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station this is houston are you ready

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i am ready for the event

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sweetness kstp tv this is mission

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control houston please call station for

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a voice check

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station this is tim schernaugh with kstp

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hello tim i have you loud and clear

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welcome to the international space

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hi karen minnesota says hello

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hello to everybody in minnesota

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what are your responsibilities what's

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the job up there that you're doing this

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we have a lot going on there's uh of

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course right now the space station is

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mostly built and all of us like to spend

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as much time as possible on science

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so that's one of our major jobs but of

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course we have the daily activities of

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maintenance

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keeping the station up and running just

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like you have maintenance in your home

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and we also have

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visiting vehicles we've had a number of

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vehicles come and visit us and bring us

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cargo and supplies and so we had spent a

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lot of time unloading the cargo and

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loading those vehicles with trash

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and uh there's during our increment we

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had a couple spacewalks where my

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crewmates went out to repair some things

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and uh change out components outside so

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we've had a lot going on

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i have to say

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nice hair

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what's life like in

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it is a blast and actually after being

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here as long as i've been here now it it

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becomes a little commonplace uh the way

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everything behaves in space and the way

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you move around and it is fun it's it's

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awfully fun to start at one end of the

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space station and try and get going as

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fast as you can and swing around the

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corners using handrails and

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you can have a lot of fun

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between the

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we do get some off time we have uh we

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usually work day times about seven in

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the morning till seven at night or

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during the weekdays and then we have

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weekends mostly off we do some

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housekeeping on saturdays to keep the

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the filters clean and the walls clean

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and uh but saturday afternoon and and

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all of sunday usually is free time where

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we can do we'll do whatever we want

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i went and looked at your tweets you've

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sent some amazing pictures back down to

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us here at earth on earth

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do you ever get tired of the view out

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the window up there what are some of

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you never do get tired of it you know i

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actually every time i'm working out on

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our resistive exercise device it's right

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below the cupola and my workouts

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generally take a little longer than they

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need to because i'm constantly going up

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to take a peek and there's so many

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beautiful things i love to see

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the mountains uh white uh snow-capped

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mountains are just incredible to see the

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depth of that you can see from this

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from this altitude

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and

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it's amazing the earth really is a lot

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of water you start traveling over oceans

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and you just wonder if you're ever going

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to get to land um sunrises and sunsets

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are absolutely incredible i could watch

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those over and over there's just a lot

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of spectacular things to see i looked at

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your current orbit and it appears to me

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that you're between south america and

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africa right now when you're flying over

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north america if you do over home do you

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look down and and uh and

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the folks here in minnesota the folks

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i do i like to we actually haven't been

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over a daytime pass of the united states

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in a while but i think our orbit is

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going to start taking us there again

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the first time i was able to see my

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hometown area in central minnesota was

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pretty special and that was a couple

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months ago now i believe and i actually

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got a picture of the the lakes area

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where i grew up and that was pretty neat

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to see

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i have to ask you a legend has it you

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can see the mall of america from space

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gosh that's a good question i i don't

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know

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perhaps with a binoculars or uh or a

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zoom lens on your camera i'm not sure

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about uh with the naked eye

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you know

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clearly you're an inspiration to so many

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uh young men and young women uh around

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the world but here at home

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what would you say to the boys and girls

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here back home in minnesota who were

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students uh what message would you have

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for them as they're in school and trying

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to figure out what they can do and what

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well first just it's important that

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every every kid knows that they have a

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lot of potential everybody but everybody

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has different skills and talents and

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everybody has different interests and

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there are so many opportunities and so

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many things that these kids could be

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doing and all you need to do is figure

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out what it is you like and work really

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hard at it and it's going to take you

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far especially in school when you work

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hard even if you're not a straight a

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student if you work hard your teachers

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and and others can tell that you're

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working hard and if you're getting the

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best grades you can you're going to go

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far and you're going to be able to do a

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lot of different things with your life

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when you think back to your childhood

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in minnesota in vining

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is there a minnesota memory anything you

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can think of that that was the beginning

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of the inspiration that helped you get

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i don't know i decided that i wanted to

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be an astronaut when i was pretty young

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and i i don't honestly know exactly

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where that where that thought came from

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and how i decided that that's what i

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wanted to do

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but certainly certainly the the

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education i got i went to a very small

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high school and i think that was very

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good for me

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you know academic wise we didn't have a

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lot of the classes that that students

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that i started in college with had in

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other schools but i was able to catch up

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very easily with that but being from a

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small town and going to a small school i

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participated in everything that i could

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i played on all the sports teams and i

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was in uh staying in the choir and

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played in the band and i think if i had

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been in a large school i probably didn't

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have the abilities to do all of that and

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so i think for me it was it was very

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advantageous and it taught me um

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teamwork being on teams um

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playing uh playing along in groups

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so i think uh i think that part of it

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was very very beneficial for me next

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time you're you're back in minnesota

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i'm sorry you were broken up can you ask

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one more time

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next time you're back

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in minnesota going back home family or

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what's the first thing you want to do

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well i always look forward to going back

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i grew up on a lake east battle lake and

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my parents still live in that same house

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and i i don't know the last time i was

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swimming in that lake and that was

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obviously something that i did every

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single summer day in and day out and so

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um i'd love to do that again i of course

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have to time it the two months out of

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the year whatever it is that's a

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possibility but and i'd like to be able

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to take my son and and uh have him go

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fishing like i used to do off the dock

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and and that sort of thing

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we can't see your feet right now what's

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i'm hanging onto a handrail with my toes

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as we speak

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and if i let go i will float away so you

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actually use your feet a lot for

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translating in fact i'm developing

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developing calluses on the tops of my

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feet

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but that's just kind of a difference of

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living in space

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if i could ask you for a little visual

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treat for zero gravity just spin your

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microphone or something that just shows

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us some of the magic of where you are

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do you have myself

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do you have any idea how cool that is

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it is cool and like i said it after

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you're here while it kind of becomes

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commonplace and you almost forget

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just how neat it is so i wish everybody

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could experience it

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we have a minute left uh in that minute

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if you could tell us uh

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what do you look forward to when you go

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back to earth as far as like for example

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do you miss gravity what's something

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that's that that you miss

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i think gravity is going to be my enemy

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for a few days or a few weeks or maybe

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even a couple months when i get back but

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i miss my family

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my husband and my son i miss them dearly

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so i'm really looking forward to getting

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back to them into my home

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well you can't see me but i'm waving

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goodbye it was a great thrill to talk to

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it was great to talk to you

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station this is houston acr karen that

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concludes the kstb

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kstp tv portion of the event thank you

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mike please stand by for a voice check

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station this is rick pisa with the big

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and rick i hear you loud and clear this

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is mike hopkins from the international

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great mike we're just about to get

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perfect

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and mike this is houston acr if you

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could please

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turn your microphone off after we are

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happy to be joined by howard griffith

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one of mike's former teammates at the

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university of illinois and howard since

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mike is now at the international space

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station let's not waste any more time

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let's welcome in mike hopkins from the

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international space station well mike

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let's give the folks a little bit of

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background i know you left from a

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cosmodrome in kazakhstan about a month

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or so ago you're supposed to be at the

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iss until spring of 2014 what is life

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like for someone when you're aboard the

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well it's absolutely incredible and i

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even today i've been here for about

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three weeks i guess now and i still have

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to pinch myself because sometimes it's

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hard to believe that i'm here uh and

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it's it takes a little while to get into

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a normal routine up here you know we're

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working from about seven to seven every

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day uh monday through friday

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and uh and so on the weekends as well uh

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we have to clean up and and then we get

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a little bit of free time usually on

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sundays maybe to watch a little bit of

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football but uh you know what's really

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amazing about up here is you're just

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floating around and that's an incredible

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mike what was it like when you first

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well actually it was it was a little bit

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overwhelming and to be honest my gyros

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were still spinning a little bit from

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the launch when i first got up into into

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microgravity into the space environment

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i felt like i was falling

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and like i was sitting on the ceiling

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and falling and when i first got into

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the space station and and we had our

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chance to talk with the families i

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actually felt like i was leaning on my

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side like that and so it took probably

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about 18 hours before that feeling

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started to go away but absolutely

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incredible feeling

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so talk to me about some of the

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experiments and some of the science that

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yeah actually there's quite a bit of

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science going on on the space station

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right now and some of it we're very

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involved in

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because we're the guinea pigs so in fact

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this morning i was drawing some blood

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just to see how the immune system in the

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body changes in microgravity other

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experiments i was also working on this

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morning was a capillary flow experiment

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which is looking at how water

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flows up the walls of different vessels

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and maybe you can use that to move

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move liquids around in space and and

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also

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separate it from from gases and so those

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are just a couple of the

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hundreds of experiments that we're doing

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or that are going on up here on a on a

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now mike your job obviously makes you

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very unique in terms of former big ten

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football players and what they're now

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doing with their life but i know you

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stay in touch with the illinois football

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program i know from your twitter handle

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at astro illini you sometimes send out

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messages to current and former illinois

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players how much do you actually get to

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still follow your alma mater when you're

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i'm actually very fortunate not in fact

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all the astronauts are very fortunate up

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here is because we have a large support

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organization on the ground that helps us

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stay in touch with our families and stay

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in touch with the the organizations that

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are important to us and so i actually

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get the illinois football games are sent

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up to me every week so i don't get to

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see them live

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but while i'm working out i usually uh

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i love it the fact that he's in space

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and he's still working out rick that's

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incredible what are some of the things

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you do during the off time when you're

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down on the saturdays and sundays

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is there anything else

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no actually that's a good chance for us

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it's a good chance for us to catch up on

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uh emails we can uh take a lot of photos

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or more opportunities to take photos

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that we may not have during the week

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because we are busy inside uh with

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experiments and just taking care of the

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station and then it's also it's a good

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chance we have to get to talk to the

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family and so uh once a week i get to

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talk to julie and the boys and uh it's

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it's very special because it's actually

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a video conference so you get to see

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well how much fun has it been

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particularly for your boys that are

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young growing up seeing their dad on the

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international space station and having a

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chance to communicate with them i guess

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well i like to think that the most

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popular kids in school because of

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themselves and not and not their dad

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i mean as you can imagine uh the kids

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are

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i've got one in high school and one in

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junior high and and so they keep pretty

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busy with school and sports and church

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and and so uh you know sometimes the

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days go by and and we don't have a

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chance to talk and and so it's very nice

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mike when did you know that this was

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something that you wanted to pursue not

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just aerospace engineering and your

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studies at illinois but when did you

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actually know and feel like you had the

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possibility to be part of an astronaut

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class that was going to spend time in

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well i actually

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decided or knew that i wanted to try and

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be an astronaut back in high school even

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before i went to the university of

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illinois

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but you never know if

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you're going to have that opportunity

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you have to get a little bit lucky

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things have to fall into into a line for

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you and it just happened so happened

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that it did for me and i feel very

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blessed feel very fortunate to have this

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you know you had a very interesting uh

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defensive back coach coach bernstein are

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there any lessons that he taught you

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that you were able to use

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going through life to get you to where

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absolutely in fact the coaches coach

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bernstein coach tepper

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coach makvik all of them had a big

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influence on us and uh with coach

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bernstein i think uh was was certainly

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you know he had a certain fire about him

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a certain drive about him and uh that's

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contagious and and that certainly helps

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when you're when you're trying to pursue

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something that sometimes can be tough to

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you know mike i always think back to our

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times at illinois particularly when we

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were on the practice squad and we were

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getting banged around we were kind of

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practice dummies for the guys that were

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starting and one thing that always stuck

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out to me about you is that you

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continued to go out and play as hard as

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you could and we knew then that you were

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a special player and would be special to

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the university of illinois but had no

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idea that you'd be able to really

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accomplish what you have now and i just

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want to tell you that you've truly been

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an inspiration to all of us including

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you know the people around the world you

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inspire a lot of us we appreciate

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everything that you're doing for the

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well howard i'm not sure if i remember

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you ever being on the practice squad but

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uh

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be a part of it

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it's fun just to be a part of a team

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like that and an organization like that

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and around guys like you i mean uh you

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know one of the things i always wanted

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to be when i grew up was a professional

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uh football player and so you know hats

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off to you and the other guys that made

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it to the big leagues and that's that's

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you know very positive influence to be

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colonel mike hopkins joining us from the

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international space station colonel

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hopkins thanks so much for the time and

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okay thank you very much and uh you know

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i just want to let you guys know that

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there's still a little uh orange and

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00:18:10,470 --> 00:18:07,520
blue up here if you can see uh if you

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00:18:10,480 --> 00:18:16,789
we love it hoppy we love it

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00:18:23,669 --> 00:18:19,430
station this is houston acr thank you

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00:18:29,029 --> 00:18:26,870
thank you kstp tv and big 10 network