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crew

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transportation to the international

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space station to and from the station is

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currently provided by the russian soyuz

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spacecraft in which the

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three crew members arrive

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on what's known as indirect rotations

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obviously a program that's underway here

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on the ground the commercial crew

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program officially is three years old it

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was last month on april 5th in 2011 that

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it was designated as a standalone

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program

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on april 21st kathy leaders was selected

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to be the manager of commercial crew she

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had served in the acting role since

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october spending a lot of time between

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the kennedy space center johnson space

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center and home bases for the company

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supporting the program through space act

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agreements

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earlier she stopped by the public

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affairs console here in mission control

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and i asked her about her new role as

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manager and status of the program and

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also nasa's partnerships with blue

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origin boeing sierra nevada spacex and

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so we are really

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winding up a big

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portion or purpose of the program it's

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our public purpose it's really about how

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we've been working with industry to

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really

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expand and mature their capability to

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provide crew transportation capabilities

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and

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now we're getting ready to move on to

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the nasa purpose part of the the program

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which is really where we're going to get

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ready to actually contract for

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certification emissions and so all four

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of those partners honestly five partners

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have been really working hard to

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mature

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their overall designs and their

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integrated crew transportation concepts

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and then we've continued to work with

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blue origin

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as they're maturing kind of their

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medium class launch vehicle concepts and

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their rcs systems and so

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um

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it's really those two parts of the

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program that are that are pretty

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critical and right now we're really

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getting ready to

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move out onto the

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nasa portion of the program where we're

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going to have crew services to the

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international space station it's uh it's

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probably very obvious this question but

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what are the parallels between cargo and

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crew that make you a

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a perfect fit for this this job

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i was fortunate enough to be able to do

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cargo and really the the the key parts

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of cargo were

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a we had to figure out how to really

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take advantage of the experience that

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space station had with working the

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different international partner cargo

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vehicles as we were moving forward and

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then the second thing was really about

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how we looked at partnerships within the

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agency to really go accomplish what we

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need to do for cargo so the

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relationships that station had with

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c-3po and with the launch services

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program are really critical to

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us being able to

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have the cargo missions that we had to

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station and finally it's really the

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faith and our industry partners you know

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when we first started cargo

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there's a lot of people out there that

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just didn't think that

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spacex and orbital could get there and

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look at where we are today right and so

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those three things i think are really

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critical

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for us moving into crew you know we are

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working at

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the learning that we get from orion sls

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even our soyuz experience on station now

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we're reaching out with our partnerships

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with orion and sos and obviously the

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international space station program and

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continuing to kind of build on the

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relationship that we had with launch

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services program

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and then finally you know

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i know that our partners can get there

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right i've seen it happen i understand

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that they're up for this task to deliver

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crew transportation

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obviously we're wrapping up a pretty

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important phase of the program with

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the integrated capability part of the

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space act agreements that we have with

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the partners

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um i think certification is

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is one of the buzzwords out there

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especially with uh

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people that watch us very closely

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obviously

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talk about them how the program is is

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treating the certification part i've

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i've sort of watched it along but but

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obviously everybody watching us doesn't

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see what goes on behind the scenes but

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certification is a big big deal yeah

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it's really where we make sure that the

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crew transportation that the partners

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have been working on really meets our

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requirements our safety requirements and

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so

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it is really where we're going to make

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the decision about is there capability

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that they've developed really safe

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enough to actually fly our crews and so

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it's going to be a partnership

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partnership between us and

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our industry partners and we're going to

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have to figure out honestly how to do it

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in a way that enables them to kind of

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run as fast as they need to to be able

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to provide the capability within the

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time frame that we're looking at but we

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still have to make sure that

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they meet our requirements for safety

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and of course that leads obviously to

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the to the next subject and that is what

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is the timetable for the next phase

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which is the transportation capability

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part which i guess is actually the

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contract phase we've been operating

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under space act agreements now which is

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very unique to commercial crew compared

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to other programs in nasa but talk about

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what what you can about the timetable

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for the next selection

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so we are we are working towards

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the scheduled award date of the august

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time frame and

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and then that's obviously a critical

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time frame because then it's really when

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the partners can

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understand that we've made the

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investment with them to actually go

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through certification with them and then

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ultimately the

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post certification missions which are

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actually crude services missions to the

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international space station so

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having that commitment

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understanding that nasa has then

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chosen the partners to be able to then

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go work these crew missions is going to

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be critical to them

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executing on their timetable to provide

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that capability for us

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well

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obviously we're here in the space

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station flight control room and

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you're very familiar with this this

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place and you know we're flying

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astronauts on a on a new spacecraft to

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and from the station it's not that far

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off if you think in terms of nasa and

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and building a brand new type of

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spacecraft

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within your team do you sense a

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growing anticipation and excitement when

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we as we move down the road here

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you know

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when i first i tell the story often

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because when i first came over from

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cargo we were just finished up

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spacex ii and and i kind of

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seen all the hardware that was at

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wallops and all the hardware at the cape

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that was lining up and i was really

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looking forward to

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the years in front where i was going to

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be seeing these cargo missions flying

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but as i've noticed over this last year

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that i've been working in the commercial

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crew program

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we have hardware and we have vehicles

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and we have launch pads and now it's

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about actually pulling those together

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and all those pieces together to then go

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fly and so i'm positive within a year

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year and a half you're going to start

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seeing these pieces of these vehicles

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start showing up at the cape and

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and as our team starts seeing that and

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understands what that feels like you'll

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you'll start getting that excitement

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again there's a lot of folks and and the

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program that um came from the shuttle

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program and so a little piece of their

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heart is is was kind of taken away when

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when the shuttle program retired and

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but i'm planning on filling that hole

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again as we start seeing these missions

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um show up and i'm sure when we start

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launching our crews again from the

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kennedy space center

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well i know i know that we're we're all

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very excited to see which company or

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companies

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move forward in developing this brand

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new u.s crew transportation so

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kathy we really appreciate you stopping