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station this is houston kevin are you

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houston yes indeed i'm ready for the

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wndu-tv this is mission control houston

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i hear you loud and clear is this trisha

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this is trisha

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good to talk to you kevin we're going to

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start our uh interview now at this time

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thank you so much for being able to talk

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to us this is exciting time not only for

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the fact that as a hoosier native and

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notre dame grad being in space you also

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get to cheer on the irish who are now

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bound for the national championship game

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how closely are you able to follow the

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well i

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it's modern day technology that we have

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at nasa nowadays um they sometimes can

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pipe up through uh

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through the satellite feed um the game's

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live especially on the weekends when

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we're not doing a lot of business and

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there's a little extra data

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band pass available

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so uh the usc game i stayed up till 4 am

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my time to catch the end of that and got

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to see almost all the game it was it was

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really great to see of course

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and i've been following the season

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well that's wonderful to hear and

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hopefully you'll get to

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get to watch the game or follow the game

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on january 7th as well

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we are

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wanting to know what have been your

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biggest challenges so far aboard the

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space station you've been up there just

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well when i arrived

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right after launch i launched on the

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23rd of october and arrived at the space

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station after two days enroute we did of

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course the launch activities and some

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burns enroute and a rendezvous and

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docking right after we came aboard we

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had a lot of really dynamic activities

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with the crew who was getting ready to

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go home we had a some repairs that we

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needed to do outside outside and they

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were fully prepared to go out and do a

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spacewalk so

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that was about two and a half three days

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of really intense activity to get ready

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and execute that spacewalk we sent away

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a spacex vehicle so finished packing it

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out and deployed it so they can fly back

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to earth we received this russian

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progress vehicle as well in those few

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days and got lots of cargo aboard so for

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the first two weeks

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we were really busy with those events

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plus me handing over from the old cruise

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so that they could go home and teach me

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everything i needed to know to be here

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by myself in the u.s segment during the

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this uh four week period here until my

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for our viewers i think it would be

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interesting for them to learn a little

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bit more about your research so tell us

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most importantly what your basis of your

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well there are scientists all over the

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world who

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really are the brains behind the

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research we're doing it's world-class

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research and worldwide research if you

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will

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i just i'm helping execute an experiment

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this morning

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about binary colloids in space and in

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zero gravity they just react very

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differently they're very useful in a lot

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of machines and mechanisms on earth they

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respond to magnetism and stuff in very

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interesting ways and in microgravity

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it's a completely different ball game so

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i can see the monitors running right now

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pulsing these

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these particles as i speak

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we do a lot of medical research

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osteoporosis is one of the things that

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affects us the way it affects say

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elderly people and right now in the

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japanese segment there's an interesting

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experiment going on with madoka fish who

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generate and lose bone in the same way

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mammals do and since we're mammals the

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what happens to them completely applies

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to us so it'll be very useful maybe

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someday we can completely eliminate

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osteoporosis based on what they're

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studying

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well that makes me think about you and

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your body in space how are you doing up

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there and are you able to conduct your

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well you know what we have absolutely

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outstanding uh

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physical training equipment up here now

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right next to me here it might be out of

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your field of view but as a as a

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cycle or gometer if you will mounted

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on some some springs so it doesn't

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impact the microgravity on the space

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station so when we move around it it

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vibrates and uh and it doesn't impact

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that so i did that this morning and we

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also have a weightlifting machine we

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don't weights don't work here but we

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have ways of pushing against pistons

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that are pushing against the air

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pressure in the cabin and with

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mechanical advantage you can lift up to

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600 pounds on that machine so great

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workouts on those and we have a

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treadmill that we can run on as well the

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t2 cold bear treadmill so with bungees

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holding us down so that's great training

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for us we have physical trainers at home

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that send up prescriptions and we have

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to do what they say and throughout the

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the mission they'll continue to build me

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up so that i'll keep my bone mass and my

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muscle mass for uh so i'll be ready for

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return

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you've given me a guilt trip because i

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should be working out more especially

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after thanksgiving did you get to enjoy

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yes we did

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they put up for us

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smoked turkey we had some cranberry some

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dressing

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corn if you will we had yams candied

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yams previous crewmate left some

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marshmallow behind so we could put some

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marshmallows on the candy dams we have a

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food heater to warm things up

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we don't have a lot of refrigeration but

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occasionally we can refrigerate some

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drinks or something to have them cold

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usually room temperature or hot is the

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way we go but the uh

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at the current time i'm just here as the

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only u.s crew member and i have two

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russian cosmonaut colleagues

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at work in the russian segment today and

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we got together and i brought the food

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back and they they really enjoyed having

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some of it they really like cobbler for

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example and they surprisingly really

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loved the

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corn the cornbread stuffing i thought

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was interesting so they enjoyed that

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with me

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well that's one of my favorites too

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what do you miss the most about earth

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well being up here for a long time you

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know one of the fun things about getting

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here is the zero gravity and floating

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around but it also makes things very

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difficult this morning i had to take

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some books apart and put new pages in

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the books and when you open them up the

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pages just fly away so i went near a

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vent and it kind of held them in place

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an inlet vent because sometimes gravity

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is really your friend and of course we

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we're totally experienced in gravity

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that's all we know for the most part so

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when you get up here it makes things fun

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but it also makes things very difficult

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and then of course you know it's a it's

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a metallic plastic environment up here

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so you miss this the sights and the

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smells of home and of course so many

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faces we we get to see each other and my

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crewmates are like brothers to me but to

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see a lot of people is is a rare thing

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so you kind of miss social interaction

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and you miss the environment of earth

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which you know we were really built for

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we have some viewer questions from

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facebook i'd like to ask you at this

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time

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mike has this question there is a big

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push to go beyond our planet do you

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think mankind will someday populate a

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moon or another planet in our solar

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some days a long time and i absolutely

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think they will um one of the things i'm

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so proud about is that we're taking uh

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you know

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some of the countries who can afford it

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the most affluent countries on the world

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are doing something for the future

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whether it's 200 years from now or

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whether it's 600 years from now this is

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the start that we're taking and some

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someday we will go to other places to

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live and um

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there's no no question about it it's a

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necessity actually if humankind wants to

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survive forever more so

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i think that's going to happen

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here's one more question from tara do

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you think the u.s will ever have a

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manned shuttle program again or will the

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future of space travel be an

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well i hope it's always an international

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effort all the international partners

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can bring a lot to the plate space

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travel is very complicated there are a

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lot of elements involved there's supply

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delivery there are

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you know

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experiments that having all the

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brightest minds around the planet can

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can bring can bring to the plate uh just

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things just advancing the cause of space

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exploration we need all those ideas and

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right now this international space

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station all the partners uh come

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together and supply us with the

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capability we built this space station

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using the canadarm2 supplied by canada

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the um the power is uh for the most part

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all supplied by

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the us and the com system is supplied by

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the us cargo delivery now starting to be

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supplied and from u.s

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commercial vendors and also our russian

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partners our crew transportation right

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now as russian provided so it's good

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that all these elements come together to

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make what the space station is i think

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we'll have a shuttle program to get to

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and from low earth orbit again someday

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but what form it'll take

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because your guess is as good as mine

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kevin thank you for your time today go

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yeah okay go irish and play like a

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champion and i try i like to live by

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that up here to playing like a champion

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on board so

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great to hear from you at wndu trisha

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station this is houston acr that

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concludes the wndu tv portion of the

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event please stand by for a voice check

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from the observer

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station this is the observer how do you

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i hear you loud and clear and i get

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observer emails but i don't get to as

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much chance to read them right now how

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are you doing down there and uh at notre

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dame uh we're doing well it's uh it's

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good to have a good football team as you

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yeah it's a lot of fun it makes the

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season great i love college football

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season anyway but it's really special

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this year uh especially watching the

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games from in space

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yeah that was actually gonna be my first

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question you've been able to follow the

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games i i i gather and watch the the usc

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we have a high data rate com system

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that on weekends is not all tied up with

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passing uh

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you know scientific data and stuff and

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they pump a little bit of tv up here on

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it it's not the best quality but i can

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follow what's going on for sure

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um

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do you have any sort of uh notre dame

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memorabilia or anything up there with

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yeah i actually had the

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aeronautics and astronaut

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aerospace and mechanical engineering

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department ame department uh supply me

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with a little token that's kind of a

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memorabilia and i brought up a little uh

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god country notre dame coin along and a

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class ring for me and my daughter who i

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have a son and daughter who are also

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notre dame grads and

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then a small wardrobe of notre dame uh

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notre dame shirts and memorabilia

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um going back a little bit um

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you know

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from notre dame what sort of lessons

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from your education and time here at

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notre dame have stuck with you

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throughout your

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well that you never know what's going to

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be important to you sometime down the

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road

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you know this is an international

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program so courses i had in the social

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sciences

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a funny thing that happened to me senior

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year was i found out late that i needed

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one more social science because i was an

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engineering graduate and the one that

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fit just happened to be intro to russian

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and i took intro to russian and i speak

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russian now on a daily basis up here in

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space with my russian colleagues

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uh you know all the branches of

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education are important to you but

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of course of course the major major is

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important to

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what you want to do as well and then i

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would just add to it you never know

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where you're going to end up for sure in

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a career field so any education is great

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education

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was uh was being an astronaut sort of a

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lifelong dream for you obviously you're

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an aerospace engineer but did you did

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you know you wanted to do this um from

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well i you know i i suppose i kind of

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feel like a lot of kids you know there

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are a lot of a lot of jobs out there you

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just think are really cool when you see

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people doing them

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and

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you know an astronaut was always one of

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them that

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seemed special to me i never really

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thought that it was a possibility

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because i knew the numbers were so small

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but i did know i wanted to be in

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aviation and be in engineering and i

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i was an air force pilot and became an

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air force test pilot and from there it

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was kind of a next step because the

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space shuttle is is really kind of the

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the top of the line really cool flying

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machine if you will so that's why i

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ended up applying to the space shuttle

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program and and being an astronaut

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um

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what sort of uh

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what sort of surprised you about being

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in space um i mean i'm sure you've been

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training for this for for a long long

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time but is there anything that sort of

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00:14:04,949 --> 00:14:01,750
well um i make little mistakes all the

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time being in zero gravity and uh things

355
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things surprise me things float away

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00:14:13,509 --> 00:14:10,000
from you uh very quietly

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um you learn as you get here after

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you've been here a few weeks you kind of

359
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forget about where the floor is and

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where the walls are in the ceiling are

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and you can just operate kind of in any

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orientation and be happy there so it

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kind of surprises me how your mind

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adapts to that which way to turn passing

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through modules and everything whether

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whether you're in any orientation and

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the other thing that surprises you is is

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just how bright blue the beautiful earth

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is out there every time you see it

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it's uh it just it just glows it's like

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it's neon so it's uh it's the surprising

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view for with that with your own eyes

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um how long are you going to be on this

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station and what what are your maybe top

375
00:15:02,629 --> 00:15:01,030
well my top goals are to serve the

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increment manager and the science

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program there are people on the ground

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who put together my daily schedule and

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today i'm conducting an experiment with

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huntsville alabama called in space it's

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about binary colloids in space and so

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day to day i do maintenance and take

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care of the space station

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as the increment managers and flight

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directors direct me to do so i'm really

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just the

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the people around the world who

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who put these experiments together and

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decide what we want to do in space i'll

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be up here until

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the middle of march is the plan maybe

392
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longer you never know so

393
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keep my fingers crossed i do enjoy being

394
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up here

395
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so it'll be a total of about a five

396
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um

397
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i suppose uh what's a an average

398
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along those

399
00:16:01,990 --> 00:15:55,680
lines is an average day mostly work do

400
00:16:08,069 --> 00:16:05,509
i would say my recreation time in a day

401
00:16:10,389 --> 00:16:08,079
so far has been pretty limited maybe two

402
00:16:12,550 --> 00:16:10,399
like an hour a day my recreation is

403
00:16:14,949 --> 00:16:12,560
usually watching a video or a tv show

404
00:16:16,949 --> 00:16:14,959
while i'm on a treadmill or while i'm on

405
00:16:19,350 --> 00:16:16,959
an exercise machine so we get a two and

406
00:16:21,590 --> 00:16:19,360
a half hours a day of exercise and we

407
00:16:23,590 --> 00:16:21,600
kind of consider that recreation and

408
00:16:25,990 --> 00:16:23,600
then we were scheduled for six and a

409
00:16:28,069 --> 00:16:26,000
half hours of activities and then with

410
00:16:29,749 --> 00:16:28,079
meals and getting ready for conferences

411
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and collecting things and just taking

412
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care of yourself and getting a good

413
00:16:36,230 --> 00:16:34,079
night's sleep it fills the day so not a

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00:16:38,629 --> 00:16:36,240
lot of recreation right now but i did

415
00:16:39,749 --> 00:16:38,639
stay up until 4 a.m on saturday night my

416
00:16:42,069 --> 00:16:39,759
time

417
00:16:44,150 --> 00:16:42,079
to watch that west coast game of notre

418
00:16:46,629 --> 00:16:44,160
dame against usc up here live i watched

419
00:16:47,910 --> 00:16:46,639
it to the very end and it was fantastic

420
00:16:49,110 --> 00:16:47,920
you guys must be really having a good

421
00:16:52,150 --> 00:16:49,120
time with that

422
00:16:54,550 --> 00:16:52,160
uh we we sure are um

423
00:16:56,389 --> 00:16:54,560
it's been it's been fun and for for a

424
00:17:00,310 --> 00:16:56,399
senior this is couldn't ask for a better

425
00:17:00,320 --> 00:17:05,510
um one last question for you

426
00:17:13,029 --> 00:17:07,990
uh what message do you have to current

427
00:17:18,230 --> 00:17:15,510
you know i i would say um

428
00:17:20,549 --> 00:17:18,240
i feel very very lucky to be in this job

429
00:17:22,230 --> 00:17:20,559
i know it's a very unique job uh one of

430
00:17:24,150 --> 00:17:22,240
the things that that makes me sad is

431
00:17:25,590 --> 00:17:24,160
that more people can't come

432
00:17:27,270 --> 00:17:25,600
off the planet and see what it looks

433
00:17:29,750 --> 00:17:27,280
like and and what a space station is

434
00:17:32,230 --> 00:17:29,760
like and live out here and

435
00:17:34,150 --> 00:17:32,240
i never expected to be able to be here i

436
00:17:36,150 --> 00:17:34,160
applied for the astronaut program many

437
00:17:39,350 --> 00:17:36,160
times and was rejected

438
00:17:40,710 --> 00:17:39,360
and finally when i was 40 years old i

439
00:17:42,870 --> 00:17:40,720
just happened to

440
00:17:44,870 --> 00:17:42,880
to fall into a slot and get selected now

441
00:17:47,430 --> 00:17:44,880
i'm now i'm over 50 and finally flying

442
00:17:49,590 --> 00:17:47,440
in space so you know persistence is a

443
00:17:50,549 --> 00:17:49,600
big is a big thing if you really want

444
00:17:53,029 --> 00:17:50,559
something

445
00:17:55,190 --> 00:17:53,039
find find good ways to go after it if a

446
00:17:56,710 --> 00:17:55,200
door closes for you you know find

447
00:17:58,710 --> 00:17:56,720
another door that you would love to go

448
00:18:00,630 --> 00:17:58,720
in and try that too and you never know

449
00:18:01,990 --> 00:18:00,640
where you'll end up in life so

450
00:18:03,510 --> 00:18:02,000
appreciate all the classes you're

451
00:18:05,190 --> 00:18:03,520
getting when i look back on my career at

452
00:18:06,070 --> 00:18:05,200
notre dame i think of all those classes

453
00:18:08,470 --> 00:18:06,080
i had

454
00:18:11,190 --> 00:18:08,480
and how how many of them came into play

455
00:18:13,029 --> 00:18:11,200
later that i never expected would so

456
00:18:14,630 --> 00:18:13,039
that would be my message to the students

457
00:18:16,230 --> 00:18:14,640
and and you got to get it out of the

458
00:18:18,070 --> 00:18:16,240
book so keep keep in there and keep

459
00:18:21,190 --> 00:18:18,080
studying spend some time in the library

460
00:18:24,549 --> 00:18:21,200
in a carol like i used to

461
00:18:26,470 --> 00:18:24,559
well i appreciate it um we'll uh

462
00:18:28,950 --> 00:18:26,480
we'll keep sending out those emails and

463
00:18:30,710 --> 00:18:28,960
if you get a free free uh

464
00:18:36,070 --> 00:18:30,720
free moment it'd be nice to know that an

465
00:18:39,830 --> 00:18:38,310
it's it's great i've been i've been i

466
00:18:41,590 --> 00:18:39,840
love the fact that you guys send those

467
00:18:43,110 --> 00:18:41,600
out and i love keeping up with what's

468
00:18:45,029 --> 00:18:43,120
going on on campus not just the course

469
00:18:46,549 --> 00:18:45,039
of sports but all the other things you

470
00:18:48,950 --> 00:18:46,559
guys are experiencing too because it is

471
00:18:51,110 --> 00:18:48,960
like it is like home for me we just flew

472
00:18:53,350 --> 00:18:51,120
over south bend just about uh one orbit

473
00:18:55,750 --> 00:18:53,360
ago by the way made it almost direct

474
00:18:58,070 --> 00:18:55,760
pass overhead it was still uh dark hours

475
00:18:59,590 --> 00:18:58,080
i think on the ground for you so

476
00:19:01,029 --> 00:18:59,600
nothing visible but

477
00:19:03,029 --> 00:19:01,039
we'll i'll keep my eye out and try to

478
00:19:04,070 --> 00:19:03,039
get a shot of the dome sometime

479
00:19:08,630 --> 00:19:04,080
all right

480
00:19:11,830 --> 00:19:10,390
you're welcome and i always have to just

481
00:19:13,669 --> 00:19:11,840
go upside down and finish out the

482
00:19:15,830 --> 00:19:13,679
conference i'll turn around and show you

483
00:19:21,110 --> 00:19:15,840
my best side you guys take care of notre

484
00:19:28,310 --> 00:19:23,669
station this is houston acr thank you

485
00:19:34,310 --> 00:19:30,630
houston acr thank you very much i think

486
00:19:38,070 --> 00:19:36,150
thank you wndu tv and the observer