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this week at nasa

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i would like to return

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and and command

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sts-134

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astronaut mark kelly will remain

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commander of sts-134

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whether kelly would lead the mission as

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scheduled was in doubt when his wife

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arizona congresswoman gabrielle giffords

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was critically wounded in a shooting

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that occurred in tucson early last month

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giffords continues her recovery in a

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houston hospital her days are filled

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from the time she gets up at 8 o'clock

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until after 6 pm with

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six hours of speech occupational

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physical therapy

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so she's got very busy days

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and meals in between

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and i started to think

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about sts-134 about the mission my crew

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the fact that i've been training for it

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for

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nearly a year and a half

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and considering

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a bunch of other factors including how

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what gabrielle would want me to do

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and what her parents and her family and

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my family would like

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you know i ultimately made the decision

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this will be mark kelly's fourth trip

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into space targeted to launch on april

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19th sts-134 is a two-week mission to

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the international space station

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and the next to last scheduled flight in

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slow down when we get three feet out

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the newest member of the sts-133 crew

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continues training with his five

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discovery crewmates for their upcoming

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mission to the international space

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station steve bowen a veteran of two

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space flights replaced tim copra as

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mission specialist too after copra

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injured himself in a bicycle accident

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bowen joins commander steve lindsey

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pilot eric boe and mission specialists

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mike barrett nicole stott and alvin drew

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on sts-133

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together they'll deliver and install the

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permanent multi-purpose module the

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express logistics carrier for and

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provide critical spare components to the

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space shuttle discovery awaits them at

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the kennedy space center's launch pad

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39a after riding the 3.4 miles from the

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vehicle assembly building atop its giant

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meanwhile nasa engineers and technicians

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at the marshall space flight center

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continue their investigation into those

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cracks found on parts of space shuttle

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discovery's external tank the first of

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the cracks were discovered during

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sts-133's failed launch attempt last

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november 5th

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new test data are improving confidence

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that the repairs already completed on

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more than a hundred of the et's

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so-called stringers have space shuttle

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discovery ready for her february 24th

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targeted launch date the 21 foot long

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metal stringers connect the cone-shaped

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liquid oxygen tank on top with the

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oblong liquid hydrogen tank on the

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bottom our testing is going to make sure

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that these stringer repairs

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are at least as good as the the tank was

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as it ever was

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sts-133 is the final scheduled flight

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and now centerpieces

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scientists working on nasa's kepler

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mission announced they have discovered

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more than 1100 planetary candidates in

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the space telescope's field of view

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the findings are based on the results of

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observations of more than 156 000 stars

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conducted between may and september of

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2009

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now these are candidates

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but most of them i'm convinced will be

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confirmed in the coming months and years

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that's more than all the people have

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found so far in history

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among the 1100 planet candidates the

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kepler science team has found 54 that

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are orbiting in their star's habitable

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zone a region where liquid water could

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exist on the surface of a planet

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five of those candidates are near earth

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size and the other 49 range in size from

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twice the size of the earth to larger

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than jupiter

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ground-based observatories and nasa's

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spitzer space telescope will be used

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this spring and summer to help determine

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if these candidates can be validated as

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planets

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not only is the kepler team finding

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individual planetary candidates they are

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also discovering some of their first

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multi-planet systems as well

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they have detected 86 potential

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planetary systems that may have two or

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more planets

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one system named kepler-11 has been

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confirmed to have at least six planets

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orbiting a sun-like star

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the kepler-11 planetary system is

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amazing it's amazingly compact it's

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amazingly flat

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there's an amazingly large number of big

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planets orbiting close to their star

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we didn't know such systems could even

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exist

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scientists are excited that the number

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of planetary candidates discovered in

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four months worth of data shows promise

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that a relatively large number of

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think of this high-tech tinker toy as a

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giant recycling effort literally

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engineers at nasa's langley research

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center recently dug the pieces out of

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six crates that were in storage

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the struts and nodes were from a

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research project done back in the early

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90s you want to put it in like this

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the 315 struts and 84 nodes are part of

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a space structure concept for a large

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orbiting telescope almost 46 feet in

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diameter the idea was to design a

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lightweight and compactly stored

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configuration that astronauts could

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easily put together during a spacewalk

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the structure we have behind me

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was called the precision segmented

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reflector it's a 14 meter diameter

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it's the primary support truss for the

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mirrors

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for for the primary mirror of a

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telescope what was once a project for

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humans will now become an experiment for

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robots

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langley human robotics systems

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researchers are working with the goddard

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space flight center and a university to

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see if machines can build the trust

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system

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west virginia university and goddard are

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starting to do research in robotic

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assembly and robotic operations in space

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they have a huge facility it's beautiful

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it's new they've got a big flat floor

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with a shuttle arm

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they've got three or four other robots

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so we decided

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uh it would be very nice

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to ship them this hardware

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but first the humans used langley's

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airplane hangar the only place with

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enough empty available space indoors to

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assemble the massive structure

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that way they could ensure their robot

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colleagues stayed away would have all

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the pieces they need to try to put the

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this aj26 rocket test engine was removed

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from its test stand at the center space

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center after two successful firings

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convinced engineers that a third was

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unnecessary

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the aerojet a26 will power the first

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stage of orbital sciences corporation's

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taurus ii a rocket that's scheduled to

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start delivering commercial cargo and

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supplies to the international space

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station beginning early next year

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under nasa's cots or commercial orbital

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transportation services program orbital

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is slated to conduct eight cargo

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missions to the iss the testing of the

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actual flight engine is scheduled to

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begin february 7th

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and that's this week at nasa for more on