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NASA's Kennedy Space Center is well known
for rockets taking flight to explore

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and utilize the space frontier.

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4, 3, 2, 1,

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Alongside the high-tech facilities at the
Florida spaceport, employees work in the Merritt

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Island National Wildlife Refuge, home to hundreds
of wildlife species.

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The diverse, 140,000-acre landscape provides
a habitat for many varieties of birds, including

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numerous active bald eagle nests.

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The Merritt Island Wildlife Refuge encompasses
fresh-water impoundments, salt-water estuaries

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and brackish marshes. The diverse landscape
provides a habitat for more than 320 species

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of birds, including Florida scrub jays, ospreys,
wood storks and several wading bird rookeries.

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Eagles have long been an important symbol
for American human spaceflights, depicted

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on more than a dozen mission patches. One
of the most memorable was designed for the

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first moon landing mission, Apollo 11.

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About three times a year, NASA Aircraft Operations
teams up with environmental ecologists from

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InoMedic Health Applications for "Eagle Flights"
to keep tabs on

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the nests of these majestic birds.

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The aerial survey uses one of NASA's helicopters,
taking off near the center's

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Shuttle Landing Facility.

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The flights cover areas near well-known spacecraft
processing facilities and some of the more

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remote areas of the space center.

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The importance of these surveys was underscored
following a severe thunderstorm that blew

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through Kennedy in March of 2013 with winds
exceeding 60 miles per hour.

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Two days after the big storm, Aircraft Operations
and environmental ecologists conducted an

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eagle flight and found that three nests had
been blown to the ground from leafless pine

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trees, called "snags."

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One of the nests blown down by the high winds
contained two baby eagles. Wildlife ecologist

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Becky Bolt was one of those who helped rescue
the eaglets.

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After receiving medical attention, one of
the eaglets was returned to the wild in a

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reconstructed nest.

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Due to an eye problem unrelated to the storm,
the other is now a star attraction at SeaWorld

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in San Antonio, Texas.

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Ecologists at Kennedy have plenty of opportunities
to track the activities of local bald eagles.

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The sprawling space center averages about
14 to 15 eagle nests each year, with a pair

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of eagles usually returning to the same spot.

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A nest along Kennedy Parkway, south of the
center's Vehicle Assembly Building has been

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there for more than 30 years.

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While NASA continues flying rockets into space
. . .

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. . . the collaboration between the agency's
Aircraft Operations and environmental specialists