1 00:00:01,180 --> 00:00:05,340 When they call us to go do something, that's what we do. 2 00:00:07,400 --> 00:00:12,140 EGS Program Chief Engineer, verify no constraints to launch. 3 00:00:12,220 --> 00:00:14,740 EGS Chief Engineer team has no constraints. 4 00:00:14,860 --> 00:00:15,800 I copy that. 5 00:00:15,980 --> 00:00:18,000 You are clear to launch. 6 00:00:18,080 --> 00:00:24,940 Five, four, three, two, one, and lift-off. 7 00:00:24,940 --> 00:00:26,320 All clear. 8 00:00:26,680 --> 00:00:29,560 Now passing through max q, maximum dynamic pressure. 9 00:00:29,920 --> 00:00:31,680 Welcome to space. 10 00:00:34,000 --> 00:00:35,220 Welcome to the Rocket Ranch. 11 00:00:35,360 --> 00:00:37,200 I'm your host, Joshua Santora. 12 00:00:37,200 --> 00:00:41,960 When people think of the Kennedy Space Center, rockets are what likely come to mind. 13 00:00:42,120 --> 00:00:44,760 But we have more than rocket scientists here on the Space Coast. 14 00:00:44,960 --> 00:00:47,480 We're a bit like a small city. 15 00:00:47,740 --> 00:00:52,460 In this episode, we meet a few Ranch hands with odd jobs you may not expect to find around these parts. 16 00:00:52,520 --> 00:00:57,960 First up, we talk with a marine biologist who actually gets to fish as part of his day job. 17 00:00:57,960 --> 00:01:02,180 Literally, the best habitat we have here on Center and probably just about the best habitat 18 00:01:02,180 --> 00:01:08,620 here in the county is, no joke, a stone's throw outside those launchpads. 19 00:01:08,620 --> 00:01:14,070 Next, we sit down with a driver whose vehicle of choice weighs 6 million pounds and clocks 20 00:01:14,070 --> 00:01:16,300 in at a staggering one mile an hour. 21 00:01:16,300 --> 00:01:22,560 It has the power, the electrical power to do 2 miles an hour, but you never would do that, right? 22 00:01:22,560 --> 00:01:23,540 [ Laughs ] 23 00:01:23,550 --> 00:01:28,140 Finally, a helicopter pilot who tracks animals and trespassers rounds out our glimpse into 24 00:01:28,140 --> 00:01:30,360 odd jobs here at the Ranch. 25 00:01:30,360 --> 00:01:35,250 We'll be up in the air during launches looking for anyone trying to do damage to the rocket 26 00:01:35,250 --> 00:01:37,520 or just make themselves famous. 27 00:01:38,940 --> 00:01:44,920 Kennedy Space Center not only launches rockets, but it also doubles as a wildlife refuge. 28 00:01:44,920 --> 00:01:50,570 Looking after many of the critters here on the Ranch is marine biologist Dr. Eric Reyier. 29 00:01:50,570 --> 00:01:52,780 I'm in the booth now with Dr. Eric Reyier. 30 00:01:52,780 --> 00:01:54,890 I will call him the fish doctor. 31 00:01:54,890 --> 00:01:55,890 [ Both chuckle ] 32 00:01:55,890 --> 00:01:57,510 Dr. Reyier, thanks for being here. 33 00:01:57,510 --> 00:01:58,510 Sure. 34 00:01:58,510 --> 00:01:59,530 Yeah, it's my first podcast. 35 00:01:59,530 --> 00:02:00,530 [ Laughs ] 36 00:02:00,530 --> 00:02:02,360 So, tell me a little bit about yourself. 37 00:02:02,360 --> 00:02:03,740 What's your background? 38 00:02:03,740 --> 00:02:07,420 And obviously give some context as to why I would refer to you as the doctor of fishing. 39 00:02:07,420 --> 00:02:08,420 Sure. 40 00:02:08,420 --> 00:02:11,030 So I'm a Fisheries Biologist here at Kennedy Space Center. 41 00:02:11,030 --> 00:02:13,540 I've been here now almost 20 years. 42 00:02:13,540 --> 00:02:16,890 I was planning on being here for two, but the place sort of grabbed ahold of me, and 43 00:02:16,890 --> 00:02:19,300 it's hard to leave a job this interesting. 44 00:02:19,300 --> 00:02:23,420 I'm part of the Kennedy Space Center Ecological Program. 45 00:02:23,420 --> 00:02:28,310 It's a group of, I think, about 15 biologists that work on a variety of environmental issues 46 00:02:28,310 --> 00:02:33,140 around the Space Center, and so I'm a Fisheries Biologist here, but we've got marine-mammal 47 00:02:33,140 --> 00:02:37,709 folks, we got folks that study endangered species like scrub jays and sea turtles and 48 00:02:37,709 --> 00:02:42,670 beach mice, and we cross-collaborate on a number of issues around the Space Center, 49 00:02:42,670 --> 00:02:47,460 but, yeah, I came down, actually, from outside of Seattle to go to F.I.T. down there in Melbourne 50 00:02:47,460 --> 00:02:50,020 for a couple years, and it's pretty spectacular. 51 00:02:50,020 --> 00:02:54,620 In fact, one of the first jobs I ever had coming here wasn't related to fisheries, but 52 00:02:54,620 --> 00:02:57,840 when the Shuttle would launch, we'd actually -- right before a launch, we'd go into the 53 00:02:57,840 --> 00:03:01,200 pad perimeter -- you know, the Space Shuttle was on the pad. 54 00:03:01,200 --> 00:03:02,200 It's getting ready to go. 55 00:03:02,200 --> 00:03:06,480 A few days before launch, we'd go in, and we'd have to clear out all the baby alligators 56 00:03:06,480 --> 00:03:12,900 that had made it under the fence, and baby alligators are really fast. 57 00:03:12,900 --> 00:03:17,860 So there's these ponds that collect deluge water from the Shuttle, and these little baby 58 00:03:17,860 --> 00:03:21,970 gators could make it under or through the fence, and some turtles, too, and we'd have 59 00:03:21,970 --> 00:03:26,080 to hop in there, and we'd go in with just an empty truck, and we'd come out with a truckful 60 00:03:26,080 --> 00:03:30,210 of baby alligators and turtles, and we do that before every launch. 61 00:03:30,210 --> 00:03:33,730 Can you tell me a little bit about what's going on as far as right around a launchpad, 62 00:03:33,730 --> 00:03:34,730 for instance? 63 00:03:34,730 --> 00:03:38,490 Because I know that that's probably -- when we think about if we're harming the environment, 64 00:03:38,490 --> 00:03:40,020 people would expect it to be there. 65 00:03:40,020 --> 00:03:42,650 So what's the environment like in that area? 66 00:03:42,650 --> 00:03:44,300 Yeah, it's just the opposite. 67 00:03:44,300 --> 00:03:46,010 That's an excellent question. 68 00:03:46,010 --> 00:03:53,590 We think of rocket launches as really dangerous and very industrial, and, clearly, they are, 69 00:03:53,590 --> 00:04:01,310 but the impact of those launches is -- the footprint is very small, and from our observations 70 00:04:01,310 --> 00:04:05,350 over the years, literally, the best habitat we have here on Center -- and probably just 71 00:04:05,350 --> 00:04:11,840 about the best habitat here in the county is, no joke, a stone's throw outside those 72 00:04:11,840 --> 00:04:16,959 launchpads, and we've got huge sport fish that come, really, within the shadow of some 73 00:04:16,959 --> 00:04:21,900 of our launch facilities, and it's because there's no other development, but wildlife 74 00:04:21,900 --> 00:04:24,690 benefits tremendously from the Space Program, as well, so... 75 00:04:24,690 --> 00:04:25,690 Yeah, that's awesome. 76 00:04:25,690 --> 00:04:30,340 So I want to step back for a second because, obviously, you just mentioned a lot of biologists 77 00:04:30,340 --> 00:04:35,970 and a lot of interesting wildlife that people may not be familiar with, so we need to paint 78 00:04:35,970 --> 00:04:39,600 a picture for what the Kennedy Space Center is, 'cause people say, "Space Center," and 79 00:04:39,600 --> 00:04:43,630 they think rockets, they think smoke and fire, they think, obviously, like big production, 80 00:04:43,630 --> 00:04:45,390 but we're surrounded by a wildlife refuge. 81 00:04:45,390 --> 00:04:49,100 Can you tell us more about what would people see if they came out here? 82 00:04:49,100 --> 00:04:51,021 Yeah, they'd see a lot of green, to be honest with you. 83 00:04:51,021 --> 00:04:56,240 You know, I think it was back in the early '60s -- I think '62. 84 00:04:56,240 --> 00:05:00,730 NASA needs a lot of space to launch rockets, both for public safety and security purposes. 85 00:05:00,730 --> 00:05:05,570 So early '60s, they bought up a lot of property here, and they realized early on that most 86 00:05:05,570 --> 00:05:08,340 of it wasn't directly gonna be used for rocket launches. 87 00:05:08,340 --> 00:05:09,600 The Space Center's actually huge. 88 00:05:09,600 --> 00:05:16,060 You know, it's about 140,000 acres of which, when you do the math, I think about 5% is 89 00:05:16,060 --> 00:05:21,060 actually used for space-launch infrastructure -- launchpads, roads, buildings, et cetera. 90 00:05:21,060 --> 00:05:27,420 They, fairly quickly, ceded a lot of the natural-lands management to U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 91 00:05:27,420 --> 00:05:31,860 who created Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, and then a little bit later on, the 92 00:05:31,860 --> 00:05:36,200 northern part of the property was actually -- management was ceded to Canaveral National 93 00:05:36,200 --> 00:05:37,410 Seashore, as well. 94 00:05:37,410 --> 00:05:43,010 So we actually have a wildlife refuge and a national seashore that overlay Kennedy Space 95 00:05:43,010 --> 00:05:44,010 Center. 96 00:05:44,010 --> 00:05:48,810 Another interesting aspect of it is, NASA wants a security perimeter around their launch 97 00:05:48,810 --> 00:05:50,650 infrastructure, which makes sense. 98 00:05:50,650 --> 00:05:54,900 So early on, they establish this perimeter, which there's no public access around these 99 00:05:54,900 --> 00:06:00,930 launchpads, and while the purpose was public safety and security, they sort of, coincidentally, 100 00:06:00,930 --> 00:06:06,730 created what we call a de facto marine reserve, and marine reserves, they're being used more 101 00:06:06,730 --> 00:06:11,220 and more for marine management, where, basically, you set areas off-limits and let the ecosystem 102 00:06:11,220 --> 00:06:14,949 sort of persist in its natural state, and some areas are controversial. 103 00:06:14,949 --> 00:06:18,050 At the Space Center, they're not, because it wasn't really designed as a marine reserve. 104 00:06:18,050 --> 00:06:20,170 It was designed for security. 105 00:06:20,170 --> 00:06:25,960 Fish don't know that, so the fish here have been, basically, unmolested now since 1962, 106 00:06:25,960 --> 00:06:30,030 and there's been several studies that have shown that water within the security zone 107 00:06:30,030 --> 00:06:34,919 of Kennedy Space Center, they harbor higher densities of sport fish. 108 00:06:34,919 --> 00:06:39,410 Those sport fish are generally larger, and we have higher, overall, fisheries diversity 109 00:06:39,410 --> 00:06:44,530 within the Space Center than adjacent public areas that have been developed over the past 110 00:06:44,530 --> 00:06:48,840 few decades, and so it's basically a gem here in East Florida. 111 00:06:48,840 --> 00:06:52,820 The fisheries habitat here is the best we have, really, on the east coast of the United 112 00:06:52,820 --> 00:06:53,990 States anymore. 113 00:06:53,990 --> 00:06:59,320 On the fisheries side, we've got red drum, black drum, spotted seatrout, tarpon, snook 114 00:06:59,320 --> 00:07:03,910 -- all these really important sport fish, and a large percentage of the rest of that 115 00:07:03,910 --> 00:07:06,690 is actually managed in a fairly natural state. 116 00:07:06,690 --> 00:07:12,120 So you got a tremendous amount of habitat and wildlife issues that you have to attend to. 117 00:07:12,360 --> 00:07:17,060 The lagoon has a very high density of West Indian manatees, green and loggerhead sea 118 00:07:17,060 --> 00:07:20,330 turtles that use the lagoon as, basically, a nursery, as well. 119 00:07:20,330 --> 00:07:23,070 Bull sharks is the common fish in the lagoon. 120 00:07:23,070 --> 00:07:28,949 Our folks traditionally work on scrub jays, bald eagles, gopher tortoises, invasive hogs 121 00:07:28,949 --> 00:07:35,070 -- most dense population of alligators left in any of the lagoons here at KSC. 122 00:07:35,070 --> 00:07:38,260 Much of the Space Center is actually co-managed either as Merritt Island National Wildlife 123 00:07:38,260 --> 00:07:44,020 Refuge or Canaveral National Seashore, and so NASA, as a federal agency, has to -- They're 124 00:07:44,020 --> 00:07:48,350 held to sort of a high standard on how they maintain their land and the wildlife and habitat 125 00:07:48,350 --> 00:07:50,160 land, and that's sort of where we come in. 126 00:07:50,160 --> 00:07:51,160 Cool. 127 00:07:51,160 --> 00:07:52,540 And so what is your day job? 128 00:07:52,540 --> 00:07:53,919 Like, what do you do on a daily basis? 129 00:07:53,919 --> 00:07:55,600 Would we find you in an office? 130 00:07:55,600 --> 00:07:57,419 Are you outside, like, hacking through the bush? 131 00:07:57,419 --> 00:07:58,419 Like, what's going on? 132 00:07:58,419 --> 00:08:01,729 Oh, so that is the best part of my job is that it's the diversity. 133 00:08:01,729 --> 00:08:05,260 I'm in the field quite a bit, probably about two to three days a week, but 134 00:08:05,260 --> 00:08:09,210 we also do a fair bit of lab work, and not only do we have to catch fish, but we have 135 00:08:09,210 --> 00:08:14,270 to write about it, as well -- you know, permits and reports and whatnot, but, all in all, 136 00:08:14,270 --> 00:08:15,630 it's a super-diverse project. 137 00:08:15,630 --> 00:08:19,080 You don't know what you're gonna get into on any given day 'cause issues pop up all 138 00:08:19,080 --> 00:08:22,290 the time, and there hasn't been a single day where I rolled out of bed and didn't want 139 00:08:22,290 --> 00:08:23,290 to come to work. 140 00:08:23,290 --> 00:08:24,290 That's awesome. 141 00:08:24,290 --> 00:08:25,290 That's so cool. 142 00:08:25,290 --> 00:08:27,819 So, obviously, it's probably no mystery now at this point. 143 00:08:27,819 --> 00:08:31,479 Like, it is factual that some days we pay you to fish. 144 00:08:31,479 --> 00:08:32,479 Is that fair to say? 145 00:08:32,479 --> 00:08:34,140 I'm told I'm not supposed to advertise that -- yes. 146 00:08:34,140 --> 00:08:35,140 [ Chuckles ] 147 00:08:35,140 --> 00:08:36,390 So it's a little bit different. 148 00:08:36,390 --> 00:08:40,440 In a way, it's cheating 'cause we get the permits to fish with interesting gear like 149 00:08:40,440 --> 00:08:44,229 long longlines and gill nets, where you can catch a lot of fish really fast for scientific 150 00:08:44,229 --> 00:08:47,320 purposes, but, also, we don't take things home. 151 00:08:47,320 --> 00:08:49,420 Yeah, exactly, exactly. 152 00:08:49,420 --> 00:08:52,550 Generally, most of the fisheries' research we do -- and we can talk a little bit about 153 00:08:52,550 --> 00:08:56,180 this in-depth later on -- is nonlethal. 154 00:08:56,180 --> 00:09:00,980 We catch fish, we measure them, record them, identify them, and let them go. 155 00:09:00,980 --> 00:09:04,240 Yeah, I want to make sure that we are clear to say that it's not like you're out here, 156 00:09:04,240 --> 00:09:07,330 like, just sitting back just chilling in the boat, fishing. 157 00:09:07,330 --> 00:09:08,330 No, no. 158 00:09:08,330 --> 00:09:09,930 Like, you're out here, you're doing research, you're doing science. 159 00:09:09,930 --> 00:09:13,770 So, give us some examples of the research that is going on both amongst your team, as 160 00:09:13,770 --> 00:09:16,710 well as I know that we bring in other folks to do research in the area, as well. 161 00:09:16,710 --> 00:09:17,880 Yes, yes. 162 00:09:17,880 --> 00:09:22,470 So, big picture -- if you look at the landscape of the Space Center, it's about 65% water. 163 00:09:22,470 --> 00:09:26,459 So fish are really a dominant part of the ecosystem here. 164 00:09:26,459 --> 00:09:30,839 We've got a number of -- In fact, I think about over 100 species that are federally 165 00:09:30,839 --> 00:09:35,010 managed, which means NASA's got to consult with other agencies when they do construction 166 00:09:35,010 --> 00:09:40,330 or modify habitat, and so having that basic information on where fish are, what are the 167 00:09:40,330 --> 00:09:44,320 most critical habitats around the Space Center, that information is important because it allows 168 00:09:44,320 --> 00:09:49,640 NASA to minimize the effects of, basically, the Space Program on the fisheries habitat here. 169 00:09:49,880 --> 00:09:55,400 So, some of the specific projects we do -- we're involved in what's called the Florida Atlantic 170 00:09:55,410 --> 00:09:57,290 Coast Telemetry Network. 171 00:09:57,290 --> 00:10:02,550 It's an array of now several thousand underwater listening stations. 172 00:10:02,550 --> 00:10:06,500 They're acoustic receivers, but they're moored underwater here in the lagoon and along our 173 00:10:06,500 --> 00:10:10,269 shoreline here at Canaveral, and so we manage this section of the FACT Array, and we're 174 00:10:10,269 --> 00:10:14,540 teamed up with all sorts of universities, wildlife agencies basically from the Gulf 175 00:10:14,540 --> 00:10:20,160 of Mexico up to Canada, and these sensors that are underwater listen for the passing 176 00:10:20,160 --> 00:10:22,490 of tagged fishes and sea turtles. 177 00:10:22,490 --> 00:10:26,200 We put transmitters -- Typically, we actually sew them inside the fish. 178 00:10:26,200 --> 00:10:27,630 The sea turtle bobs, we work with that. 179 00:10:27,630 --> 00:10:32,530 We'll fiberglass a transmitter on the sea turtle, and they ping about every 90 seconds, 180 00:10:32,530 --> 00:10:36,910 and as these animals move through the environment here -- The Indian River Lagoon is what's 181 00:10:36,920 --> 00:10:42,520 surrounding the Space Center, or along the Atlantic Coast, which is we border the Atlantic Ocean. 182 00:10:42,600 --> 00:10:46,800 As these animals move through the system, we can actually document that those movements, 183 00:10:46,800 --> 00:10:50,650 their habitat preferences, their survival sometimes using this system. 184 00:10:50,650 --> 00:10:51,910 So why is that important? 185 00:10:51,910 --> 00:10:56,040 'Cause I think that there's some people that are lovers of all things fishing, and they 186 00:10:56,040 --> 00:10:59,770 can kind of appreciate what you're doing, but for those that may not really have a background 187 00:10:59,770 --> 00:11:04,310 with fish and fishing, like, why does it matter that we track these fish or turtles or the 188 00:11:04,310 --> 00:11:05,310 nesting patterns? 189 00:11:05,310 --> 00:11:06,680 Like, what does that benefit us? 190 00:11:06,680 --> 00:11:07,680 Sure. 191 00:11:07,680 --> 00:11:12,360 So it benefits NASA because now they have a good sense as to what fish we have here, 192 00:11:12,360 --> 00:11:15,240 where they spend most of their time, where they're spawning, where they're foraging, 193 00:11:15,240 --> 00:11:18,440 and, like I said, many of these are federally managed. 194 00:11:18,440 --> 00:11:23,149 By knowing that information, you can actually make good choices on how you develop habitat 195 00:11:23,149 --> 00:11:26,279 or, if possible, avoid critical habitats. 196 00:11:26,279 --> 00:11:29,480 You can gauge the effects of construction activities. 197 00:11:29,480 --> 00:11:33,870 We have mitigation sites where we actually open up if there's work going on in habitat 198 00:11:33,870 --> 00:11:35,290 that needs to be altered. 199 00:11:35,290 --> 00:11:41,990 We can actually help restore other areas, and we can document that through this network. 200 00:11:41,990 --> 00:11:42,990 So kind of switching gears. 201 00:11:42,990 --> 00:11:43,990 Sure. 202 00:11:43,990 --> 00:11:46,590 Just thinking about cool stuff that you found, 'cause, obviously, like – 203 00:11:46,590 --> 00:11:48,220 Oh, now we're talking. 204 00:11:48,220 --> 00:11:53,860 The ocean and river and waterways are places of, in a lot of ways, great mystery. 205 00:11:53,860 --> 00:11:54,860 Tell us. 206 00:11:54,860 --> 00:11:56,310 What have you found that's really cool out there? 207 00:11:56,310 --> 00:11:59,550 Yeah, so that's the most exciting part of my job is, you know, we know so much about 208 00:11:59,550 --> 00:12:00,680 terrestrial organisms. 209 00:12:00,680 --> 00:12:04,950 You know, people have known the details of how, for example, birds make their living. 210 00:12:04,950 --> 00:12:08,019 Since the '50s, they've been able to radio-track them... 211 00:12:08,019 --> 00:12:09,019 Sure. 212 00:12:09,019 --> 00:12:11,010 ...across the continent, and fish are different. 213 00:12:11,010 --> 00:12:13,800 Especially around here, the water is just -- It's so murky. 214 00:12:13,800 --> 00:12:18,180 These animals -- even really small fish -- will migrate, potentially, hundreds of kilometers. 215 00:12:18,180 --> 00:12:22,010 Learning the details of how they make their living in the ocean has been really hard, 216 00:12:22,010 --> 00:12:26,740 and we're actually sort of at a golden age in fisheries in terms of technology. 217 00:12:26,740 --> 00:12:30,660 You can put satellite tags on big sharks that if their fins stick out of the water, they 218 00:12:30,660 --> 00:12:34,670 can actually communicate their position and environmental conditions to the satellite 219 00:12:34,670 --> 00:12:36,560 and then it just comes into your e-mail. 220 00:12:36,560 --> 00:12:40,700 Some of the things we learn specifically, there's a species called the Atlantic sturgeon, 221 00:12:40,700 --> 00:12:44,190 which is on the U.S. Endangered Species List, which is a big deal for a fish. 222 00:12:44,190 --> 00:12:48,610 Historically, we thought they were exceptionally rare in Florida -- three records in 100 years 223 00:12:48,610 --> 00:12:53,660 anywhere off East Florida, and we detected 12 of them last year all from, basically -- They 224 00:12:53,660 --> 00:12:57,890 were tagged by other researchers doing the same thing that we are up there, but as the 225 00:12:57,890 --> 00:13:02,160 animals move along the coast, we'll detect them, and then we send that data back to these 226 00:13:02,160 --> 00:13:06,170 researchers, but tagged, basically, from the Carolinas all the way up to New York. 227 00:13:06,170 --> 00:13:10,029 Another cool one is -- we didn't know this until recently, but white sharks, which we 228 00:13:10,029 --> 00:13:13,579 thought were actually fairly uncommon here off of Brevard County – 229 00:13:13,579 --> 00:13:14,579 Right. 230 00:13:14,579 --> 00:13:16,450 That is absolutely not the case. 231 00:13:16,450 --> 00:13:17,450 They are – 232 00:13:17,450 --> 00:13:21,399 This is like a warning, everybody who's listening, if you live near here. 233 00:13:21,399 --> 00:13:22,399 [ Laughs ] 234 00:13:22,399 --> 00:13:23,399 White sharks get all the press. 235 00:13:23,399 --> 00:13:27,820 They're a little too glamorous for my taste, but they do capture people's attention...and 236 00:13:27,820 --> 00:13:30,440 they're getting tagged all over up in New England. 237 00:13:30,440 --> 00:13:31,440 Sure. 238 00:13:31,440 --> 00:13:33,279 But there's encounters. 239 00:13:33,279 --> 00:13:35,700 Every now and again, I have white sharks down here, but it turns out they're actually really 240 00:13:35,700 --> 00:13:37,269 common here every winter. 241 00:13:37,269 --> 00:13:40,000 They're tickling the feet of the surfers, and people didn't even know it. 242 00:13:40,000 --> 00:13:41,000 Huh. 243 00:13:41,000 --> 00:13:44,600 So maybe the story there is, we were doing well because nobody has really had a problem 244 00:13:44,600 --> 00:13:47,209 until just recently when we're starting to realize this. 245 00:13:47,209 --> 00:13:49,350 Well, you know, they've always been here, I'm sure. 246 00:13:49,350 --> 00:13:52,970 So, for thousands and thousands of years, they've been making this journey in the winter, 247 00:13:52,970 --> 00:13:54,620 and they don't stop here, necessarily. 248 00:13:54,620 --> 00:13:55,970 They keep going, so... 249 00:13:55,970 --> 00:13:56,970 That's awesome. 250 00:13:56,970 --> 00:14:00,660 So, these tags you talk about, I know you mentioned that you're tagging some animals. 251 00:14:00,660 --> 00:14:02,540 Obviously, other people are tagging animals. 252 00:14:02,540 --> 00:14:04,139 Do people ever find your tagged fish? 253 00:14:06,139 --> 00:14:05,139 Yeah. 254 00:14:06,139 --> 00:14:08,230 Are they ever, like, fishing somewhere where it's legal, and they catch one of your fish? 255 00:14:08,230 --> 00:14:09,230 Yeah. 256 00:14:09,230 --> 00:14:11,230 So most of the fish that we tag are legally harvestable... 257 00:14:11,230 --> 00:14:12,230 Okay. 258 00:14:12,230 --> 00:14:16,529 ...and so we sew these transmitters -- about the size of my index finger – into the fish 259 00:14:16,529 --> 00:14:20,730 'cause they'll stay there for years and years, and they don't affect the behavior of the 260 00:14:20,730 --> 00:14:24,820 animal at all, but if a fish is harvested, and the angler decides he wants to take it 261 00:14:24,820 --> 00:14:29,660 home and clean the fish, oftentimes this transmitter will fall out, and we've learned, hey, put 262 00:14:29,660 --> 00:14:34,670 your name and phone number on these things because they're worth about 300 bucks, and 263 00:14:34,670 --> 00:14:38,370 it's another -- if we get it back, we can go tag another fish and increase our data 264 00:14:38,370 --> 00:14:39,370 set for sure. 265 00:14:39,370 --> 00:14:42,930 And, to be honest, I love those interactions with fishermen 'cause we consider ourselves 266 00:14:42,930 --> 00:14:48,279 experts because we do this for a living, but I spend half my time in front of a computer, 267 00:14:48,279 --> 00:14:52,389 and talking to these folks, especially the commercial folks and the recreational guides 268 00:14:52,389 --> 00:14:55,790 that are around the Space Center, the guides come from all over to fish around the Space 269 00:14:55,790 --> 00:14:58,589 Center 'cause the habitat is better than anywhere else here in Indian River. 270 00:14:58,589 --> 00:14:59,589 Cool. 271 00:14:59,600 --> 00:15:04,400 I learn more in 10 minutes talking to those guys than I do reading journal articles all day. 272 00:15:04,440 --> 00:15:05,320 [ Laughs ] 273 00:15:05,320 --> 00:15:06,200 That's awesome. 274 00:15:06,200 --> 00:15:07,200 Very cool. 275 00:15:07,440 --> 00:15:10,400 And, obviously, we have to ask the question, have you had one that got away? 276 00:15:10,420 --> 00:15:12,040 Like, is there the one that got away? 277 00:15:12,040 --> 00:15:13,830 "One that got away?" 278 00:15:13,830 --> 00:15:14,850 Uh, no. 279 00:15:14,850 --> 00:15:17,399 In fact, just the opposite. 280 00:15:17,399 --> 00:15:23,840 The one fish that I always wanted to catch, and I thought I would never have the chance 281 00:15:23,840 --> 00:15:27,339 to do it -- it's called a smalltooth sawfish, which is -- I don't know if you've ever seen 282 00:15:27,339 --> 00:15:28,660 them. 283 00:15:28,660 --> 00:15:32,940 They're actually more closer related to stingrays, but they have this big saw or rostrum that 284 00:15:32,940 --> 00:15:34,220 comes off their snout. 285 00:15:34,220 --> 00:15:35,220 Okay. 286 00:15:35,220 --> 00:15:39,410 They get about 18 foot long, and, historically, they were a dime a dozen here in the Indian 287 00:15:39,410 --> 00:15:44,820 River Lagoon -- a huge problem for commercial fisherman way back in the 1800s, and they 288 00:15:44,820 --> 00:15:46,610 didn't have the ethic that we do now. 289 00:15:46,610 --> 00:15:49,769 These sawfish would get into the fishermen's net, and they would actually -- the fishermen 290 00:15:49,769 --> 00:15:55,050 would chop the rostrum off, and then the sawfish couldn't survive, and so the sawfish crashed 291 00:15:55,050 --> 00:15:56,329 back in the '50s. 292 00:15:56,329 --> 00:16:00,550 We never thought we'd see one around here, but back, I think, about 2004, we were fishing 293 00:16:00,550 --> 00:16:05,070 right off the beach, tagging sharks, I think, and it was the very first set of the very 294 00:16:05,070 --> 00:16:07,410 first day of the study... 295 00:16:07,410 --> 00:16:08,410 [ Chuckles ] 296 00:16:08,410 --> 00:16:11,300 ...and this sawfish came up on the line, and -- 'cause it was always my dream catch, and 297 00:16:11,300 --> 00:16:14,029 I'd always announce, "Today's sawfish day," and it was a joke. 298 00:16:14,029 --> 00:16:15,029 [ Laughs ] 299 00:16:15,029 --> 00:16:18,970 And then that first line comes up, and here comes this huge sawfish, and it was spectacular. 300 00:16:18,970 --> 00:16:20,380 It was mad. 301 00:16:20,380 --> 00:16:21,380 Oh, man. 302 00:16:21,380 --> 00:16:22,650 How big was that one? 303 00:16:22,650 --> 00:16:23,650 So it was a juvenile. 304 00:16:23,650 --> 00:16:25,199 It was about 10 foot long is all, but – 305 00:16:25,200 --> 00:16:26,480 That's a juvenile -- 10 feet long? 306 00:16:26,480 --> 00:16:27,640 Yes, yes. Exactly. So. 307 00:16:27,640 --> 00:16:28,220 Goodness. 308 00:16:28,240 --> 00:16:30,600 What's the biggest thing you've ever seen out here? 309 00:16:30,600 --> 00:16:34,800 We have what's called a Longline Survey -- just ended, but we were surveying right off the 310 00:16:34,810 --> 00:16:39,600 Cape so we know what's around and what's not around is just as important. 311 00:16:39,600 --> 00:16:45,300 We lay what are called longlines, which is -- Basically, it's a 2,000-foot string of 312 00:16:45,300 --> 00:16:49,550 really thick fishing line that's anchored on both ends on the bottom, and every 50 foot, 313 00:16:49,550 --> 00:16:52,350 you'll clip a hook on it with some bait, and you let it sit for about half an hour, and 314 00:16:52,350 --> 00:16:56,709 then you reel it up on a winch, and we get a lot of little stuff -- I mean, they're big. 315 00:16:56,709 --> 00:16:57,709 For sure. 316 00:16:57,709 --> 00:17:01,329 You know, 4- to 6-foot long sharks are really common. 317 00:17:01,329 --> 00:17:05,240 Red drum, if you know, they get about 3 or 4 feet long, and so sometimes we'll set two 318 00:17:05,240 --> 00:17:06,909 if the site's really close together. 319 00:17:06,909 --> 00:17:09,490 So we set one, ran to set the other one. 320 00:17:09,490 --> 00:17:13,909 We could still see where we set the first one, we thought, but when we got back to pull 321 00:17:13,909 --> 00:17:16,999 it, our longline -- and you could tell by -- there's floats that mark each end. 322 00:17:16,999 --> 00:17:17,999 Right. 323 00:17:17,999 --> 00:17:22,459 It's nowhere to be seen, and that's really strange and, really, it gets you nervous when 324 00:17:22,459 --> 00:17:23,699 you lose a big piece of gear like that. 325 00:17:23,699 --> 00:17:24,980 So we're looking around, and – 326 00:17:24,980 --> 00:17:27,279 We're gonna need a bigger boat? 327 00:17:27,279 --> 00:17:31,090 Yeah, low-and-behold, there's our longline floats just hauling offshore. 328 00:17:31,090 --> 00:17:34,720 It takes a really, really big animal to do that. 329 00:17:34,720 --> 00:17:37,779 [Suspenseful music plays ] 330 00:17:37,779 --> 00:17:41,529 And so we caught up to it, and when we caught up to it, I realized whatever had snagged 331 00:17:41,529 --> 00:17:46,679 it had snagged it in the middle, and the line had bent around whatever fish was towing it, 332 00:17:46,679 --> 00:17:50,730 and all those other fish that were on this longline had now -- 'cause it was a really 333 00:17:50,730 --> 00:17:51,730 good set. 334 00:17:51,730 --> 00:17:55,460 Otherwise, we caught a bunch of other sharks, and they're all tangled up in this whole mess 335 00:17:55,460 --> 00:17:56,460 of longline. 336 00:17:56,460 --> 00:17:57,559 Dragging behind this thing. 337 00:17:57,559 --> 00:17:58,559 Yes. 338 00:17:58,559 --> 00:17:59,880 And so we catch up to it. 339 00:17:59,880 --> 00:18:02,330 We sort of, basically, cleat this line off to the boat. 340 00:18:02,330 --> 00:18:03,999 It starts to drag the boat, as well. 341 00:18:03,999 --> 00:18:04,999 [ Laughs ] 342 00:18:04,999 --> 00:18:07,330 And we're working on these sharks, and we want to get the sharks off and measure them 343 00:18:07,330 --> 00:18:11,729 and let them go, and it starts to occur to me that what else can this be... 344 00:18:11,729 --> 00:18:12,729 Yeah. 345 00:18:12,729 --> 00:18:14,649 ...but a great white shark. 346 00:18:14,649 --> 00:18:15,649 Right. 347 00:18:15,649 --> 00:18:18,460 [ Suspenseful music continues ] 348 00:18:18,520 --> 00:18:21,220 'Cause, I mean, it was literally towing our boat. 349 00:18:21,220 --> 00:18:25,400 So I started getting excited, and so, like I mentioned before, white sharks get a little 350 00:18:25,409 --> 00:18:26,409 too much hype, you know. 351 00:18:26,409 --> 00:18:27,409 Right. 352 00:18:27,409 --> 00:18:29,260 And so I sort of -- It's like, "Eh," you know. 353 00:18:29,260 --> 00:18:33,279 I played the tough guy like, "I don't want to see a white shark. 354 00:18:33,279 --> 00:18:34,989 You know, they get too much love." 355 00:18:34,989 --> 00:18:39,540 But once I realized we might actually have one, I started getting sort of excited about it. 356 00:18:39,540 --> 00:18:42,380 You know, they're saying, "Eric, settle down, settle down," but I was very -- I was confident 357 00:18:42,389 --> 00:18:43,479 this thing was a white shark. 358 00:18:43,479 --> 00:18:48,399 And, we finally, after like two hours, we caught up to it, and we got right there. 359 00:18:48,399 --> 00:18:50,529 This is the grand finale. 360 00:18:50,529 --> 00:18:52,489 And I've never seen a white shark in person. 361 00:18:52,489 --> 00:18:53,489 Sure. 362 00:18:53,489 --> 00:18:54,489 And it turned out it was a... 363 00:18:54,489 --> 00:18:56,200 [ Suspenseful music continues ] 364 00:18:56,200 --> 00:18:56,980 It wasn't a white shark. 365 00:18:56,989 --> 00:18:58,469 It was a giant manta ray... 366 00:18:58,469 --> 00:18:59,649 [ Water splashes ] 367 00:18:59,649 --> 00:19:00,669 ...which is – 368 00:19:00,669 --> 00:19:02,419 How giant are we talking? 369 00:19:02,419 --> 00:19:06,269 Oh, they get huge, but they're supposed to be here, and it just didn't occur to me that 370 00:19:06,269 --> 00:19:08,570 we could have caught a manta ray, and manta rays, they feed on plankton. 371 00:19:08,570 --> 00:19:13,559 So what happened, it had just sort of swam into the net, and it got hooked on its fin 372 00:19:13,559 --> 00:19:15,850 for a while, and this thing was probably about 15 foot wide. 373 00:19:15,850 --> 00:19:17,159 It was a huge animal. 374 00:19:17,159 --> 00:19:18,159 Oh. 375 00:19:18,159 --> 00:19:19,159 Crazy. 376 00:19:19,159 --> 00:19:21,200 So I would actually circle back to your original question, "What's the biggest animal you've 377 00:19:21,200 --> 00:19:22,200 seen?" 378 00:19:22,200 --> 00:19:23,200 That's probably it. 379 00:19:23,200 --> 00:19:24,200 Yeah. 380 00:19:24,200 --> 00:19:27,139 But I was, I guess, sort of highly disappointed that it wasn't a white shark. 381 00:19:27,139 --> 00:19:28,139 [ Laughs ] 382 00:19:28,139 --> 00:19:31,260 And my coworkers bring it up not daily, but quite often. 383 00:19:31,260 --> 00:19:32,260 [ Laughs ] 384 00:19:32,260 --> 00:19:35,440 They don't let me forget how excited I got about the white shark that I had been ho-humming 385 00:19:35,440 --> 00:19:37,359 for years and years, so... 386 00:19:37,359 --> 00:19:38,359 [ Laughs ] 387 00:19:38,359 --> 00:19:39,359 Awesome. 388 00:19:39,359 --> 00:19:41,450 Well, Dr. Reyier, I appreciate you coming in. 389 00:19:41,450 --> 00:19:42,120 Okay. 390 00:19:42,120 --> 00:19:43,440 Thanks for being here. 391 00:19:43,450 --> 00:19:44,609 I wish you the best of luck. 392 00:19:44,609 --> 00:19:46,010 Thanks for taking care of our environment. 393 00:19:46,010 --> 00:19:47,010 Yeah, this was fun. 394 00:19:47,010 --> 00:19:49,950 Thanks for looking out for us, and happy fishing, happy research -- all of the above. 395 00:19:49,950 --> 00:19:50,700 Okay. 396 00:19:50,700 --> 00:19:53,500 Thank you very much. 397 00:19:53,860 --> 00:19:58,400 As Kennedy's Exploration Ground Systems ramps up for the first launch of the new Space Launch 398 00:19:58,409 --> 00:20:04,270 System rocket, crawler driver Sam Dove with contractor Jacobs puts the behemoth transporter 399 00:20:04,270 --> 00:20:06,700 that will take it to the launchpad into gear. 400 00:20:08,220 --> 00:20:09,679 All right, I am back in the booth. 401 00:20:09,679 --> 00:20:12,080 Today I've got Sam Dove. 402 00:20:12,080 --> 00:20:15,700 Sam is a driver of our crawler-transporter. 403 00:20:15,700 --> 00:20:17,159 So, hey, Sam. 404 00:20:17,159 --> 00:20:18,159 Thanks for being here today. 405 00:20:18,159 --> 00:20:19,159 You're welcome. 406 00:20:19,159 --> 00:20:21,639 To make sure people understand, this is a pretty massive machine. 407 00:20:21,639 --> 00:20:26,739 When we talk about you're a driver of a crawler, that may not sound that large, but we're talking 408 00:20:26,739 --> 00:20:32,960 about you can put a professional baseball diamond on top of the crawler. 409 00:20:32,960 --> 00:20:33,960 Is that about right? 410 00:20:33,960 --> 00:20:35,970 Yeah, you could fit a baseball diamond on top. 411 00:20:35,970 --> 00:20:40,129 That's one of the things that gives everybody an idea, you know, just how big it is. 412 00:20:40,129 --> 00:20:41,299 What is the crawler used for? 413 00:20:41,299 --> 00:20:43,080 Why do we need such a large-tracked vehicle? 414 00:20:43,080 --> 00:20:46,350 Well, the crawler's used to pick up the mobile launcher. 415 00:20:46,350 --> 00:20:51,940 Which currently is a massive platform with a massive tower attached to it, which, I think 416 00:20:51,940 --> 00:20:54,849 I'm hearing, weighs on the order of, like, 10 to 12 million pounds when it's done -- something 417 00:20:54,849 --> 00:20:55,849 like that? 418 00:20:55,849 --> 00:20:56,849 Yeah. 419 00:20:56,849 --> 00:20:59,909 The rocket is stacked in its entirety on top of the mobile launcher. 420 00:20:59,909 --> 00:21:01,229 We pick that whole assembly up. 421 00:21:01,229 --> 00:21:04,269 The lifting capacity is about 18 million pounds. 422 00:21:04,269 --> 00:21:07,599 We carry it out, take it to the launchpad, set it down on the launchpad. 423 00:21:07,599 --> 00:21:09,859 Anything big has to be moved, we move it. 424 00:21:09,859 --> 00:21:13,249 How do you get to the job of driving a crawler-transporter? 425 00:21:13,249 --> 00:21:18,169 I worked here for 30 years at Kennedy Space Center -- first 10 years in Design Engineering, 426 00:21:18,169 --> 00:21:21,760 and then the last almost 21 on the crawler as an Operations Engineer. 427 00:21:21,760 --> 00:21:24,649 And you mentioned that was because you guys -- you're not just a driver. 428 00:21:24,649 --> 00:21:25,649 Right. 429 00:21:25,649 --> 00:21:28,570 You do a lot of different things, and so the engineering comes in with maybe not so much 430 00:21:28,570 --> 00:21:30,149 the driving aspect, but some of the other elements. 431 00:21:30,149 --> 00:21:31,519 What else do you guys do? 432 00:21:31,519 --> 00:21:34,080 Well, I'm also a Certified Test Conductor. 433 00:21:34,080 --> 00:21:38,019 The Test Conductor's in charge of the operation on the crawler, in charge of all 30 people 434 00:21:38,019 --> 00:21:40,130 and everybody you have to have in all the operations. 435 00:21:40,130 --> 00:21:43,580 I'm in charge of keeping things going, keeping the flow going right, making sure the checklists 436 00:21:43,580 --> 00:21:44,580 are followed. 437 00:21:44,580 --> 00:21:48,220 Also, a Certified Jacking, Equalization, and Leveling Operator. 438 00:21:48,220 --> 00:21:53,859 Engineers usually do those three jobs, and part of that, you have to know all the crawler 439 00:21:53,859 --> 00:21:57,710 systems, how to repair them, what's got to happen, what's wrong, how to troubleshoot 440 00:21:57,710 --> 00:22:00,470 if you have to do any mods on the crawler. 441 00:22:00,470 --> 00:22:04,990 We know dealing with any machinery, nothing works 100% of the time, so, can you give me 442 00:22:04,990 --> 00:22:09,039 kind of a feel of what are, maybe, some common issues or what's maybe, like, the weirdest 443 00:22:09,039 --> 00:22:11,620 thing that's ever happened to the crawler -- things that jump out at you? 444 00:22:11,620 --> 00:22:15,789 Most of the time, it's well-behaved, and we take a lot of pride in doing our maintenance 445 00:22:15,789 --> 00:22:18,039 and everything, but, occasionally, you know, it is a machine. 446 00:22:18,039 --> 00:22:22,849 It might have a roller or bearing go out, or maybe you have something go wrong with 447 00:22:22,849 --> 00:22:26,859 the generator or maybe a transducer. 448 00:22:26,859 --> 00:22:27,859 It's never the same, right? 449 00:22:27,859 --> 00:22:32,590 I mean, the same thing never hardly ever breaks two times in a row. 450 00:22:32,590 --> 00:22:37,590 We've broken a shoe before, and that single shoe has to be able to carry the whole weight 451 00:22:37,590 --> 00:22:39,799 that's pushed down on it through the rollers. 452 00:22:39,799 --> 00:22:43,460 I think everybody's pretty familiar with a bulldozer or something like that. 453 00:22:43,460 --> 00:22:44,460 Sure. 454 00:22:44,460 --> 00:22:48,950 You can think of that and just take each one of those pieces of that track and just make 455 00:22:48,950 --> 00:22:51,320 it about 20 times bigger, right? 456 00:22:51,320 --> 00:22:52,320 [ Laughs ] 457 00:22:52,320 --> 00:22:59,000 And each shoe does weigh 2,000 pounds, so you definitely have to come to a stop for that. 458 00:22:59,000 --> 00:23:00,279 And it can be a lot of things. 459 00:23:00,279 --> 00:23:04,139 You just have to go troubleshoot the system, go figure out what's wrong, and fix it. 460 00:23:04,139 --> 00:23:06,299 Now, we have a lot of redundancy on the crawler, as well. 461 00:23:06,300 --> 00:23:11,160 So, a lot of times, you can just shut that down and go to the redundant system and continue on. 462 00:23:11,160 --> 00:23:14,840 If you don't have redundancy, then what we have is a big support team behind us, right? 463 00:23:14,840 --> 00:23:19,190 When we're rolling, we usually have everybody that we need to call back and say, "Hey, we 464 00:23:19,190 --> 00:23:22,730 need this part -- out of stock," and those folks, they're great. 465 00:23:22,730 --> 00:23:25,190 I mean, they take care of us so good. 466 00:23:25,190 --> 00:23:27,340 When it gets there, our techs go change that stuff out. 467 00:23:27,340 --> 00:23:29,229 We test it, then back on the road again. 468 00:23:29,229 --> 00:23:32,090 Thinking about something like that, how long are we talking? 469 00:23:32,090 --> 00:23:33,150 Like, what kind of delay is this? 470 00:23:33,150 --> 00:23:35,580 Is this, like, 30 minutes, a couple hours? 471 00:23:35,580 --> 00:23:37,359 How do we compare to Triple-A? 472 00:23:37,359 --> 00:23:38,369 [ Laughs ] 473 00:23:38,369 --> 00:23:39,379 Oh. 474 00:23:39,380 --> 00:23:42,220 Well, if they had to come tow, Triple-A would make a fortune, right? 475 00:23:42,220 --> 00:23:42,740 [ Laughs ] 476 00:23:42,740 --> 00:23:43,540 Listen. Listen. 477 00:23:43,540 --> 00:23:45,680 Is there a vehicle big enough to tow a crawler? 478 00:23:45,680 --> 00:23:46,760 'Cause I'd love to see that vehicle. 479 00:23:46,760 --> 00:23:48,340 The other crawler. 480 00:23:48,349 --> 00:23:49,349 [Both laugh ] 481 00:23:49,349 --> 00:23:55,229 So we call it "the crawler," and I think it's with good reason we call it "the crawler." 482 00:23:55,229 --> 00:23:58,190 When you open this thing up, and you go full speed ahead, what are we talking about on 483 00:23:58,190 --> 00:23:59,479 top speed here? 484 00:23:59,479 --> 00:24:05,029 Well, it has the power, the electrical power to do 2 miles an hour, but you never would 485 00:24:05,029 --> 00:24:06,049 do that, right? 486 00:24:06,049 --> 00:24:07,049 [ Laughs ] 487 00:24:07,049 --> 00:24:08,320 So top speed is 2 miles an hour? 488 00:24:08,320 --> 00:24:13,060 Yeah, well, that's what all the specifications say, but we've never -- I mean, I've never 489 00:24:13,060 --> 00:24:16,200 added up past more than a quarter, you know? 490 00:24:16,200 --> 00:24:16,720 Okay. 491 00:24:16,720 --> 00:24:17,420 [ Chuckles ] 492 00:24:17,420 --> 00:24:19,080 You just wouldn't want to do that. 493 00:24:19,080 --> 00:24:21,300 It's too hard on the equipment, too hard on what you're carrying. 494 00:24:21,300 --> 00:24:22,299 Sure. 495 00:24:22,299 --> 00:24:26,830 And you can accomplish the same thing in a slightly slower speed, you know, and get there 496 00:24:26,830 --> 00:24:29,169 with less chance of damaging anything. 497 00:24:29,169 --> 00:24:30,929 It just takes you an hour or so longer. 498 00:24:30,929 --> 00:24:32,940 And what's the total time on that trip? 499 00:24:32,940 --> 00:24:34,519 Obviously you're not moving very fast. 500 00:24:34,519 --> 00:24:36,379 How far is it and how long does it take you? 501 00:24:36,379 --> 00:24:37,590 Well, it depends. 502 00:24:37,590 --> 00:24:39,860 It's a four-and-a-half-mile trip. 503 00:24:39,860 --> 00:24:45,600 Usually seven to eight hours, but the trip in between, it's everything you have to do 504 00:24:45,600 --> 00:24:49,259 to get ready -- you know, to get under the load, pick it up, make sure everything's disconnected, 505 00:24:49,259 --> 00:24:52,820 pick it up, carry it out, and then do the reverse when you get there. 506 00:24:52,820 --> 00:24:54,200 You know, get it set down, make sure everything's – 507 00:24:54,200 --> 00:24:55,080 Sure. 508 00:24:55,080 --> 00:24:59,300 And the crawler provides a lot of other services to the mobile launcher -- you know, a lot 509 00:24:59,309 --> 00:25:01,080 of power and things like that. 510 00:25:01,080 --> 00:25:03,879 So there's a lot of connections and disconnections have to be done. 511 00:25:03,879 --> 00:25:09,700 The whole rollout -- you know, it really depends on how things go, but it can run anywhere 512 00:25:09,700 --> 00:25:11,610 from 16 to 20 hours. 513 00:25:11,610 --> 00:25:15,960 And so thinking about kind of a day -- this day of your work. 514 00:25:15,960 --> 00:25:18,239 Obviously, we don't move the things on the crawler every day. 515 00:25:18,239 --> 00:25:19,239 Right. 516 00:25:19,239 --> 00:25:22,130 So when it is a crawler moving day, what's that day look like for you? 517 00:25:22,130 --> 00:25:23,330 Like, how does the shift work? 518 00:25:23,330 --> 00:25:25,460 Do you sit in the driver chair the whole time? 519 00:25:25,460 --> 00:25:27,649 Walk me through a day. 520 00:25:27,649 --> 00:25:33,070 Well, typically, if we're moving, we have assignments that we sit down, and myself and 521 00:25:33,070 --> 00:25:34,639 another engineer make the assignments. 522 00:25:34,639 --> 00:25:40,009 Usually you spend -- You could spend anywhere from one to two hours driving, and then we 523 00:25:40,009 --> 00:25:44,789 switch and rotate around, and then you come and spend one to two hours operating the leveling 524 00:25:44,789 --> 00:25:50,840 system, and if you're certified, then you come to spend one to two hours as a test conductor, 525 00:25:50,840 --> 00:25:56,820 and then other times when you're not scheduled for anything, you're constantly on the move 526 00:25:56,820 --> 00:26:01,490 or checking systems to make sure everything's good, make sure we have no problems, and constantly 527 00:26:01,490 --> 00:26:05,080 checking with our guys, making sure they're okay, and, you know, just generally making 528 00:26:05,080 --> 00:26:08,200 sure that the mission's going smooth and the crawler's all right. 529 00:26:08,200 --> 00:26:09,350 And what's it like inside? 530 00:26:09,350 --> 00:26:13,149 So thinking about you're obviously not driving the whole day. 531 00:26:13,149 --> 00:26:14,419 You're taking on different tasks. 532 00:26:14,419 --> 00:26:15,559 What's it like to be inside. 533 00:26:15,559 --> 00:26:17,510 What kind of environment is it? 534 00:26:17,510 --> 00:26:20,700 Okay, the crawler's divided up into sections, believe it or not. 535 00:26:20,700 --> 00:26:21,940 You have the cabs where you… 536 00:26:21,940 --> 00:26:23,249 It's big enough to, right? 537 00:26:23,249 --> 00:26:24,249 Yeah, it is. 538 00:26:24,249 --> 00:26:25,249 [ Chuckles ] 539 00:26:25,249 --> 00:26:27,220 But you have the cabs where you actually drive from. 540 00:26:27,220 --> 00:26:33,119 There's a console in there with buttons, switches, dials, meters, and computer screen, of course, 541 00:26:33,119 --> 00:26:34,719 and a lowrider-type steering wheel. 542 00:26:34,719 --> 00:26:40,229 It's a very small steering wheel, and -- but it's all fly-by-wire, right? 543 00:26:40,229 --> 00:26:45,019 So you spend some time driving in there, and then inside the control room, which is in 544 00:26:45,019 --> 00:26:51,389 the middle of the crawler, and on the side, too, you have all the operations, the consoles, 545 00:26:51,389 --> 00:26:53,659 everything for the jack equalization leveling. 546 00:26:53,659 --> 00:26:58,049 You can see the test conductor is in there, and from there, the test conductor can see 547 00:26:58,049 --> 00:27:03,400 everything that happens on the crawler -- pressures, temperatures, RPM, what's running, what's not. 548 00:27:03,400 --> 00:27:06,739 You know, you got a camera system where you can see where everybody's at, how things are 549 00:27:06,739 --> 00:27:08,720 doing in the engine rooms and the pump rooms. 550 00:27:08,720 --> 00:27:14,309 You can see how high we are, how low, how fast we're going, laser-docking things -- everything 551 00:27:14,309 --> 00:27:18,870 like that -- what kind of power we're generating, how our generators are doing, and how the 552 00:27:18,870 --> 00:27:22,950 computers are working out – virtually everything you can see on the crawler's in the control 553 00:27:22,950 --> 00:27:24,039 room. 554 00:27:24,039 --> 00:27:27,200 And then, on each end of the crawler, you have an engine room -- on engine room 3, and 555 00:27:27,200 --> 00:27:30,109 one on engine room 1. 556 00:27:30,109 --> 00:27:35,649 We have an Alco engine in there connected to two dc generators, and then we have a Cummins 557 00:27:35,649 --> 00:27:40,490 engine connected to an A.C. generator that provides all our A.C. power, and then in the 558 00:27:40,490 --> 00:27:43,940 middle, the very middle, we have our pump room, which has our jacking, equalization, 559 00:27:43,940 --> 00:27:48,389 and leveling system motors and pumps and the steering system motors and pumps, and all 560 00:27:48,389 --> 00:27:52,149 of the superchargers and things like that you have to have to run the pressure up, and 561 00:27:52,149 --> 00:27:59,139 you have about a 2,200- or 2,300-gallon hydraulic tank in the middle that holds all the hydraulic 562 00:27:59,139 --> 00:28:03,539 fuel, and then on the opposite end, you have the same configuration of the engines again 563 00:28:03,539 --> 00:28:05,399 except they're just kind of mirrored over. 564 00:28:05,399 --> 00:28:08,999 You have an Alco engine on that end and another Cummins engine. 565 00:28:08,999 --> 00:28:11,889 Do you know what the fuel efficiency of the crawler is? 566 00:28:11,889 --> 00:28:12,889 Any idea? 567 00:28:12,889 --> 00:28:15,460 Sometimes, you know, the Cummins engines, when they're carrying a lot of electrical 568 00:28:15,460 --> 00:28:22,300 load, you'll use 35 gallons an hour just on those, and you might see somewhere around 569 00:28:22,300 --> 00:28:30,520 90 gallons or, say, 75 to 90 on the Alco engines depending on the load and how hard you're running. 570 00:28:30,520 --> 00:28:33,159 How long have we been using these crawlers for now? 571 00:28:33,159 --> 00:28:38,659 Since day one of the -- Well, it started with the Apollo Program, and that was one of the 572 00:28:38,659 --> 00:28:43,590 main concerns of the Apollo Program – could the crawler actually carry a Saturn V rocket 573 00:28:43,590 --> 00:28:50,759 and the tower, right -- which you think back to 1963, '64, '65, even '66, it was still 574 00:28:50,759 --> 00:28:56,049 unknown, and it was a question whether it could happen, but the guys who designed it, 575 00:28:56,049 --> 00:29:00,470 they knew what they were doing -- did a real good job with it, made a few modifications 576 00:29:00,470 --> 00:29:05,109 here and there, and it's been able to carry every rocket we've had since Saturn V through 577 00:29:05,109 --> 00:29:07,669 the Shuttle and now up to Space Launch System. 578 00:29:07,669 --> 00:29:09,890 So, we're traveling to the launchpad. 579 00:29:09,890 --> 00:29:10,890 What are we driving on? 580 00:29:10,890 --> 00:29:11,890 Is this just concrete? 581 00:29:11,890 --> 00:29:13,899 Is this a normal road? 582 00:29:13,899 --> 00:29:16,399 What is the structure like that you travel on? 583 00:29:16,399 --> 00:29:20,639 The crawler weighs -- It's the size of an interstate, a modern-day interstate, right? 584 00:29:20,639 --> 00:29:24,799 Like a full interstate, right -- not just like a full interstate lane, it's a full-width 585 00:29:24,799 --> 00:29:25,799 interstate. 586 00:29:25,799 --> 00:29:28,599 Right -- full-width interstate, two lanes on each side and a median in the middle. 587 00:29:28,599 --> 00:29:34,480 Originally, they planned to put down asphalt the entire way, but, as it turns out, you 588 00:29:34,480 --> 00:29:41,889 know, 12 to 16 million pounds -- in this case, 18 million -- crushes asphalt up pretty good, 589 00:29:41,889 --> 00:29:45,969 and when you try to turn, it kind of heaves it up a lot. 590 00:29:45,969 --> 00:29:52,259 So what they found out was that the best thing for the crawler to have is a limestone base 591 00:29:52,259 --> 00:29:58,159 with about 8 to 12 inches of gravel on top of that, and so the crawler rides down the 592 00:29:58,159 --> 00:30:03,029 crawler way on this cushion of gravel and also helps with the coefficient of friction 593 00:30:03,029 --> 00:30:08,009 in turn, and it smoothes the ride out a little bit, but it makes it easier on what you're 594 00:30:08,009 --> 00:30:09,039 carrying, as well. 595 00:30:09,039 --> 00:30:11,850 Just to kind of paint a picture for people, if you drive past the crawler way, if you 596 00:30:11,850 --> 00:30:17,899 drive alongside it, at high speeds, it looks like tiny pebbles, basically, filling the 597 00:30:17,899 --> 00:30:18,899 crawler way. 598 00:30:18,899 --> 00:30:20,789 So, why are we using what we're using there? 599 00:30:20,789 --> 00:30:25,840 Okay, think of the gravel on a crawler way as like the creek gravel you put in your flower 600 00:30:25,840 --> 00:30:26,980 beds at home, right? 601 00:30:26,980 --> 00:30:27,640 Okay. 602 00:30:27,640 --> 00:30:28,540 Only bigger. 603 00:30:28,540 --> 00:30:29,420 [ Laughs ] 604 00:30:29,420 --> 00:30:30,420 Way bigger. 605 00:30:30,440 --> 00:30:34,619 They're not the small pebbles you have, but it's the same texture, same color. 606 00:30:34,619 --> 00:30:36,700 They have the same roundness to them. 607 00:30:36,700 --> 00:30:38,940 It's just larger gravel, right? 608 00:30:38,940 --> 00:30:43,210 And they use that to fill the crawler way, the crawler rides on it. 609 00:30:43,210 --> 00:30:47,109 The crawler doesn't have a suspension, so that helps out with the smoothness of the 610 00:30:47,109 --> 00:30:51,659 ride, also with the turning and everything, and it helps -- it's easier to groom that 611 00:30:51,659 --> 00:30:55,870 type of gravel, too, to keep the crawler way conditioned and fit, and it makes it a lot 612 00:30:55,870 --> 00:30:59,269 easier for the crawler leveling system to keep everything level and equal. 613 00:30:59,269 --> 00:31:02,709 So thinking about leveling, when you get out to the launchpad, you're actually driving 614 00:31:02,709 --> 00:31:05,169 up a mound, and people have seen images of that. 615 00:31:05,169 --> 00:31:07,450 You know that it's definitely an elevated structure there. 616 00:31:07,450 --> 00:31:08,450 Right. 617 00:31:08,450 --> 00:31:10,350 So, are we tipping our rocket over as we ride up the hill? 618 00:31:10,350 --> 00:31:11,350 No, not at all. 619 00:31:11,350 --> 00:31:16,190 The crawler keeps everything within a couple of inches, right -- keeps it level and equal 620 00:31:16,190 --> 00:31:18,509 from end to end, side to side, and across. 621 00:31:18,509 --> 00:31:23,399 If you think of the crawler having an "X" across it, it keeps it level and equal across 622 00:31:23,399 --> 00:31:30,320 there, and as you go up the pad surface on the slope, the front end comes down as low 623 00:31:30,320 --> 00:31:34,659 as it can go, and the back end will rise up as high as it can go to its limits, and that 624 00:31:34,659 --> 00:31:38,750 way it keeps it very level as you go up and gives it a smooth ride, and as we reach the 625 00:31:38,750 --> 00:31:43,969 top of the pad, everything jacks back down and gets it level and equal again, and then 626 00:31:43,969 --> 00:31:46,169 we go over the mounts and we set it all down. 627 00:31:46,169 --> 00:31:47,169 Cool. 628 00:31:47,169 --> 00:31:51,739 Clearly, this is a hulking machine, but how finite is the control? 629 00:31:51,739 --> 00:31:55,789 Because once we get up to the launchpad, I think you got to park it in a pretty specific 630 00:31:55,789 --> 00:31:56,789 spot, right? 631 00:31:56,789 --> 00:31:57,789 We do. 632 00:31:57,789 --> 00:31:59,789 Yeah, "hulking" makes it sound – 633 00:31:59,789 --> 00:32:00,789 [ Laughs ] 634 00:32:00,789 --> 00:32:07,839 It's pretty much of a -- The crawler -- I can make the crawler go so slow, you can barely 635 00:32:07,839 --> 00:32:09,009 tell it's moving. 636 00:32:09,009 --> 00:32:10,009 Hmm. 637 00:32:10,009 --> 00:32:14,529 Or we can go up to the fastest speed it will let us go -- you know, .8. 638 00:32:14,529 --> 00:32:21,099 .9, one mile an hour, but it does it, and it will speed up and slow down in a very nice 639 00:32:21,099 --> 00:32:24,679 manner, and you have to remember, this is not all computer-controlled. 640 00:32:24,679 --> 00:32:26,139 The driver controls it. 641 00:32:26,139 --> 00:32:27,139 Sure. 642 00:32:27,139 --> 00:32:31,679 And once our drivers get proficient, you can speed up and slow down in such a nice manner 643 00:32:31,679 --> 00:32:35,440 that the instrumentation -- some of the instrumentation guys are watching like, "Wow. 644 00:32:35,440 --> 00:32:37,719 That almost looks like a computer did it." 645 00:32:37,719 --> 00:32:38,719 [ Laughs ] 646 00:32:38,719 --> 00:32:42,779 You can steer and you can get this thing, you can set that mobile launcher down. 647 00:32:42,779 --> 00:32:47,359 Right now -- In the Shuttle Program, we were held to a 2-inch circle, right, to set the 648 00:32:47,359 --> 00:32:52,269 mobile launch down, and a mobile launcher has six guide pins that stick down. 649 00:32:52,269 --> 00:32:53,269 Okay. 650 00:32:53,269 --> 00:32:57,529 These guide pins, they're a good foot across, probably 18-inches long, and you have to put 651 00:32:57,529 --> 00:33:02,169 those down on top of the mounts to fit them in the holes, and we can set that down -- In 652 00:33:02,169 --> 00:33:06,549 the Shuttle Program, again, they allowed us 2 inches -- a circle of one inch each way. 653 00:33:06,549 --> 00:33:09,979 Well, with S.O.S., it's one inch, right? 654 00:33:09,979 --> 00:33:11,139 So it makes it a little harder. 655 00:33:11,139 --> 00:33:12,139 [ Laughs ] 656 00:33:12,139 --> 00:33:13,139 But we can set that down in there. 657 00:33:13,139 --> 00:33:16,149 With the crawler, you can get it right up in there, and you can set that thing down 658 00:33:16,149 --> 00:33:21,799 left or right or back and forward depending on what -- you go north or south. 659 00:33:21,799 --> 00:33:26,320 But you can set that down within that one-inch circle, and you can repeat that virtually 660 00:33:26,320 --> 00:33:27,320 every time. 661 00:33:27,320 --> 00:33:28,320 Awesome. 662 00:33:28,320 --> 00:33:29,320 Yeah. 663 00:33:29,320 --> 00:33:33,399 We're talking about a vehicle that travels on a very special driveway, probably has pretty 664 00:33:33,399 --> 00:33:35,639 unique and specialized parking spaces. 665 00:33:35,639 --> 00:33:39,339 Have you ever run into problems getting in somebody else's way? 666 00:33:39,339 --> 00:33:40,749 No, no. 667 00:33:40,749 --> 00:33:48,440 A number of years ago, one of the security guards out here decided it would make a great 668 00:33:48,440 --> 00:33:50,490 joke, you know -- which to us was pretty funny. 669 00:33:50,490 --> 00:33:52,169 I don't know, but – 670 00:33:52,169 --> 00:33:53,169 [ Laughs ] 671 00:33:53,169 --> 00:33:55,409 We parked in a place we don't normally park. 672 00:33:55,409 --> 00:33:59,049 Just sometimes you'll leave the crawler on the crawler way overnight, or whatever -- sometimes 673 00:33:59,049 --> 00:34:04,009 at the midfield park site, and sometimes you might be at one of the refurb sites. 674 00:34:04,009 --> 00:34:09,760 And so they left a warning on the side of the windshield, right -- on the door... 675 00:34:09,760 --> 00:34:10,760 [ Laughs ] 676 00:34:10,760 --> 00:34:12,549 ...and said, "Hey, you guys are parked in the wrong spot." 677 00:34:12,549 --> 00:34:13,549 [ Laughs ] 678 00:34:13,549 --> 00:34:16,069 Hey, Sam, I appreciate you coming in today. 679 00:34:16,069 --> 00:34:18,019 Thank you for your and your team's work. 680 00:34:18,019 --> 00:34:20,510 Obviously, if we don't get to the launchpad, we can't fly. 681 00:34:20,510 --> 00:34:21,510 Right. 682 00:34:21,510 --> 00:34:24,069 So, you guys are a huge part of what we do here, and thanks for coming. 683 00:34:24,069 --> 00:34:28,679 I really appreciate it, and the crawler crew, you know, they're 100% behind what we're doing. 684 00:34:28,679 --> 00:34:30,919 Those guys -- we have very little turnover. 685 00:34:30,919 --> 00:34:32,579 Those guys really stick to their job. 686 00:34:32,579 --> 00:34:34,549 They make sure everything works. 687 00:34:34,549 --> 00:34:40,760 Basically, when they call us to go do something, that's what we do. 688 00:34:40,760 --> 00:34:44,889 So far we've covered land and sea, now to the air. 689 00:34:44,889 --> 00:34:48,490 Keeping an eye on the Ranch from up above is helicopter pilot Dave Ramsey. 690 00:34:48,490 --> 00:34:49,490 All right. 691 00:34:49,490 --> 00:34:55,000 I'm in the booth this morning with Dave Ramsey, who has the extraordinary task of flying helicopters 692 00:34:55,000 --> 00:34:56,500 for us here at the Kennedy Space Center. 693 00:34:56,500 --> 00:34:57,500 Dave, good morning. 694 00:34:57,500 --> 00:34:58,500 Good morning. 695 00:34:58,500 --> 00:35:01,480 And tell me a little bit about yourself, kind of your background, how you got here, and 696 00:35:01,480 --> 00:35:02,480 what you do for KSC. 697 00:35:02,480 --> 00:35:03,829 Well, I'm Dave Ramsey. 698 00:35:03,829 --> 00:35:06,480 I'm the Chief of Flying Operations here at Kennedy Space Center. 699 00:35:06,480 --> 00:35:11,289 My day-in-and-day-out job is to be a helicopter pilot and manage the aviation assets here 700 00:35:11,289 --> 00:35:12,990 on KSC. 701 00:35:12,990 --> 00:35:17,589 So that means I get to fly our helicopters and work with our drone guys to make sure 702 00:35:17,589 --> 00:35:19,539 we're giving you guys the products you need. 703 00:35:19,539 --> 00:35:24,240 So, obviously, people know what desk jobs are like, but people don't know what the job 704 00:35:24,240 --> 00:35:26,839 of a helicopter pilot really looks like. 705 00:35:26,839 --> 00:35:28,440 So, what do you do when you're in the air? 706 00:35:28,440 --> 00:35:31,039 Are you just flying around, checking things out? 707 00:35:31,039 --> 00:35:32,950 What's going on? 708 00:35:32,950 --> 00:35:34,119 So here at Kennedy, yeah. 709 00:35:34,119 --> 00:35:38,730 So we use the helicopters for a number of purposes -- primarily, our security. 710 00:35:38,730 --> 00:35:44,420 We're flying around, making sure people aren't doing things in places that they shouldn't 711 00:35:44,420 --> 00:35:50,839 be or aren't in places they shouldn't be, looking for fishermen or hunters who are doing 712 00:35:50,839 --> 00:35:56,250 -- poaching game or in the wrong areas inadvertently. 713 00:35:56,250 --> 00:35:58,580 So that's the primary mission that we do. 714 00:35:58,580 --> 00:36:06,770 We also support our biological guys here - our bioresearch guys who keep kind of their fingers 715 00:36:06,770 --> 00:36:12,799 on the health of the wildlife community here -- so counting birds, counting manatees, looking 716 00:36:12,799 --> 00:36:18,530 at eagles every year, hatchlings -- those types of things, making sure that the -- or 717 00:36:18,530 --> 00:36:23,529 just recording the populations and seeing growth or identifying trends. 718 00:36:23,529 --> 00:36:24,990 We help with that. 719 00:36:24,990 --> 00:36:29,800 And then, as we talked about earlier, those videos, or if you want a beach-erosion video, 720 00:36:29,800 --> 00:36:35,640 and you want to see after a storm, for example, what the impacts were, we take teams up to 721 00:36:35,640 --> 00:36:39,790 video and document and just check out the Center to make sure. 722 00:36:39,790 --> 00:36:43,730 After a hurricane, we always take Mr. Cabana up so he can fly over the Center to get a 723 00:36:43,730 --> 00:36:49,109 good feel for the safety and when to bring people back and that type of stuff. 724 00:36:49,109 --> 00:36:54,740 So you mentioned a couple times people being in places they shouldn't or other things of 725 00:36:54,740 --> 00:36:55,740 that nature. 726 00:36:55,740 --> 00:36:57,030 Do you all find people out here a lot? 727 00:36:57,030 --> 00:37:01,400 Obviously, we're in the middle of a pretty big green area, a national wildlife refuge. 728 00:37:01,400 --> 00:37:04,010 Do you find people or things that shouldn't be here? 729 00:37:04,010 --> 00:37:05,010 Yeah. 730 00:37:05,010 --> 00:37:07,849 I mean, more than you would think, and it's, a lot of times, fishermen just in places they 731 00:37:07,849 --> 00:37:19,280 shouldn't be, or we had people picking the saw palmetto berries from the wildlife refuge, 732 00:37:19,280 --> 00:37:26,480 which isn't allowed, so we've had to run those guys off and detain people for that sort of stuff. 733 00:37:26,480 --> 00:37:34,480 So, yeah, I mean, most of it is just people not knowing, so we just, as politely as we 734 00:37:34,490 --> 00:37:36,369 can from the air, ask them to move along. 735 00:37:36,369 --> 00:37:37,369 [ Both chuckle ] 736 00:37:37,369 --> 00:37:40,650 Honk our horn at them and tell them to get moving. 737 00:37:40,650 --> 00:37:43,109 So, what do you do when it comes to launch time? 738 00:37:43,109 --> 00:37:47,670 I know that we use our aircraft for security and other things, but how are you involved 739 00:37:47,670 --> 00:37:48,670 with launches? 740 00:37:48,670 --> 00:37:53,130 Yeah, so as we get back to crew flight, we're ramping up now. 741 00:37:53,130 --> 00:37:56,890 We're doing some exercises now for a couple of things. 742 00:37:56,890 --> 00:38:03,930 Astronaut support -- escort, we'll do that again, which has been done previously. 743 00:38:03,930 --> 00:38:08,190 Security of the air during those flights. 744 00:38:08,190 --> 00:38:09,970 So we'll be ready to respond again. 745 00:38:09,970 --> 00:38:16,029 We'll be up in the air during launches, looking for anyone trying to do damage to the rocket 746 00:38:16,029 --> 00:38:19,450 or just make themselves famous. 747 00:38:19,450 --> 00:38:22,000 So we look for those kinds of things. 748 00:38:22,000 --> 00:38:27,220 People coming into the airspace that's restricted during those launches is a good indicator 749 00:38:27,220 --> 00:38:31,740 that maybe something's -- someone's not paying attention, "A," or they're out to do something 750 00:38:31,740 --> 00:38:40,020 bad -- and so we do those two things, and we also do the MEDEVAC, CASEVAC in case there 751 00:38:40,020 --> 00:38:41,490 is something. 752 00:38:41,490 --> 00:38:46,359 If something goes wrong prior to launch or during launch, we are ready. 753 00:38:46,359 --> 00:38:55,370 We have one aircraft standing by to be a CASEVAC aircraft to help move personnel to the Travel 754 00:38:55,370 --> 00:38:58,339 One Centers, or wherever directed, basically. 755 00:38:58,339 --> 00:39:04,010 Once when we departed the SLF, just as we were departing, there was an anomaly on one 756 00:39:04,010 --> 00:39:07,310 of the pads a couple of years ago. 757 00:39:07,310 --> 00:39:12,059 We had just departed the SLF, and we were flying towards the beach, flying right for 758 00:39:12,059 --> 00:39:13,690 that pad when it exploded. 759 00:39:13,690 --> 00:39:20,210 Thinking about that, I couldn't, in my mind, process what was going on at the time. 760 00:39:20,210 --> 00:39:22,570 I was like, "Why is there fire burning right there? 761 00:39:22,570 --> 00:39:24,849 What is that about?" 762 00:39:24,849 --> 00:39:25,849 [ Chuckles ] 763 00:39:25,849 --> 00:39:30,490 But the explosion, obviously, people remember how the noise, and so all of our team thought 764 00:39:30,490 --> 00:39:35,960 -- We had just departed, so they thought that maybe we'd crashed and that explosion was 765 00:39:35,960 --> 00:39:40,769 our helicopter, so everyone was on kind of high alert during that for a number -- No 766 00:39:40,769 --> 00:39:45,000 one knew what was going on just like here on Center, as well, I'm sure, but... 767 00:39:45,000 --> 00:39:49,839 In situations like that, and others, do you all take on or have training for supporting 768 00:39:49,839 --> 00:39:53,750 kind of fires or other, like, extreme situations like that? 769 00:39:53,750 --> 00:40:01,549 So we do have Bambi Buckets, which are firefighting buckets that hang under the aircraft that 770 00:40:01,549 --> 00:40:03,270 we can put water on things. 771 00:40:03,270 --> 00:40:05,370 It's not a primary mission we do, but we can support that. 772 00:40:05,370 --> 00:40:10,190 Obviously, in that situation, that's not appropriate, but what we did in that situation is just, 773 00:40:10,190 --> 00:40:15,079 we picked up our local fire team, fire chief here, flew them over the scene so then they 774 00:40:15,079 --> 00:40:18,309 could talk to the guys on the ground. 775 00:40:18,309 --> 00:40:22,809 We actually landed and picked up the on-scene commander, got him into the air so he could 776 00:40:22,809 --> 00:40:28,619 look at what was going on, where the fires were -- you know, passageways to get to them, 777 00:40:28,619 --> 00:40:30,050 pad -- those types of things. 778 00:40:30,050 --> 00:40:31,200 So we do provide that. 779 00:40:31,200 --> 00:40:37,180 It minimizes the risk for those guys, those first responders that have to go in if they 780 00:40:37,180 --> 00:40:40,921 can get a safer look from the air before their ground guys have to go in. 781 00:40:40,921 --> 00:40:45,810 And then later, we brought the drones in -- Mike Downs and his crew brought the drones in to 782 00:40:45,810 --> 00:40:53,579 fly, again, that same route and live-stream it to the convoy commander's team or there 783 00:40:53,579 --> 00:40:57,089 on the ground so they can get a look and figure out kind of what their plan of attack would 784 00:40:57,089 --> 00:40:59,000 be to get their people in there. 785 00:40:59,000 --> 00:41:05,220 So it's a good coordination effort between all of the aviation assets here on Kennedy 786 00:41:05,220 --> 00:41:08,010 to help out the Air Force, as well. 787 00:41:08,010 --> 00:41:11,720 Yeah, and I want to make sure to be clear that nobody was injured in that incident. 788 00:41:11,720 --> 00:41:16,730 Obviously not a great day for losing a rocket and a spacecraft, but there were no people 789 00:41:16,730 --> 00:41:18,680 injured that day, which was great. 790 00:41:18,680 --> 00:41:20,410 And pretty early on for your time here, right? 791 00:41:20,410 --> 00:41:21,410 Yeah. 792 00:41:21,410 --> 00:41:24,859 So that had to be a little bit stress-inducing like, "Hey, like I'm not very long on the 793 00:41:24,859 --> 00:41:28,930 job here, and I'm dealing with a serious issue like this." 794 00:41:28,930 --> 00:41:29,930 Yeah. 795 00:41:29,930 --> 00:41:33,391 I mean, in those times, everybody just wants to help, you know, so -- but you don't want 796 00:41:33,391 --> 00:41:39,059 to get in the way, but we do believe that having that platform, having an aerial platform 797 00:41:39,059 --> 00:41:45,089 here on the Center gives you the ability to see the things during those times and really 798 00:41:45,089 --> 00:41:51,710 provide insight that can guide those responding personnel, keep them safe, and keep everyone 799 00:41:51,710 --> 00:41:52,710 safe. 800 00:41:52,710 --> 00:41:58,950 So I think it's nice to be a part of that team that could provide answers when things 801 00:41:58,950 --> 00:42:00,420 get a little crazy. 802 00:42:00,420 --> 00:42:03,970 So, Dave, how are you guys involved with the wildlife that is out here? 803 00:42:03,970 --> 00:42:05,869 I know that there's a big effort there. 804 00:42:05,869 --> 00:42:09,500 Obviously, again, because it is a wildlife refuge that the view from the sky is very 805 00:42:09,500 --> 00:42:10,660 helpful in a lot of ways. 806 00:42:10,660 --> 00:42:11,950 So how are you guys involved with that? 807 00:42:11,950 --> 00:42:18,390 Yeah, so we do a lot of overflights of, like, Mosquito Lagoon and the rivers. 808 00:42:18,390 --> 00:42:23,529 It's hard to count manatee from any other way, you know, than looking down on them from 809 00:42:23,529 --> 00:42:24,529 the water. 810 00:42:24,529 --> 00:42:31,069 So we'll take the guys up and fly so they can count and get routine counts to see what 811 00:42:31,069 --> 00:42:34,759 the population's doing, when they're migrating -- those types of things. 812 00:42:34,759 --> 00:42:35,900 So we do that. 813 00:42:35,900 --> 00:42:41,740 At least once a month we'll take the guys up for a couple hours and fly pre-patterned 814 00:42:41,740 --> 00:42:43,240 routes that we fly every time. 815 00:42:43,240 --> 00:42:49,619 It's the exact route every time just to try to keep a consistent count going so they can 816 00:42:49,619 --> 00:42:53,579 form those trends and see what's going on with the health of the wildlife. 817 00:42:53,579 --> 00:42:55,549 Dave, I appreciate you being here this morning. 818 00:42:55,549 --> 00:42:59,020 Good luck out there, be safe, and thanks for all you do for us. 819 00:42:59,020 --> 00:43:00,580 Yeah, awesome. Thanks. 820 00:43:02,640 --> 00:43:06,740 Clearly, we need more than just rocket scientists to get the job done. 821 00:43:06,750 --> 00:43:10,270 Maybe your path will lead you here to join our rowdy band of pioneers. 822 00:43:10,270 --> 00:43:13,009 I'm Joshua Santora, and that's our show. 823 00:43:13,009 --> 00:43:15,029 Thanks for stopping by the Rocket Ranch. 824 00:43:15,029 --> 00:43:20,240 And special thanks to our guests -- fisherman Dr. Eric Reyier, crawler driver Sam Dove, 825 00:43:20,240 --> 00:43:21,839 and helicopter pilot Dave Ramsey. 826 00:43:21,840 --> 00:43:28,700 To learn more about all the cool things going on at the Kennedy Space Center, go to nasa.gov/kennedy. 827 00:43:28,700 --> 00:43:33,000 There are also several NASA podcasts you can check out to learn more about what's happening 828 00:43:33,010 --> 00:43:37,680 at all of our Centers at nasa.gov/podcasts. 829 00:43:37,680 --> 00:43:42,920 A special shout-out to my colleague Laura Aguiar, to our producer, John Sackman, our 830 00:43:42,920 --> 00:43:48,680 soundman, Lorne Mathre, editor Michelle Stone, and our production manager, Amanda Griffin.