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okay

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good morning andy

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good morning

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and how are you just buying marine corps

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i'm always great on the marine corps day

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as you can see we got the second copy of

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the flight plan thanks

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okay dave go ahead

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okay as you know uh just as the

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satellite departed we

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uh

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disabled auto reconfiguration and

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therefore we should understand fully the

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configuration of the satellite and in

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our few passes we've made we've gotten

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two-way calm with esto through estell

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and we've found some unusual unexpected

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configurations on the satellite

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first of all as you know there are three

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modes we can command to the satellite

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two of those modes do not require the

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onboard satellite computer and we are

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successful in commanding with those

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modes only

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mode three which requires the computer

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we were unable to command

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and we are not able to reset the onboard

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we were able to turn rope on

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sla on the pvlas flashing and the

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ammeter on

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we cannot command the drbs we've turned

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on the earth sensors

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and we've gotten good response to all

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this based on bus currents to our

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commanding

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but our data does indicate we've had a

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global ram

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maybe the ram itself or uh interactions

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inter

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the the computer that doesn't appear to

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be running is required for amc amcs

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processing

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and um

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so we feel that that's not working

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correctly

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the xy gyros are running although the z

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gyro and the skew gyro we found powered

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off

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in terms of the nitrogen system and this

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was unexpected

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in terms of the nitrogen system the tank

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pressure reads near zero the take

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temperatures are very cold

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both consistent with a depletion of

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onboard nitrogen

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and our data indicated that both inline

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thrusters one and two and both main isil

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valves are open

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and depleted gas

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this is interesting because the onboard

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computer itself

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did not have the capability as you know

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to command

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both

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sets of inlines and isos open and our

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data indicates they are open

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we have another estel pass coming up in

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a little while we're going to make

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contact again

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we're going to command the isil valves

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closed along with the inline thruster

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valves

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and we're going to monitor response and

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try to be more certain that we're

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actually interacting with the satellite

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and not just seeing aberrant data

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the bus voltage is so good all above 30

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volts

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well the main bus is at 29.6 but the

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battery volts are above 30.

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we should have enough battery life to

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keep communicating with the satellite

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for one or two more days

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so we'll keep you status there's has

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been an event on the satellite that we

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okay i copy all that and appreciate the

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call on that and also i guess the

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one in it that comes up you'll give us a

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call sometime about fighting i guess

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absolutely we'll keep you informed and

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right i asked a group of sixth graders

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from wright denney elementary school in

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west virginia to come up with some

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questions for you today and many of

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these students want to know if you were

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ever scared during the mission let me

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direct that one to uh to jeff hoffman

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and to scott horowitz jeff you seemed

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pretty agitated when you reported the

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broken tether to mission control last

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well um

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it was a huge surprise i mean i i think

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what what you heard in my voice was

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definitely an urgency that uh

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that we may well have to do something

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and of course uh we've always known that

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if the tether breaks and it breaks

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uh at a long distance away from the the

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shuttle you know the tether is stretched

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a little bit when it's in space so it's

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like a it's like a huge rubber band that

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you've pulled out

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and if it breaks

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uh away from the shuttle then we've got

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that huge coiled rubber band coming down

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at us and we've got to do something

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about it uh that that's why

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andy allen is as soon as i called tether

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break rushed over to the window threw

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the camera out of the way i threw my

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camera away

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and uh you know we were ready to

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uh look at the tether coming back at us

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and

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clear of it

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you hardly have time to get scared in a

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situation like that because you really

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have to act and if you're

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if you're really scared then you can't

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do anything but we were certainly uh

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surprised

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uh very quickly we realized that uh the

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tether had broke right at the shuttle so

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instead of coming back towards it was

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moving away from us and we and the

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shuttle were in no danger and uh and at

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that point

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it was uh of course it was a big shock

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and uh our responsibility then is to

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collect data and to try to photograph

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what's going on so that we can uh figure

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out after the mission what happened let

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me let me talk to umberto and mauricio a

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little bit about the tethered satellite

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what did you learn during the five hours

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that it operated before it broke away

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well i would say that we learn a lot

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about the electrode dynamic tether

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in fact we were able to generate power

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up to

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uh one kilowatt i would say so

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the experiment was running uh

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nominally and they were gathering a lot

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of data

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and i think that in fact even though the

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the debtor broke and we never got on

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station

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we had quite a good data to analyze uh

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for for a while and we we can surely

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uh

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assess much better the behavior of the

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of together at this eyeball that was

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never done before

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and i want to to

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to point at the fact that this kind of

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experiment is impossible to to do on

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earth so this is really the only the

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only place where you can do an

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is still working i think it's

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extraordinary despite all that it's been

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through it's still operating we have

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ground contact with it and i want to

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point out

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uh it's something which obviously we we

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would have preferred people not get a

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chance to see this but we have a

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satellite up there now with 20

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kilometers of tether on it

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and it will be visible from the ground

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uh it should be an absolutely awesome

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sight because the 20 kilometers of

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tether

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assuming that it's all strung out will

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be

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uh

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will be definitely visible to the naked

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eye and it will be the only time in most

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for most people that they'll ever be

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able to see something in earth orbit

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that's other than a point of light

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they'll actually see a line moving

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through the sky

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people in the southern united states so

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i hope newspapers and

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tv

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programs like yours will uh

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contact the the people who make the

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orbital predictions let people know

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all over the world when they're able to

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see the tethered satellite going over

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because it it will be an absolutely

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awesome sight

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in fact this is the largest man-made

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object that's ever been in space i guess

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all right i am um i've got a question uh

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from me for jeff what is the best thing

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that has happened to you on this mission

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i know there's been a lot of

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disappointments but i'm sure there's

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well

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we had taken the challenge of of getting

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this satellite deployed and i think all

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of us uh

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had this

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wonder about what was it gonna look like

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to see 20 kilometers of tether you know

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sometimes when i i'm driving uh home to

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work and i see a skyline of houston and

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it's about 13 miles away

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and uh and i think gosh that's a long

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way and we're actually gonna have a

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tether strung out

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shuttle and the satellite that's that's

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13 miles long

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it's it's just extraordinary and we've

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now actually seen that with with our

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eyes and and we've uh we've actually

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shown

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that all of our systems work to get it

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out there and i think i think we're very

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very

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happy that we were able to get that far

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obviously um we only

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succeeded in part of the journey we

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would have preferred to get to the end