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the month of february is national

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african american history month and

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nasa's joining the celebration honoring

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the contributions of african americans

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to the cause of space flight and of

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space exploration today our guest is one

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of the newest members of nasa's

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astronaut corps u.s navy commander

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victor glover good morning good morning

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pat happy to be here um

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what does the observance of

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african-american history month mean to

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you in terms of space exploration

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well you know i recently read a quote by

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dr carter woodson the founder of negro

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history week which is what has grown

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into black history month

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where he said that

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his

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religious or gender bias

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and i think that that's important that

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the legacy that dr guy bluford started

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here being the first african american in

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space

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uh is one that i'm proud to to be a part

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of

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and i'm looking forward to the

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opportunity to do my best and to

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continue to help dr carter woodson's

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dream

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become a reality it's just as important

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today as when he wrote those words in

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1927.

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tell me about how you ended up here

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because it's uh

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ever i think for every astronaut that's

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that's kind of a different story but

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was astronaut a goal of yours from

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childhood well

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i saw a shuttle launch

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when i was in elementary school and i

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thought i really want to fly that

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which means you had to be an astronaut

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and that planted the seed

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but it grew into a professional

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aspiration when i saw

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pam melroy give a talk about her her

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flight and about her crew

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and the technical accomplishments that

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they achieved on the mission but really

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listening to her talk about the members

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of her crew and how much she respected

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what they did and how well they worked

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together that was a really motivating

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speech and i really

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connected with what she said that's how

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i felt about my navy career and and i

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was looking forward to an opportunity to

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join this team

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well how do tell me about how you got to

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the navy

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well i

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wrestled in college and that's where it

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began being on that small high

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performing team and i knew graduating

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from college i didn't want to go

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straight into

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an office setting i wanted to do

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something adventurous and you know join

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the navy and see the world and so i i

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joined the navy didn't know if i wanted

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to be a navy seal or a pilot and i

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settled on being a pilot and it's been a

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great career it's been a great ride

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um you as you said you're you're a pilot

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you've you've been stationed

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a number of places around the world yes

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my first squadron was in virginia beach

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and i deployed in support of operation

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iraqi freedom there i finished up that

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tour and i went to test pilot school and

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i went to the air force test pilot

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school in southern california and i went

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from there to test in china lake in the

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desert and i went from there to school

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and then back to the fleet and i uh

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performed my last operational

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deployments out of a squadron based in

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japan near tokyo

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and then i went from there to congress

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and i did a fellowship in congress and

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was working in the office of a senator

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when i got this this job

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and and you become an astronaut at at a

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pretty young age uh tell me about what

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you do as an astronaut it's been a

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couple of years you and your classmates

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uh went through went through the

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training but now you are a

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you know you've completed that what do

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you do now

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so the basic uh five things you have to

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complete in astronaut candidate training

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are t-38

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flying you have to take iss systems

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classes

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foreign language training

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robotics and spacewalk training and so

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those five things and there are also

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expeditionary crew skills training where

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we learn about ourselves and about our

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team and how to put them together and to

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work together in various environments we

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also study geology and planetary science

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and lots of other ancillary training but

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those five things are the core

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uh of astronaut candidate training

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astronaut boot camp if you will

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and once you're done with that as an

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astronaut what what is your job now

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you're clearly not flying in space at

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the moment what do you do

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well uh we're here in mission control

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and one of my jobs is to

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serve as a capsule communicator or the

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person that speaks with the crew on

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board iss and i always love being here

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in mission control

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we also have to maintain proficiency in

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those five things that i mentioned

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earlier i fly t38 so we get in the suit

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and train at the neutral buoyancy lab

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we have to maintain proficiency in those

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things and then we also have a primary

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technical job and my primary job is is

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in the exploration branch

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and i work on the ground systems for

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orion and sls

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nasa's looking for more astronauts right

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now as a matter of fact that's right

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is it a job you would recommend

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i would highly recommend it

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i

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bree a new group of astronauts

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and our astronaut candidates and i

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encourage you if you're thinking about

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it if you're just thinking about it get

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rid of all the well maybe i don't have

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this degree done yet or apply put your

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name in the hat and uh

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and shoot for it still take an

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application for another couple of weeks

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i believe february 18th is when the

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application closes go to usajobs and

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apply

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as you look ahead i think part of this

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answer i i know is is your participation

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is going to be off of this planet but in

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a broader sense

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where do you see human space exploration

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going in the years to come you know it's

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interesting the way that you introduce

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that you know the the the piece that we

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get to contribute off the planet is

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important but you know that may be a six

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month stint in this 15 20 year career

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and so i think what we do on the ground

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is much more significant than what we

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can do on the space station i haven't

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been there yet so maybe that's not true

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but

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i look forward to the opportunity i said

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this when when we were selected i am

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honored to be a part of this this

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rekindling and sustaining of america's

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passion for space and aerospace and

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exploration and so

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the job that we do on the ground

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to motivate and inspire the next

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generation of our science and tech and

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technology workforce is one of the best

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parts of this job for me the opportunity

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to fly in space

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i focus so much on that and working here

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in mission control that one day the

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chief's gonna say hey are you ready to

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ride a rocket and i'm gonna go oh yeah i

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do that too i love being in in the

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groups i was at kennedy space center

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yesterday talking to interns and and

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some of the folks that work there i love

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the opportunity to talk to folks about

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what we do and to share the message of

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the nasa team and the mission and the

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vision with america

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great victor i really appreciate thank

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you a few minutes this morning it's good

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to hear from you pleasure to be here