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station this is wcaa tv how do you hear

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we heard you we hear you loud and clear

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welcome aboard iss and we're ready for

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first of all thank you so much for

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talking to us today it's so good to see

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you guys

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um

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uh for mike uh there uh tell me a little

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bit about what is the the best thing for

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you about being there and also the

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wow so that's uh the best thing about

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being up here

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you know is actually getting to do what

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you've been trained to do so we actually

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spend quite a bit of time

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in training before you get the

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opportunity to fly into space and and so

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that's actually two and a half years

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long once you've been assigned before

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you fly

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and finally getting to execute that

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mission is is absolutely fantastic and

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of course the other part of it is being

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up here with your crewmates there's just

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great people to work with up here great

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people on the ground that are supporting

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you

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what's the hardest thing to to get used

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to up here

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you keep pinching yourself it's hard to

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believe that you're actually here

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it's it's uh

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it's a dream that many of us had and and

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sometimes it's it's just hard to believe

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okay uh mike i know you're you guys are

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really far from home uh is that hard and

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what can you do to kind of stay

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yeah actually

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they do a fantastic job of keeping us

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connected with our families we have what

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we call iphone up here so we're actually

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able to just make phone calls

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really anytime that the com is there and

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for the most part it's there all the

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time so if we have a free moment we

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usually have opportunity to call

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somebody family friends whoever that may

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be and then in addition with our

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families we get once a week we have a

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video conference and that's always nice

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on the weekends to be able to see their

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okay uh rick i know you've been in space

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before um is it does it ever get old is

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it different this time or how how is it

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for you

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well of course it never gets old this is

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my fourth time to the international

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space station but my first three

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missions were only two weeks long

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so kind of like mike said i keep

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pinching myself thinking wow i'm gonna

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be here for six months it's uh and i'm

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still just getting settled in so i look

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forward to a a great mission and doing

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okay uh mike i know uh your your twitter

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handle is astro illini so i feel like

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you still kind of have that connection

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to the u of i can you talk a little bit

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about that and how you you know how what

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you did here in champaign kind of helps

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yeah well i'm certainly an illini at

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heart and i certainly wouldn't be here

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without the university of illinois and

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my time spent in champaign and that that

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goes across the board from the

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engineering department to the fraternity

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that was a member of pi kappa alpha to

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being a member of rotc and of course

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being able to play football all of those

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contributed to to making me or giving me

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okay what do you remember most about

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being here or what do you miss about you

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know champagne or what are your fondest

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well there's uh there's a lot of

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fondness uh fond memories and of course

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i have to say the the best memory that i

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took with me was my wife she was also

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from the university of illinois but

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you know it's a whole package and and

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there's a lot of fond memories and it's

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hard to pick out just one and certainly

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school was was a lot of work but it was

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also a lot of fun playing football was

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an incredible opportunity but also all

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the great friends that i had both in

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school on the football team and the

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fraternity and in rotc those those are

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all absolutely fantastic and great

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okay um rick talk to me a little bit

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about what it's like kind of as you're

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adjusting to to being on the space

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station now you know you've just been

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yeah when you uh when you first arrive

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it takes a few days for your body to

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adjust you know the fluid shifts to your

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head your upper body because of the lack

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of gravity

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it just takes time for you to get used

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to the weightless environment

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probably one of the biggest adjustments

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is just finding everything you need to

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function on a daily basis you have to

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find your clothes your food your

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toothbrush and just get settled in how

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to log on to the computers and things

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like that so houston and the other

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mission control centers have given us

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extra time in the day just to get

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settled in just to get

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used to living up here and getting all

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our things organized

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but uh you know we're ready to start

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working i'm up here with koichi wakata

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also and we're ready to start working

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and we've already started doing uh some

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some experiments and things like that so

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it takes a few days but not very long to

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get settled in

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okay so how was the experiment or the

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experience with the olympic torch for

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either of you you know get bringing that

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on board and seeing that kind of go on

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yeah well you know a lot of times you

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hear people say they dream of being an

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astronaut and of course one of my dreams

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uh was to be in the olympics and so i

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didn't make that dream but uh getting to

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hold on to the torch for even just a

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short moment was was a great experience

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a memorable one that i'll certainly

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okay mike can you talk to me a little

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bit about train like an astronaut and

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some of the things that

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you've been involved in up there like

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yeah you bet

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it all really started i mean athletics

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and and fitness has been very important

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in my life

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going all the way back to when i was a

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little kid

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and i just thought this would be a great

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opportunity to emphasize how important

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that is in your life certainly it is for

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us up here in in space because in the

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microgravity environment our muscles get

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weaker and our bones get weaker and we

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need to try and counteract that and one

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way we do that is with exercise both

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weight lifting and riding bikes and

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running and but it's also important for

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people on the ground and so i just

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thought that this was an opportunity to

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not only get people excited about

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fitness but also give an opportunity to

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get excited about space

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that's cool and i've noticed you guys

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some of you have been tweeting and stuff

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like that um how has that experience

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been like you know obviously those

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yeah it's it's it's neat to to be able

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to share

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just a little bit of what we're

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experiencing up here and the views are

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absolutely stunning uh you know it's one

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of those things that you never quite get

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used to as looking down on the earth and

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all its glory from up here and so if you

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can just uh share a little bit of that

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with people around the world that's

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that's a that's a great experience it's

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that's great mike i've seen a few um of

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your interviews that you've done since

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being up there and i don't know if this

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is just your personality but you are

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always just smiling you must just love

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well yeah it's hard not to smile up here

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and it's it's fun to talk about this too

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because it is such a neat experience and

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it's something that uh boy you wish you

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could just share with everybody and

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everybody had the opportunity to

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experience this because

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i mean it is it is amazing uh being able

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to float around up here being able to do

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all the the exciting science that's

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going on

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to live here

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every moment of it is is fun is exciting

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okay well thank you so much for talking

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that was great talking to you and hello

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thank you