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ksc good morning

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good morning

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can you can you join me in saying

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welcome home atlantis welcome home

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atlantis what a wonderful amazing day it

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is my name is cheryl hurst and i'm the

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have the honor of being the director of

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education and external relations for ksc

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and it is my privilege to be part of

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this program today and to be here with

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all of you

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first up this morning we have a very

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special member of our family miss susan

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lambert who has graced us with her voice

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to thousands of people who have seen

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shuttle launches over the years and

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she's with us today

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oh

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say can you see

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by the dawn's early

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light

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what so

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proudly we

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hail

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at the

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twilight's last gleaming

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who's brought stripes and bright stars

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through the

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perilous fight

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or the

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reports we

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watched were so gallantly

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streaming

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gave proof through the night

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that our flag was still there

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oh say does that star-spangled

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the

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thank you susan as always amazing

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next up to lead us in our pledge of

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allegiance we have the youngest members

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of our ksc family and our next

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generation of explorers

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united states

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ladies and gentlemen please join me in

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thanks cheryl hey

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you know i had all kinds of fancy

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talking points for this but uh words

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can't express

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what i want to say to this team

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and i don't know how to say thank you

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enough

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nobody expected us to be able to perform

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the way we did on these last few

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missions

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and i can't tell you how proud i am

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to be able to serve you and how proud i

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am of all of you

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we process these vehicles

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through launch and recovery

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better than we ever have before

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and that's knowing that many are going

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to be out of work and yet you performed

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flawlessly right up to the very end and

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i just can't say enough good things

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about the dedication that this team has

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so from the bottom of my heart

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and from the administrator from all of

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us from our nation from nasa from ksc

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now we got a lot to celebrate today an

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outstanding mission

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a successful program for 30 years and

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you know you cannot we couldn't have

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done what we did without the space

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shuttle the hubble space telescope

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magellan galileo ulysses the

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international space station you know

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none of it would have been accomplished

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without the space shuttle but you know

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in the end the space shuttle is just

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hardware what really makes nasa what

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makes ksc

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is each and every one of you this team

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and we're going to celebrate today and

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we're going to have a lot of hugs

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because we're going to say goodbye to

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some folks all right

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but

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come next week

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the shuttle programs come to an end it's

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coming to a close all right and we knew

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it was coming but we are going to take

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all that energy in this dedicated team

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and we are going to focus it on the

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future and now without focusing on the

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shuttle without having to ensure that we

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brought it home safely

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through the end of the program which we

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accomplished go one put aside now we can

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focus all that energy on enabling

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commercial space and preparing those

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launch pads for a big rocket because

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we are going to leave low earth orbit we

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are going to go exploring we are going

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to utilize that mobile launch platf uh

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tower over there mobile launcher big

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rockets are going to roll out of this

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building out to pad b that's being

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prepared right now and we're going to

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make that happen because of all of you

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in commercial space is going to happen

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because of all of you so

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from the bottom of my heart you know

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hang in there you know thank you for all

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you've done and let's go make uh let's

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now

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uh there's gonna be two people that are

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gonna be a little upset with me for this

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but before the administrator speaks i'm

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going to ask charlie to come on up here

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and

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you know this is a contractor civil

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service team and there are two people i

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know

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that have gone above and beyond to

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ensure the success of this team through

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these last few flights and i would like

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uh rita wilcoxson and patty stratton to

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now

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rita and patty are the absolutely last

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persons that would want this recognition

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and that's why it's so important that

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they get it because i don't know of any

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two people that care more about this

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team standing here right now that works

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for them they take care of you like you

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wouldn't believe and

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i want to make sure that they get

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recognized and so uh the administrator

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is going to award nasa's highest honors

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the distinguished service medal and the

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distinguished public service medal to

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so

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these awards go to uh rita wilcoxon and

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patty stratton and the uh the citation

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on both is exactly the same

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for continuous outstanding leadership

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contributions provided to the nation's

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space shuttle program signed and sealed

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at washington dc this 21st day of july

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2011

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can you tell me where you're at

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all right

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well done and now

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okay

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it's all about you guys it's not about

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us you're the best team ever thank you

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so much for everything you've done these

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last couple years we couldn't be more

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proud of everybody we did it together

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so we'll just say it real quick after 30

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all right thank you thank you for all

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you do and here's our administrator

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charlie bolden thank you thank you

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and because i'm not as eloquent in

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moments like this as bob cabana who can

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just spout stuff off the top of his head

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i bear with me because i do have some

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things that i jotted down that i really

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do want to share with you but first of

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all lori come up here for a second i

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want

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uh

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my deputy lori garvey and i have been

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down here and we have had just an

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absolutely incredible

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man it's been more than 12 hours now uh

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with all of you today you cannot believe

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how proud we are of all of you

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oh i'm sorry you cannot believe how

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proud we are of all of you but i just

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wanted to have her come up uh you know

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and join me right now so that we can

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thank you together and uh let you know

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that we're ready to move so we're ready

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to move on thank you thanks we love you

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thank you for everything

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okay now

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um

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and i know there's kind of a some of you

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don't work here

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i hope

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uh you know some of you are family i

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think

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because i know we have some of the kids

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so

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the words i'm gonna say today are for

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all of you

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because although they're directed at our

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employees as some of you have heard me

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say before this really is a team effort

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and

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those of us who are privileged to come

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out and do the work around here every

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day we're able to do it because of the

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families back home that support us the

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spouses the kids everything else so so

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my thanks go to you also although you

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may not be called out specifically in my

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remarks

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but i want everybody to understand

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today's landing of atlantis you know it

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marks the end of an era

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and it's something as bob said that we

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knew was coming we've known it for quite

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some time

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uh mike leinbach in his press conference

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mentioned the fact that you know you

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uh

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it's difficult going through changes

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because if initially you deny it

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you know then you get angry

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and then you do something else and then

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you finally realize that it's here and

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so i think for all of us uh today is the

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day that we realize that it's here but

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it took an entire nasa family to get us

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to this point today when laurie and i

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were sworn in on the 17th

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of uh july two years ago

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we said that our number one objective

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was to safely fly out the shuttle

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and thanks to all of you here today we

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accomplished that when uh when fergie

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called out wheel stop that mission was

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done and as patty and rita said we could

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not have done that without all of you uh

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we did it incredibly well if you look at

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the orbiter uh i mean it is spotless

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and as john shannon who has run the

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shuttle program for a number of years

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said to me this afternoon you know this

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is what we were aiming for we've been

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working on constant improvement we

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wanted to bring the vehicle back home

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today without a flaw and that's the way

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it is so you all should be very very

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privileged

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i counted on you as an astronaut

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and i now count on all of you as the

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nasa administrator and you all have

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never let me down never let me down

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thousands of us thousands of men and

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women across the country

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and some around the world actually

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have made this amazing flying machine

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space worthy time and time again

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planned and managed its big and

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inspiring missions

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and ensured that they were carried out

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as safely as possible and with the

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utmost precision and professionalism

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our debt

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to all of you cannot be repaid but

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history will remember this incredible

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feat and this incredible era

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it's my great honor to be here today

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with laurie to welcome commander chris

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ferguson and his 135 crew

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the final space shuttle crew

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and we were on the runway and greeted

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them as they came out of the orbiter and

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let me tell you they were looking great

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and they were as happy as they could be

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and they had an opportunity to thank

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some of you for giving them the

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privilege of doing what they did

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i salute them and all of the men and

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women who have flown shuttle missions

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since the very first launch on april 12

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1981.

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as we move forward we stand on the

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shoulders of these astronauts and the

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tens of thousands of people

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who supported us on the ground

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as well as those who cheered our

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triumphs and mourned our tragedies

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this final shuttle flight

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makes the end of an era

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but also the start of a remarkable new

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chapter in our nation's story of

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exploration

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children some of them here

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earlier

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who dream of being astronauts today

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won't get to fly on the space shuttle

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but one day they may walk on mars

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the future belongs to them

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and to us

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just like those who came before us we

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have an obligation to set an ambitious

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course and take an inspired nation along

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for the journey

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i was proud to be a part of the shuttle

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program and will carry those cherished

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memories and experiences with me for the

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rest of my life

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but i'm also ready to get on

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with the next big challenge

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i want to send american astronauts where

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we've never been before

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by focusing our resources bob said on

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exploration and innovation

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while leveraging the private sector

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support to take americans to the

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international space station

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in low earth orbit

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we're going to do it together

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but today

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let's celebrate all that we've

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accomplished together

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here at kennedy and across the nation

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we've made 30 years of incredible

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incredible history

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you know

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i want you to know as you celebrate this

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afternoon that you have my and nasa's

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enduring gratitude and respect god bless

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every one of you god bless the united