WEBVTT

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Music.

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Christopher Blair:  Hi, kids. Today we're just a few miles away from

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NASA's Kennedy Space Center near Cape Canaveral, Florida.

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Hi everybody, I'm Chris. Here at the 
Astrotech facility, NASA brings their 
satellites and their spacecraft

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for final processing and checkout before they're launched into orbit.

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Kind of like how you might double check your homework before you turn it in to your teacher.

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Now, this work is done by NASA engineers and scientists inside what is called a "clean room."

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No, no, not that kind of a clean room. Totally, totally different, but don't worry about it.

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A very good a friend of mine is going to take you and I inside one of these NASA clean rooms.

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My friend just had one stipulation and that was that I needed to wear my clean suit.

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Fortunately for us, I just picked mine up from the cleaners.

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Bam! Let's go check out some cool space 
stuff. Barbara Lambert is a multimedia 
photographer for

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NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.

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She's here working in Cape Canaveral for an upcoming launch and agreed to show us around.

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Barbara Lambert:  Hey. Good morning, Chris.

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Christopher Blair:  Hello, Barbara. Thanks for meeting us again.

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We really appreciate it and we're very excited that you're going to show us a NASA clean room.

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And so, I even printed out my e-mail that 
would make me remember to bring my

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clean suit that I picked up this morning from the cleaners.

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Barbara Lambert:  I think you misunderstood. I said you have to wear a clean suit.

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Christopher Blair:  Cleaner than this? I mean, it smells pretty good.

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Barbara Lambert:  I'll tell you what, I'll take you down to the gowning room and I'll show you what I mean.

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Christopher Blair:  OK. Well, that's great. I'll follow you

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Barbara Lambert:  OK. Christopher Blair:  Thank you.

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Barbara Lambert:  OK. This is the gowning 
room. This is where the NASA scientists and

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engineers come to get dressed before they go into the clean room.

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Christopher Blair:  OK. What's our first step?

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Barbara Lambert:  Well, the first thing you have to do -- you know, your shoes are pretty dirty right now.

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So, we need you to go over to the clean station here and get your shoes clean.

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Christopher Blair:  OK. Clean my shoes, 
sounds good.

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Oh, this is really neat. I bet teachers would love to have something like this in their classroom to keep the floors clean.

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OK, great, Barbara, I believe my shoes are clean. So, what's the next step?

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Barbara Lambert: Well, even though you 
used the shoe cleaner,

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I still need you to step on the sticky mat just to get off all the extra dust and dirt.

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Christopher Blair: OK. And you're right it's 
very sticky.

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It's kind of like a glue trap for I guess maybe dirt and maybe gum on the bottom of my shoes.

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Barbara Lambert: OK. Now we get to empty our pockets.

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Christopher Blair: OK. What are we looking for?	
Barbara Lambert: Take everything out.

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Christopher Blair: Everything?

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Barbara Lambert: Cell phones.

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Christopher Blair: No cell phones, OK. So, 
those go in here.

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And I've got a few things. I travel heavy. I have my MP3 player. Barbara Lambert:  No.

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Christopher Blair: No MP3 player, all right. I also have a marker.  Barbara Lambert:  No.

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Christopher Blair: Pencil? Barbara Lambert:  No.

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Christopher Blair: Come on. A hairbrush? Barbara Lambert:  No.

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Christopher Blair:  A hairclip? Barbara Lambert:  Absolutely not!

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Christopher Blair:  My keys? Barbara Lambert:  No, they may transmit. You can't take them in.

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Christopher Blair:  How about the lipstick? 
You know what,

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let's not worry about that. Barbara Lambert: Why do you have a lipstick?

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Christopher Blair:  It's OK. It's another story.

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Barbara Lambert: OK. Well, you know, the lipstick brings up a good point.

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You can't take lipstick, you can't take 
hairspray and you can't take cologne

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because they can damage the sensitive instruments inside on the spacecraft.

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Christopher Blair:  OK. Well, that's a great tip. I appreciate that.

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Barbara Lambert: OK. Let's move on.  Christopher Blair:  All right.

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Barbara Lambert: Now, this is what I meant when I asked you to wear a clean suit.

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Christopher Blair:  OK, well, yeah. That's definitely different than the suit I have.

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Barbara Lambert: Absolutely. The best thing to do is think about the clean room as being like an operating room.

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Everything inside has to be squeaky clean to protect the instruments.

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And just as doctors and nurses have to wear special garments when they go into an operating room to protect the patient,

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we have to wear special clean room suits so the fibers and the dirt and the hair and

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everything from your body don't get onto the instruments inside.

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Christopher Blair:  OK, great! Barbara Lambert: All right. Well, let's get dressed.

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Christopher Blair:  All right, thanks. Barbara Lambert: Well, after we finish putting on our gloves and our masks.

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Christopher Blair:  OK, I've got my gloves right here. Barbara Lambert:  (Laughs) I'm sorry, but you look like a bunny.

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Christopher Blair:  A bunny?  Is this a bunny 
suit?  Is that why they call it a bunny suit?

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Barbara Lambert:  Yeah. That's why they call it a bunny suit.

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Christopher Blair:  It that a special pet name? Bunny... pet. Get it? Rim shot! Barbara Lambert:  Very funny.

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Christopher Blair:  OK. I've got my gloves on, so what's the next step. Barbara Lambert:  OK, we take a shower.

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Christopher Blair:  I just got dressed, 
Barbara! Are you serious? I shower?

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I have to take everything off and take another shower?

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Barbara Lambert:  It's not that kind of a shower. It's an air shower.

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Christopher Blair:  An air shower. Yeah, my mom would have bought that! Yeah mom, I'm clean, I took an air shower!

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Barbara Lambert:  All right. Are you ready?

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Christopher Blair:  Sure, let's do this. OK. This is the infamous air shower. So, how does this work? Whoa!

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Barbara Lambert:  Now you feel the air. The air flows through these jets. There's vaccuum suction at the bottom,

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so it's blowing off any extra hair or dirt or debris that might be on your garment. So, now you're squeaky clean!

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Christopher Blair:  I'm clean, so now I can see the cool space stuff. Let's go.

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Barbara Lambert:  Absolutely.

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Christopher Blair:  I couldn't help but feel important. Kind of like I had the right stuff as I walked into the clean room,

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even though I was specifically told by Barbara several times, 'Don't touch anything.'  OK, Barbara.

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That was really interesting. It's cool to see 
how much work it takes just to get into the 
facility,

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without even having to work on the spacecraft yet. Wow.

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Barbara Lambert:  Yeah, a lot of people don't realize how much work is involved to manage a spacecraft in a clean room.

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Christopher Blair:  Well, sure. This is NASA, so we actually have a lot of work going on.

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So, now that we're done, do we just take these off and throw them in the garbage?

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Barbara Lambert:  Oh, absolutely not. We recycle everything and these gowns have to go to a special cleaning facility.

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Christopher Blair:  Oh, well I have the number for my cleaners. I'm sure I have that business card on me. Will that work?

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Barbara Lambert:  No, no. I said special cleaning facility.

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Christopher Blair:  Oh, special cleaning. OK. Well, let's get these off then. Barbara Lambert: OK.

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Christopher Blair:  Well, thanks Barbara. That was really great. I appreciate you taking the time to

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show us how a clean suit and a clean room are used when we deal with NASA spacecraft.

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Barbara Lambert: Sure, no problem Chris. 
Glad to help you. You know, it's part of

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NASA's mission to work with students and teachers to help improve education.

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Christopher Blair:  Well, that's great because this is an educational show. So, I'll make sure I remember that.

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Thank you for your time. I appreciate it very much.

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Barbara Lambert: You're welcome, call me anytime.

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Christopher Blair:  I will, thank you. Bye bye. 
And thank you for joining us today.

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There are so many cool things to see at NASA and here at the Kennedy Space Center.

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I wonder where we should go next.

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