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okay station this is houston are you

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station is ready for the event

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notre dame public information and

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communications office this is mission

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control houston please call station for

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station this is the notre dame public

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information and communications office

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i have you loud and clear who am i

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speaking with today

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i thought it was dennis good to hear

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your voice dennis i just wanted to make

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sure

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to you kevin good to see you and it's

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really an honor and a privilege to speak

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thank you very much and welcome aboard

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the international space station uh we

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have we had a great christmas yesterday

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and uh well rested and i've been looking

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forward to this event since i saw it on

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the schedule uh about four or five days

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ago so welcome aboard dennis and welcome

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aboard to all the notre dame community

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great to have you on board international

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thanks very much

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let me uh let me begin with a couple of

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questions you know

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there's a lot of excitement surrounding

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the notre dame football team and i know

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you're a big irish football fan and

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so maybe you could tell us a little bit

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about how you've been able to follow the

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team this season both in star city

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russia as well as after your launch and

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well it's been a bit of a challenge

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dennis but uh the navy game that you

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played in ireland was the week before

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the weekend before i left for russia to

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begin this long journey to the

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international space station uh so i

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didn't i really kind of wanted to go to

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that game my my previous commander who

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was up here is a uh as a graduate of

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annapolis and i was hoping to to make it

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to that game but it didn't work out the

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schedule got busy so i came to russia

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and in star city we have armed forces

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network and i was able to watch some of

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the games through there like on regular

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tv but then i went from russia on to

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kazakhstan about

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maybe a third of the way into the season

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and there i had to watch via enter

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internet and uh it wasn't the greatest

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system in the world and the uh the rate

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was pretty good i could keep up with the

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games i could always tell who won pretty

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much real time but i didn't get to see

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every single play unfortunately and then

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on the space station we get uh we get a

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ku band some community communications to

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the satellites that's normally used for

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science data but on the weekends if it's

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free they'll let us get a little bit of

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a tv up through a net meeting

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application so i've been able to watch

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it we do have gaps in coverage so

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sometimes you miss some of the critical

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parts and you have to come back and get

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an update on the score but i've been

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able to follow the team and see a lot of

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plays and i've got some pictures of me

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in front of a screen with notre dame

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football players on the laptop in the

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international space station to send you

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oh that's great to hear um any

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impressions on the season i'm sure

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very excited to watch it there were some

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nail biters in there and there were some

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late nights for me

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the west coast games that start in the

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evening start about 1 a.m here on board

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the space station so i was up in the

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middle of the night and had to do some

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recovering on sunday

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the season's been fantastic i thought

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about you a lot i know

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you you're involved in all aspects of

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what's going on at the university but of

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course when the football team is having

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a special season like that you must be

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all very busy very proud obviously very

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proud of the team and and and the whole

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university the way they've handled it

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and looking forward to the the big game

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in miami against alabama i asked houston

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for a little bit of slack on the morning

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following the big game so i can catch

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most of it during the middle of the

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night and still function well the next

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day on space station but the teams

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played great obviously the defense is

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very special and the offense is just

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really clicking and i am looking forward

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to a great game on the the 7th of

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you'll have you'll have the highest view

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of the of the game a bird's eye view so

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to speak and

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any words of encouragement for coach

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kelly and the team as they prepare for

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i think uh i think he uh he knows how to

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motivate those players uh you know a big

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part of motivation is just absolutely

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doing your best every day

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um i don't know if you can see it dennis

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my son and daughter are notre dame grads

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as you might remember too and my

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daughter made me a sign that says

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explore like a champion today i have it

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above the uh the airlock here that goes

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out into some of our working modules and

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it's it's good motivation for me to put

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my hand on there and tap it once in a

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while as i go to work every day to

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remember that every day is very

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important and and you only have so many

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opportunities in life and you need to

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give it your best every day that's what

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we do on the space station this is a

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once in a lifetime opportunity for me

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and we give it our all and i know the

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players will give it our all their all

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too on on the big day just like they

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have all season so

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those opportunities are very rare and i

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expect them to be on the top of their

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great thanks kevin

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what about

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station you're the commander now and uh

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can you tell us a little bit about your

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responsibilities in that role and and

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well day to day uh we have six members

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on board three cosmonauts and three u.s

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segment crew members we have one

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canadian on board chris hadfield another

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u.s astronaut tom marshburn just arrived

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to join me

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and

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day to day we are all busy with the

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technical details i do the same

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technical work that they do and we all

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three do science essentially for uh for

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those people on the ground who really

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have great ideas to explore up here and

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we're just the hands-on if you will we

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get the racks set up we can put the

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experiment devices inside take care of

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all those kinds of things to get science

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done a big part of running a space

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station though too is day-to-day

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operations and maintenance on the

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various things we need to live on board

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so about half of our time is split with

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science and half with maintenance as the

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commander i just want to make sure

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everybody's happy that our schedules all

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fit together well and that at the end of

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the day we get as much done as a crew as

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we can sometimes you can really improve

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efficiency by having a couple hands on

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so my my job is just just to keep the

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crew members happy at this point and and

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just give them advice they just arrived

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three or four days ago so they're still

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learning the how to live and work around

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here and then of course in some kind of

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off nominal situations emergencies you

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know we have possibilities of

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depressurization events or a fire on

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board or something like that then my

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role is to make sure i communicate very

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well with the ground and get a very

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organized plan make sure all the crew

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members are safe and we we leave by

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soyuz if we need to we make decisions

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that are are wise at the time so i have

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some some time i spend just kind of

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thinking through those kinds of things

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as the commander and take the lead role

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if i need to in those situations the

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guys i have on board though are

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outstanding they they could they're

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commander quality people themselves too

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so uh we're all uh we're all ready to do

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what's uh what's required day to day and

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the nominal situations are off nominal

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no problem thanks kevin and

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any um

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anything you can share with us

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concerning your experiences at notre

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dame and how they prepared you

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for your career uh both as a military

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pilot uh and now certainly uh on onboard

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well you know the big thing that stands

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out dennis is that uh

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the education you get at notre dame is a

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is a general education uh to take you

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out into the into the world really and

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even though my major at notre dame was

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in aerospace engineering and it was

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fantastic technical education

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we have classes

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in uh in such a broad brush the liberal

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arts as well and it's amazing to me now

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that i'm out here doing you know this is

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a liberal arts kind of thing i'm doing

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right now communicating if you will um

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i i took a russian class at notre dame

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never in my wildest dreams that i think

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i would fly someday in a russian

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spacecraft with two cosmonauts speaking

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only russian and i took that course in

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the library at notre dame

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many other courses that i took there

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just just prepared me to to think

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outside the box i think just a little

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bit and and that's what you guys do at

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notre dame is provide a great general

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education along with a fantastic

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technical education so i i think about

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that so often uh throughout the

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throughout the the days that i spend on

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board here and and just back in nasa as

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well kevin we're all very proud of you

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um

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and i wish you the very best i know

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you've got another couple three months i

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think on board and

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we we wish you the best safe travels and

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thanks very much for

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taking the time to speak with us this

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okay well you're very welcome dennis i

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do have i had a lot of notre dame garb i

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if i'd had some time i was going to call

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you and ask you what i should wear i

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decided to go with my expedition 34 i

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kind of wear this every morning because

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it's kind of cool but

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on space station but i do have i do have

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plenty of garb i gotta play like a

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champion today t-shirt on board i wear

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that underneath a lot and uh

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so um it's been great talking to you

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very uh i do have a few more months up

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here and i'm going to come up and see

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you all you uh when i get home and tell

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you about the experience and and catch

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up with you as well so best of luck to

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the team

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it's going to be a fantastic game and i

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can't can't wait to see it

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you're welcome dennis

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station this is houston acr thank you

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thank you notre dame public information

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and communications office station please