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and so here in mission control houston

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i'm very privileged to have a recently

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returned uh international space station

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commander koichi wakana the commander of

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expedition 39 kuichi thanks so much for

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joining me here inside the room today i

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really appreciate it it's my pleasure

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being here so you just got back in may

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you've only been back about a month and

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a half or so how how's it how's it been

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readjusting how's gravity

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well first i felt the gravity is pretty

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heavy but we really have great exercise

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device on board and a great protocol for

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the exercises and then we kept up our

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strength the muscle and the bone density

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so uh the re-adaptation back to the one

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gravity environment was not difficult

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actually five years ago i flew on a five

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minute on flight but this time it seems

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easier for me to get back to this

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environment well it's got to feel lucky

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um so let's just start off beginning of

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your mission you know there's a lot of

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hype there was a lot of excitement you

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guys were carrying the torch do you

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remember kind of what you were feeling

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leading up to that launch getting into

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the soyuz getting ready yeah we had

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about two and a half years of training

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and the training facilities of the

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international partners and their

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dedicated the instructors

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gave us excellent foundation for

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preparation uh

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that of the details that go into this

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complex mission and uh yeah soyuz launch

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it was my first time to launch on a

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soyuz and it's very different from a

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shuttle launch and we had the olympic

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torch and it was pretty exciting to be

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part of this

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uh wonderful relay and this symbolizes

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international cooperation not only in

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sports but also in the space and other

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activities that we work together

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so um yeah still remember this november

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7th

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we launched on the soyuz it was pretty

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soft launch

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from what i felt inside

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and

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it took us only six hours to get to the

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space station with this four

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revolution rendezvous

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and i'm glad to see that now this uh

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full revolution rendezvous is a standard

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operation which means uh

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we can get to work in the space station

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much quicker than before you don't gotta

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spend two days hanging out inside the

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soyuz anymore all right well what do you

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what do you remember i mean you guys got

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there like you said just a few hours you

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got a chance to talk to your family

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right upon arrival what was it like just

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when you poked through that hatch again

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yeah i felt uh i still remember the

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smell of the space station when the

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hatch opens what's it smell like it's

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kind of like a little bit the mechanical

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smell and then uh but

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somehow i remember this sensation and

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it was i i felt as if i came back to an

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old office old house gotcha okay and it

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was great to see uh six crew members the

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more the merrier we had nine crew

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members on board only for a short time

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of four days but it was great so it was

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a packed house i mean was there so like

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you said you flew back on expeditions 18

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19 20 you're up there for it was a big

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transition time any major differences

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between when you flew then and when you

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flew this time

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yeah there's a

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big difference between the three crew

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member stage to six crew member stage

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during expedition 18 at 19 we only have

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three crew members and uh american

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russian and me serving as

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crew of the exhibition 18-19

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and

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we are so busy not only doing

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experiments or utilization of the space

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station but also housekeeping tasks such

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as taking out the trash

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and

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with the six members on board we share

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those tasks by six of us and we can

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allocate more time the utilization doing

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a lot of experiments maintenance tasks

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so i think we're in a very mature stage

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of the utilization of the space station

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with six members on board so i felt a

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quite difference this time

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okay and you were the commander of

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expedition 39 you were the first

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japanese commander of the international

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space station what was that like how

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much what did that mean for you

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well uh it is a privilege for me to

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serve as the commander of expression 39

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and

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i was very fortunate to be able to fly

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with uh

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one of the greatest well many uh great

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commanders uh uh before on my space

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shuttle in the space station flights

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brian duffy was my first commander of

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the space shuttle mission actually first

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and second flight on the space shuttle i

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flew with him and then

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i was able to learn a lot from him and

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i still remember i will remember his

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subtle but very skillful leadership

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whenever i work in space so i was very

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fortunate and for japan um

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to have their own representative as the

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commander of the international space

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station is a milestone in the history of

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japanese

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human space exploration and i am feeling

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that the trust

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and expectation towards japan

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as a partner of the international effort

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in the space exploration has grown

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and the

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kibo module has been working very

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functionally properly since the launch

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assemble in 2009 and japanese corner

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spacecraft has delivered

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multiple times important logistics to

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the space station so

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that's why i felt i feel the trust has

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been

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growing and japan can and should

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contribute in

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in the space station program further and

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also

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uh in the future uh human space

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exploration international exploration

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of space beyond low earth orbit well i

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think you definitely set a great example

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with your time as commander how are you

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going to take that experience as

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commander on board the international

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space station and apply it to your

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future

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well uh

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of course i would like to

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stay an active astronaut and working in

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an iss program and

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communication is the key for the success

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of the international program

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and uh royce renfroe who is sitting here

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as uh at the console as the flight

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director he was our lead flight director

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of uh expression increment 39 and uh

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what a great leader and a great you know

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team you have here at the johnson space

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center at the mission control room and

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i would like to to enhance this i would

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like to keep working to enhance this

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communication further better among the

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international partners so that we can

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further solidify this partnership of the

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space program we have acquired we have

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learned a lot through this international

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space station program how we can work

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together and then go beyond

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always further from what we have right

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now so i'm so curious and interested in

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working towards the future uh space

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exploration with their partnership

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awesome awesome now i gotta ask any

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super memorable moments from your time

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on board anything you're really gonna

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miss so being back down here on the

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ground

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yeah there a lot actually it's hard to

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pinpoint one but

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the magnificent view of the earth yeah

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last time five years ago when i lived on

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the space station we did not have cupola

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module and now we have seven window

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module that what a wonderful module and

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then

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you can never get bored looking through

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the windows of cupola so uh that's a

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most unforgettable memory to see this

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beautiful home planet

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in cupola

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beautiful aurora borealis and

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stars and

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and also this

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wonderful camaraderie that we had among

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the crew members eating together and

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note one and service

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module steve who's the commander now

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we spent some to get together with steve

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alec and then sasha and

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what a wonderful group and i'm so

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privileged to be able to work with them

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and

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you know going back i mean when i was

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onboard the space station i really

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missed the the smell of the earth and

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family and yeah but coming back here i

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missed the same thing that i had down

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for the space station

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well you did a great job and we're all

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very proud of you we're glad to see you

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back down here on the ground but

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hopefully we'll see you commanding

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another mission in the future looking

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forward to that all right again

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expedition 39 commander koichi wakata

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first japanese commander in history on

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board the international space station

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thanks again so much for joining me