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station this is houston are you ready

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for the event

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military times this is mission control

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houston please call station for a voice

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check

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station this is military times how do

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we have you loud and clear welcome

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aboard the space station

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thank you very much for having us today

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uh colonel copra it's been 30 years

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since you graduated from west point

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what would you tell the current class of

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cadets about getting into a career in

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you know that's a great question you

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know i don't think i quite envisioned

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that uh i would have this job when i was

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a cadet many years ago but uh one of the

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great things about the west point

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experience is that it's a great training

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ground for not just military service

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and uh and the service i've had at nasa

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but but life as well because it's a

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strong academic

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uh physical and military preparation and

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so for the young people that are at the

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academies and particularly west point

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one thing to consider is that uh you

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know

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in our job it's very technical and it's

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very operational and those are important

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things and important backgrounds to have

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but at the end of the day

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what we do is very similar to the

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military in that it's a team sport and

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being able to work as a team is the most

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critical skill

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for captain scott kelly you've been

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aboard the station for just about a year

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on the current expedition

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how does that time in space compare to

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yeah it's uh quite different um

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i only i did one uh like six month

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cruise on the uss dwight d eisenhower

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and then uh a shorter

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you know two to three month i think it

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was two months uh on the george

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washington a little shakedown cruise and

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the difference is on uh

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you know on the aircraft carrier there

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with 5 000 more than 5 000 other people

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you have much more room you can go out

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on the flight deck get some fresh air

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i was a pilot so i got to fly off the

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ship we went into port occasionally not

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too much but we did do that occasionally

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whereas here

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um

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it's a much more confined space and

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but there are similarities i mean it's a

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very operationally oriented environment

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where

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like tim was saying teamwork is uh is

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very important so

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my experience on on those cruises and on

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the ships and on the deployment is is

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great training for this but it is uh

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it is quite different in a lot of ways

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two years ago military times spoke with

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terry verts and captain butch

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wilmore about a future mission to mars

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where do we stand toward that goal right

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um we have uh i think a lot of the

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technical capability and

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a lot of uh you know

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good understanding of

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what we need to do from a uh you know

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physiological standpoint risk mitigation

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i mean there's still certain things we

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need to learn i think you know radiation

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is a is a big factor

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um

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but

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you know getting us to mars i think is

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more about the you know public and and

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political willpower to do so because

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um

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even though it's something i think is uh

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is quite worthy and uh for the expense

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and very important

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to us as a uh

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you know as a species to can continue to

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expand our horizons it's something

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that's going to be expensive and uh you

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know we need the uh the support to do it

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so

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you know it's i think it's more of a

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matter of choice than it is technical

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feasibility

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tim in your recent spacewalk you had a

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malfunction of your spacesuit

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tell us what happened

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was there any fear during that event and

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you know i might have been the least

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worried person out of the whole team

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because uh

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you know when you talk about water in a

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spacesuit it sounds like a pretty

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dramatic event and

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the things that that we've done because

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we've had this circumstance before in

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terms of risk mitigation and the level

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of water that was in the helmet was such

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that i really never had a high level of

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concern but i i know that the whole team

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was uh was very concerned about the

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circumstance one of the

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the

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had this problem before we've instituted

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some methodologies and in terms of how

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we get people back inside quickly and

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the things we have in the suit that can

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help protect us

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so

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you know i was never actually very

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concerned because i knew we had uh lots

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of margin and time

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and uh i was so impressed with how

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both the uh the ground team and uh

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and how

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my compatriot tim peake outside handled

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the whole circumstance so uh i think it

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turned out well i think hopefully we'll

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understand better

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what exactly led to the water in the

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helmet but at the end of the day

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we got our mission done and we had some

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risk mitigation in place to help out

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today is the 30th anniversary

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of the shuttle challenger explosion

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can you check gentlemen give me your

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thoughts

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yeah i was in uh

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college in

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in 1986 and i was going to class and it

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was lunch time and i typically would

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watch the space shuttle launches and i

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um you know saw what happened and you

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know immediately

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um you know pretty

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much knew that it was a you know

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catastrophic accident and

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i didn't know the crew members uh of

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challenger obviously because i was in

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college at the time but uh

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it was quite a you know a moving um an

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emotional experience uh

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you know for me as growing up astronauts

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were were my heroes and uh

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it was um

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you know tough to see them

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lost like that on

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on

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and uh

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i feel uh you know honored and

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privileged to

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you know follow in their footsteps and i

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think

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that uh you know what we do in space now

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is uh you know fulfilling their their

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dream and carrying on their legacy and i

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think uh

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you know we need to just keep pushing

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ahead and then you know trying to

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achieve great things

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and

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you know on days like today think back

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to to what they sacrificed

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kim a few years ago

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we spoke

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and you weren't sure whether at the end

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of the space shuttle program you would

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stick with the program what made you

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you know i think all of us that have

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experienced spaceflight or even

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those that are in the astronaut core

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that are looking forward to that have a

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true passion for this kind of work

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and uh

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both the passion for the the type of

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work we do but the people that we work

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with is one that is really hard to to

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replace or to uh

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to to duplicate and so

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you know having flown once and then uh

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having a delay in order to get back to

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flight

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you know to me i think probably the main

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reason i decided to to try for another

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flight was just the fact that i love the

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people that i work with

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i love the mission

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and i think it's very very important

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both nationally and internationally

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on earth there's competitions between

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nations in the arctic in the south china

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sea throughout the globe

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what makes space so different that there

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is this spirit of cooperation

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between nations in technology and in

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well i think it's uh you know a few

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things um you know it's a common ground

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that

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you know one aspect of it whereas on

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earth you know

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people you know stick a flag in the in

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the dirt sometimes and say it's theirs

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and try to uh

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and and do and rightfully so i guess in

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some cases you know you defend your

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territory and protect uh your interests

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but but here it's uh

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you know been well established and it's

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uh you know

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an international agreement that this is

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this is a a place for the common

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uh

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complicated and it's expensive

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and

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international cooperation not only uh

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you know helps in in in those two areas

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but it also uh provides redundancy

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uh redundancy in systems the space

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station has a lot of uh

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redundancy because you know very

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the majority of it was made in either

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the

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or russia in russia you know we have

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different ways of scrubbing carbon

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dioxide and producing oxygen we have

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different ways of supplying the space

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station with redundant systems and it's

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you know critical that all that that

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stuff works and if something breaks it's

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great to have a backup and um

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you know i think that's one of been one

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of the uh the great parts about the

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space station program is that we're

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working on something that's very

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important it's very uh difficult and

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challenging and and we're doing it in a

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international way that shows that we can

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you know cooperate even when at times we

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may have our differences on earth

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well i want to thank you gentlemen both

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for joining us one last thought

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are you two going to be staying with the

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so

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i'm at uh 10 remaining on this year in

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space and uh to me

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uh that seems like i still have a long

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ways to go

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and uh

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so i haven't really given it uh

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an incredible amount of thought

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certainly uh i have given it some

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thought but not um

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you know not what i would be uh i guess

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willing to share

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with you today but appreciate the

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i guess uh all i can add to that is that

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my horizon right now is about uh four

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and a half months we have a ton of work

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to do here between now and the fifth of

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june when we come back home and so uh

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i think we'll focus on the immediate

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future and look what happens after that

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and have a very safe trip home

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thank you so

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much

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station this is houston acr that

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concludes the military times interview

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thank you military times station please