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removing them yet but taking off flaps

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and there's a lot of work that they had

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to do to get ready to take the wings off

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so for almost six weeks they were

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working on on the plane there was always

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somebody working on the wings that

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entire time

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first thing that came off was the

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landing gear the plane was jacked up

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the landing gear was removed

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then they started working on the tail

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they took the vertical stabilizer off

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the main one and nasa had modified the

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plane with two more vertical stabilizers

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those came off the horizontal stabilizer

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came off in one piece and then

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two sections of the rear of the fuselage

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came off and each one's about 18 feet

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long so that left us with the fuselage

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which is 190 feet long that'll be the

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largest piece that we move

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all the pieces now are loaded there's

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seven loads

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the fuselage

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seven loads now these are on trucks

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obviously they're on

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trailers for some will be towed by

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trucks

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four of the trailers are hydraulic

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trailers which have the ability to raise

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and lower each one has about 144 wheels

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they're they can be independently

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steered

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of those specialty type trailers there's

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there's four of those

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two for the wings one for the fuselage

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and the fourth one is for the

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the main vertical stabilizer the others

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are on uh

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something typical what you would see out

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on the highway regular

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tractor trailer trailers okay so now

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you're you're ready to move now the

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actual move the route that it's got to

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take presently the aircraft is is

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sitting at in this remote corner of

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ellington field

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so um we're going to move this convoy

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and the convoy all together

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when you line up all these trailers it's

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about a thousand feet long we're gonna

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move across the

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uh the airfield and get to the other

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side of the west side of the airfield in

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preparation for the move which happens

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on on monday

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so monday afternoon

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we'll cut out a section of the fence at

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the airfield

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and move up to the intersection of

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highway 3 and challenger 7 which is also

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dixie farm road and we'll be staged for

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the move at nine o'clock on monday night

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the move happens obviously which is

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going to be a spectacle in itself but

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talk a little bit about why the move now

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the final plans for this exhibit what

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when you drive up to space center

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houston what you're going to see is the

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747 uh reassembled it will have a high

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fidelity replica of a shuttle and the

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name of our orbiter is independence

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right it'll be mounted on top and then

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on the side of it is a 60-foot tower

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which houses two elevators and a flight

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of stairs and this tower

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will provide you access to the 747 that

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will be one stop and then you can

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continue on to two more stops to go up

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to to the shuttle and you'll be able to

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go into the uh the flight deck as well

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as the mid deck and when what is your

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projection for that being open you think

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our goal is to open it in around spring

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break of 2015 so less than a year away

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from now so less than a year that after

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this move that we'll be able to see that

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and

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spectacle for those that haven't had an

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opportunity to see it before it's it's

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really going to be unique and

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paul we really appreciate you stopping

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by and talking about the whole plan uh

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for what's in store and we'll look

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forward to seeing that um it's always

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good to see you again and all the best