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the cygnus launch vehicle is out on the

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pad at the wallops flight facility the

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preparations for sunday's launch is

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continuing

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and the work to get cygnus ready for the

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launch didn't just get going when the

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rocket was rolled out to the pad

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recently i spoke with floyd booker

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nasa's cygnus ii visiting vehicle lead

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about what's required to get these cargo

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ships ready to go and how far in advance

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they actually start preparing for any

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given mission

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well the program starts strategically we

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start years out we we look at all the

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vehicles that plan to come to station

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and the various crews and and what

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science is planned for them

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and with that we develop a manifest for

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each visiting vehicle

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and so it's kind of my job to

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to coordinate and manage the

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requirements as the cargo is identified

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and

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manifests change over time they do

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change

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they're not static right strategic is

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years tactical at about a year we start

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identifying

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mass properties powered

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instruments like refrigerators

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incubators

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different components like that to meet

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unique requirements for the vehicle if

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it needs power the visiting vehicle lead

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actually means means what what's your

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responsibility well i'm responsible for

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again meeting that hardware's

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requirements ensuring we can fly it

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safely on the vehicle

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ensuring the vehicle has resources to

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receive it and get it to station

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in some cases if we're talking about

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science experiments those things are

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known fairly far in advance that's

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correct um

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years five years

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well again the

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from a year's perspective is strategic

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plan

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tactical we look at within a year so for

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me i started really looking at the

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details at a year at one year like one

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year and it's i guess then within that

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time period that you're looking at uh

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the more mundane things like maybe

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clothing and

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other things you're right because then

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we have crew we know what sizes they are

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and and things like that and then when

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in six months we've identified

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um

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their food their clothing all the

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science equipment the

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things we need to repair and and

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maintenance and service within that time

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period that this vehicle is going to be

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on orbit

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and so those details flesh out at that

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time the long range planning is done

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higher up the food chain is correct

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they're thinking in terms of what we

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know we're going to need in the long

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term but the the

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the more planning the more detailed

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planning i guess is what comes in this

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this 12-month lead up correct 12 to 6

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months is that

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does that take a whole year or would you

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like more time

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well

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it does it i mean we we have to identify

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the the the things for the vehicle you

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know what's the total mass of this

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some things are heavier or lighter than

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others and and so we develop

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and of course that picture changes as we

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evolve as we get closer to launch if we

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slip we may change some of the

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components that are flying that are

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needed in that time frame so there's

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some flexibility

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in being able to move cargo from one

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visiting vehicle to the other as we

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really approach the launch

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you've talked you mentioned a couple

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times worrying about mass properties and

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just how

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specific how accurate does that need to

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be for someone who's not in the business

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it would seem like you know whether it

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weighs a pound or a pound and a half

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yeah so what would be okay right

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not so much here well when you're

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talking about

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um

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three or four thousand pounds of cargo

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it adds up

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so yes we have to

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um the vehicle is limited to a total

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amount of mass it can carry to orbit

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and of course we try to optimize and use

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every ounce of that

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and so yes we um we're

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we worry about the ounces at the end

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it's not and it's not just the the total

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weight then but it's how it's

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distributed within the vehicle that's

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correct so there's uh vehicle uh weight

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ncg

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concerns the center of gravity central

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gravity of the vehicle and so as the

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the commercial vehicle folks when they

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receive our cargo of course we're

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weighing and measuring the cg of large

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bags so it matches their models when

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they install it in the vehicle when a

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cygnus vehicle this one or another one

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that you're working on when it launches

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does that mean your job's over

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no i um

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i'm a i'm the lead for the cygnus

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vehicles

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so i'm

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um i've got to back up this work in the

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next flight

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it's now in october then i'll i'm

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already planning i'm already inside one

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year for orb4 which is uh next spring

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so we're already planning for that

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flight the cargo that flies on that

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flight is your job where does your job

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end when it gets off the launch pad or

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are you still following this one i will

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follow this one because part of

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taking cargo to the iss

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this vehicle does not return we don't

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get cargo back

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we actually use it as a disposal vehicle

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so we're also looking at what

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trash is available

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so

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we'll load this vehicle with trash

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unused i mean use components and daily

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trash from the crew and uh burn that up

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when it returns

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and

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cg

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worries the same worries go into that

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yes we track uh every bag of trash every

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every used ru that goes in each bag and

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we communicate that to the

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to the sickness guys and they

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uh they may tell us that this particular

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bag needs to be in a specific location

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in the vehicle for return

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space on even on a returning vehicle

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like cygnus is is pretty important uh

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earlier this week during the mission

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management team meeting i saw you get

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called up to

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give a report on how much space was

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still available on something that was

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coming home

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that's true yes

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people want to make sure that

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because they want to want to get

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everything off the station we can i

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guess correct correct so in an ideal

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situation we will use every bit of mass

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we can going uphill

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and we'll use every bit of volume and

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mass we have to to throw away trash uh

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when the vehicle leaves

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so as you mentioned you're already

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working on

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a future on all the future cygnus

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missions i guess from what you say right

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well we we do have some ideas of

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big payloads that fly throughout the

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life of this contract so yes

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but again we start looking at the

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details inside of a year

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be very interesting

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knowing knowing a little bit more about

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how it gets packed when you see it get

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off the launch pad right

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exactly floyd thanks very much for uh

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for a couple of minutes here to give us

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some insight into what goes into packing

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one of these things uh floyd booker