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space station live comes to you each day

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from the international space station

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flight control room inside the

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christopher c craft junior mission

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control center at nasa's johnson space

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center here in houston the control

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center was named in honor of nasa's

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first human space mission flight

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director who is credited as the primary

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designer of the mission control concept

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the concept was tested from cape

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canaveral florida before it supported

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its first human space flight

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from here in houston 50 years ago on

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june 3rd

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1965 with the flight of gemini iv

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every american human space flight

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mission since then has been controlled

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from one of several rooms in this

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building recently my colleague pat ryan

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has spoke with norm knight the current

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chief of the flight director office here

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in houston about the history of this

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place and its contribution to space

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exploration he also noted that even

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though 50 years has passed there are a

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lot of similarities between the

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operation then and now

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you have a team of individuals that that

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comprise the mission control team that

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have systems expertise on the vehicle or

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spacecraft that uh that they are

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protecting and that's exactly what this

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team is doing they are protecting the

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crew they're protecting the vehicle and

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they're achieving the mission objectives

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set forth by any program whether it was

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a gemini program apollo space shuttle or

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space station anything that that is

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supported out of this room we're working

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for a customer

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so this team of people in this room

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report to the flight director the flight

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director is the risk manager of the team

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making those risk trade-off decisions

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for the respective programs

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again with crew safety vehicle safety

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and mission objectives at the forefront

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that's in a crux of of how it's done so

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from that standpoint

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that leadership model that hierarchy is

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still here today it functions very

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similar

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to how it did

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in the early days of mission control so

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let's talk about some of the differences

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with that um leadership transcends

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everything so so the leadership model

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that that that we had

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50 years ago is still alive and well

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today in the control center but our

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model has changed a little bit relative

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uh to how we support the programs and

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and that changes based on the vehicles

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that we support

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we relied on the crew about 90 of the

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time for those early programs today with

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station the folks you see in this room

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are flying the vehicle we send about 80

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000 remote control commands out of the

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international space station room today

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affecting change on board

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the international space station and in

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doing so we free the crew up to do what

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they do best do the research in science

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that that we're paying them to do and

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taking the risk to go do

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obviously the crew has to do things on

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board in addition to research and

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science that maintenance that requires

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change out of equipment

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and uh

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and different activities that literally

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the crew has to have hands on

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but the majority of things are managed

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today on the ground via the flight

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control team one other thing that we did

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in station that changed a little bit the

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way we uh we do things is with the

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earlier programs

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typically the flight controllers you saw

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in the room represented a single

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function in other words you had a life

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support officer or you had a power

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systems flight controller or

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communications and what we did with

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station is we have consolidated those

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where we can so one flight controller

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might be managing three systems today

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data processing communication video

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whereas in the past that could have been

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spread out a little bit so we've

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consolidated that and also the room

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flexes

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contracts and expands based on the

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activities of the day if you came in on

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a spacewalk day the room's going to be

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full

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on a weekend when the crew has time off

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and the activities are less but folks

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are still maintaining and managing

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onboard systems you may have four or

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five people in the room and typically

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most of the front room flight

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controllers do not have back rooms today

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supporting them so our models changed

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but really our brand recognition of what

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we're here for protecting the astronauts

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protecting the vehicle and achieving

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those mission objectives when able

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really is our mantra and that has not

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been compromised the mission control

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center is not just this room that we're

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sitting in there are several in the

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building including a couple that are

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being prepared for future human space

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flight tell me what's happening there

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correct uh the room that i've been

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talking about today so much is a room

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we're sitting in today is international

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space station flight control room but we

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do have other control centers here in

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the building and those are being

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developed and retrofitted to do our

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exploration program and our commercial

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support as well

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flight operations is supporting boeing

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for their uh we're their ops agent of

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choice per se for doing flight

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operations we're also working uh on our

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exploration program recently this last

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december we flew

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exploration flight test number one and

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we flew that

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out of what we call the blue flight

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control room that room and that

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capability being designed for that

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mission again it's building off of what

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we had in shuttle station it evolves for

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capability to uh to handle the

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exploration program and our on our

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boeing services as we like to call it

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you've been here for more than 25 years

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do you

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hear or see the the history when you

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walk around the halls here absolutely i

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mean

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you know what what i feel when i walk

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through these rooms is is the missions

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that have taken place

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and more than just the missions it's the

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teams that were involved with that it's

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the teams that came together that are

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represented by the folks in the in the

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in the flight control room uh

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the folks that have worked to do all the

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planning and the training of the

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astronauts and the flight controllers

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the the mission integration to pull all

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the details together so that that when

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when that mission takes place

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everyone knows their roles and

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responsibilities how to respond and when

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things go wrong

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know how to respond appropriately to

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those and have that critical thinking

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and that human judgment

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as part of that so so i feel that

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whether it's you know when i'm in the

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apollo uh

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flight control room the national

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historic landmark or in the old shuttle

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room that's now being retrofitted right

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for the exploration program i i feel

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that but what it provides me is

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you know if you have a vision

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and you clearly articulate that vision

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you put the right people on that team

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teams of individuals that can go do this

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whether it's one team or with the

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international space station multiple

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teams

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in international cooperation as well

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with those teams

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and you fund it you can do anything

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people thought the expert or the

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international space station

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uh you know would never come to fruition

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and look at it today it is a beautiful

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orbiting laboratory providing science

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and research it's providing a platform

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to to expand our exploration knowledge

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to expand our systems knowledge

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with the life support systems that'll be

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needed to get to an asteroid or mars and

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and so when i walk through the building

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and i feel that it gives me confidence

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that i know that these visions that are

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being set forth today that we go wow an

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asteroid or mars that looks really hard

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you know in some cases can we do it we

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know we can do it we'll find a way the

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team is resilient it's ready to go

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and uh and knowing that that will come

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to fruition because you build on your

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past to get to these future endeavors

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norm thanks for your thoughts on this

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50th anniversary of the mission control

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center my pleasure

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norm knight is the chief of the flight