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foreign
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December 2015 SpaceX landed an orbital
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Falcon 9 rocket booster back on the
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earth for the first time in the history
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of human space flight and in the eight
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years since SpaceX Remains the only
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rocket provider who can accomplish this
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feat in fact no one else has even tried
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so what's the deal with that
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how did SpaceX come out of nowhere and
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LeapFrog over companies that had already
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been launching rockets for decades could
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it be that Elon Musk is an unprecedented
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super mega techno genius yeah maybe but
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we think that there's a much more
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fascinating and satisfying answer to be
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found here so let's get into it
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this is the space race if there is one
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defining factor that sets SpaceX apart
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from the rest of the Aerospace industry
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it is the reusable rocket SpaceX has
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completely reinvented this technology in
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a way that no one has ever dared to
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dream but that's not entirely true is it
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obviously someone down the line must
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have had the thought that maybe it would
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be better to try and keep these gigantic
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rocket boosters instead of just sending
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them to the bottom of the ocean every
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time and we all know that the space
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shuttle was already reusable right even
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blue origin can land their rocket
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booster the same as a falcon 9. if you
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ask other leaders in the Aerospace
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industry they'll try to tell you that
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reusable Rockets are not actually any
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more economical or sustainable than the
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traditional method and that Landing a
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booster is more of a parlor trick than
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an innovation so what is it that really
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sets SpaceX apart then to find the
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answer we have to go back to the
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beginning beginning the first rocket
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boosters to ever send a payload into
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outer space were simply reconfigured
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intercontinental ballistic missiles the
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Titan II which served as the launch
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booster for NASA's Project Gemini was
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originally designed to send a 9 Megaton
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nuclear warhead halfway around the world
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so there's only so much we can
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realistically expect them to do when it
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came time for the Apollo missions to the
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Moon NASA was ready to design their
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first bespoke orbital rocket the Saturn
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V it was a humongous vehicle that to
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this day still dwarfs nearly every
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rocket ever produced and yet only the
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relatively tiny crew capsule at the very
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top ever returned to the Earth the rest
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was either dumped in the ocean left
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floating in space or abandoned on the
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surface of the Moon this seems like a
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waste of money and resources but in
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reality it was the preferred option for
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NASA to make the Saturn V entirely
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disposable this was the most economic
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choice at the time because the Saturn V
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was only ever intended to fly around a
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dozen missions and it was calculated
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that the cost to build 12 disposable
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Rockets would still be cheaper than
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developing just one reusable rocket
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besides the engineers at Nasa were
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already looking towards the future even
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before the first person set foot on the
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moon NASA was developing their space
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shuttle concept a fully reusable rocket
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plane and booster system that would be
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the true answer to sustainable human
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space flight NASA's Chief Architect of
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the Saturn V Werner Von Braun perfected
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his concept for the ferry rocket back in
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the mid-1950s the former Nazi rocket
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scientist would come to be known in
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America as the father of space travel we
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didn't really find out about the Nazi
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thing until after he was dead so we can
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only appreciate how screwed up this was
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in hindsight anyway the fairy rocket was
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going to be the vehicle that brought
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human spaceflight to the mainstream the
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three-stage rocket would be fully
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reusable with the two first booster
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cores come coming down softly on
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parachutes and the third stage Orbiter
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gliding back to Earth for a Runway
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Landing we should probably do a full
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video someday just on the fairy rocket
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concept alone what do you think let us
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know in the comments below anyway you'll
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notice that this all sounds pretty
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similar to what the space shuttle ended
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up being yet still quite different in
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the fundamental design while the space
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shuttle has generally been built as a
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reusable space plane the more correct
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terminology is generally considered to
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be refurbishable but what's the
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difference if you go to an airport you
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can watch a plane land unload its
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passengers and cargo then get rapidly
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cleaned restocked and refueled before
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taking on a load of passengers and
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lifting off into the sky yet again that
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all happens within the span of about an
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hour or maybe even less so we can safely
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say that a commercial airplane is
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reusable now if that same airplane had
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to be fully disassembled inspected
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serviced and put back together after
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every single flight does that still fit
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the same definition of reusable not so
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much and it certainly doesn't sound like
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a sustainable way to operate a
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commercial airline that is the issue
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that NASA faced with their space shuttle
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it could technically be reused which fit
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the initial criteria that the agency was
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granted by U.S Congress when the shuttle
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was funded back in 1972 but the
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procedure involved to actually get a
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space shuttle and its twin booster
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engines back on the launch pad after
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being flown just one time ended up
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totaling around 650
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000 hours of combined labor spent on
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transporting and refurbishing the system
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obviously that all happened
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simultaneously not sequentially
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otherwise it would take 74 years to
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refurbish one space shuttle the thing
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about reusable Rockets is that they are
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only valuable if the frequency of
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launches is great enough to outweigh the
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cost of developing and utilizing the
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technology so like we were saying before
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this is how NASA decided it was cheaper
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to launch 12 display disposable Rockets
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instead of developing one reusable
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system and at what point does a reusable
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rocket actually start to make sense
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economically how many launches does that
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take NASA never really had the chance to
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find out not only did the Space Shuttle
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need more work to refurbish than had
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been expected it never flew anywhere
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near as frequently as NASA envisioned
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either in the end it would have been
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cheaper or at least just as expensive
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for NASA to throw every space shuttle in
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the garbage after one flight and build a
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whole new one so if you want a good
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answer as to why none of the commercial
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rocket companies ever tried to develop
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their own reusable vehicle it's because
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they already saw what happened with the
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space shuttle not only the most
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expensive rocket ever developed but also
00:06:30
the most dangerous and probably the
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least successful at fulfilling its
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original design concept and if NASA
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couldn't do it then obviously no one
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else would even stand a chance right
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then Along Came SpaceX who decided that
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they will succeed where all others have
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failed now to be fair SpaceX did come at
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the problem from a much different angle
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than NASA had taken with the shuttle and
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in many ways their approach with the
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Falcon 9 does make a lot more sense from
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a logistics standpoint something that
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SpaceX had envisioned from the very
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start of their development with the
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Falcon 1 rocket was a recovering and
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reusing both the first stage booster and
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the upper stage vehicle by having them
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execute a propulsive return to launch
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site and Landing maneuver now they gave
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up on recovering the second stage pretty
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early on and that's a reasonable
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concession to make because with a
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conventional rocket the upper stages a
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relatively simple vehicle that consists
00:08:54
of just one engine a couple of small
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fuel tanks and a platform that holds the
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payload until it's time to deploy but
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recovering the first stage booster is a
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much more valuable proposition as long
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as you can make that booster fully
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reusable not just refurbishable and then
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fly it off often enough to make the
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extra effort worthwhile of course SpaceX
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opted for the most technically
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challenging recovery method there is the
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propulsive landing this was
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unprecedented territory back in Warner
00:09:24
Von Braun's old fairy rocket concept the
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booster stages would fire their engines
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on the return to Earth as a way to help
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slow them down but ultimately they would
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land in the ocean water under giant
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parachutes and NASA had successfully
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recovered the space shuttle's twin
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booster engines by simply parachuting
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them back down following stage
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separation so why didn't SpaceX use
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parachutes on their Falcon booster short
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answer they tried but physics wouldn't
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allow it parachuting the shuttle
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boosters worked for two reasons one they
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were pretty small and pretty light being
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solid rocket boosters once all of the
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propellant is burnt up they're basically
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just empty metal tubes two the shuttle
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boosters separated at a relatively low
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altitude and therefore a relatively low
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velocity of just around 40 3 800
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kilometers per hour they were only
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really necessary to get the shuttle off
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the ground and through the thickest part
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of the atmosphere after that the shuttle
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still had three incredibly powerful
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hydrogen burning rs-25 engines that
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continue pushing to reach orbital
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velocity in a single core two-stage
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rocket like the Falcon 9 that one
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booster has to impart a tremendous
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amount of velocity into the upper stage
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so that the final vacuum engine can
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continue to accelerate the payload into
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orbit this means the Falcon booster will
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fly much higher and faster reaching a
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speed over 8 000 kilometers per hour at
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stage separation the formula for kinetic
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energy is one half mass times velocity
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squared which in the case of a falcon 9
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booster that just released an orbital
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payload equals way too much energy for
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any parachute to withstand that is why
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Von Braun envisioned the hybrid of
00:11:04
engine D acceleration combined with
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parachute assisted Landing but this is
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Elon Musk philosophy we're talking about
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now and the best part is no part the
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rocket already has engines so why bother
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adding parachutes to lower velocity when
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the engines can do the exact same thing
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the engines on the Falcon 9 also serve a
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dual purpose as a free heat shield to
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protect the booster as it re-enters the
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atmosphere so in the case of a drone
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ship Landing scenario the Falcon 9
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booster is going to coast up and clear
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through the atmosphere crossing over the
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carbon line and technically being in
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space for about a minute or so but since
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it's not traveling at orbital velocity
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the booster is eventually going to fall
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back down as this begins to happen the
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booster is going to flip around and
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point its engines in the opposite
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direction to perform a re-entry burn the
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maneuver is going to start killing a ton
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of the booster's Velocity which is
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important but even more critical the
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thrust from the engines will create a
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force field underneath the rocket that
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protects the metal from the extreme heat
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of re-entry that's when you see the
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crazy jellyfish fish looking cloud of
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smoke and fire build up underneath the
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rocket as it's coming back down it looks
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awesome then the booster will Coast down
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through the atmosphere losing more
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velocity to friction as it's guided in
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by aerodynamic grid Fizz at the last
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moment the engines will reignite one
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more time to make sure that the booster
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velocity reaches zero at the moment that
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the landing legs touch down on the
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floating platform this is a procedure
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that SpaceX has now repeated well over a
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hundred times and these days they make
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it look pretty easy but that was not
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always the case it took SpaceX a lot of
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trial and error and multiple upgrade
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Cycles to the Falcon 9 before they could
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truly stick The Landing most people
00:12:54
might not realize that the Falcon 9 was
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not a genuine reusable rocket until
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SpaceX achieved its final form in 2018
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known as the block 5. most Rockets don't
00:13:05
really go through an active development
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cycle once they begin operation the
00:13:09
design they have on the first successful
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launch is more than likely going to be
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what they stick with throughout the life
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cycle of the product and that's because
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Rockets are very temperamental and
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dangerous Vehicles anytime you change a
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design you introduce an unknown variable
00:13:24
which could then in turn lead to a
00:13:27
failure and no one wants that unless
00:13:29
you're SpaceX another bit of Elon
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philosophy if things are not failing you
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are not innovating enough let's start
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with the Falcon 9 version 1. the first
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iteration of this rocket was actually a
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lot smaller at just about 46 meters in
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total length and a lot less powerful at
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just 1.1 million pounds of thrust even
00:13:48
though SpaceX had already intended to
00:13:51
make Falcon 9 a reusable booster this
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version didn't receive any of the
00:13:55
necessary grid fins or Landing legs to
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make that possible they wanted to make
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sure that it went up properly before
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they thought too much about getting it
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back down this Falcon 9 flew five
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missions including one to send a cargo
00:14:07
Dragon capsule to the ISS next up is
00:14:10
Falcon 9 version 1.1 this variant grew
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significantly to over 68 meters in
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length it was the first to utilize the
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Merlin 1D engine and the circular
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octaweb engine layout this increased the
00:14:24
total thrust to 1.3 million pounds that
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extra size and power made this the first
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Falcon 9 capable of a controlled return
00:14:31
to Earth because it could get a payload
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into orbit with enough fuel left over to
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perform the necessary re-entry and
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Landing Birds SpaceX began experimenting
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with this capability in small scale
00:14:43
tests where they would attempt to bring
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the rocket down for soft Landings over
00:14:47
the open ocean it wasn't until the crs-3
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mission to resupply the ISS in April
00:14:53
2014 that the Falcon 9 received its
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first set of Landing legs and then for
00:14:58
crs-5 in January 2015 the first set of
00:15:01
grid fins were added to achieve more
00:15:03
precise control when free-falling
00:15:05
through the atmosphere this gave SpaceX
00:15:08
the confidence to attempt their first
00:15:09
ever drone ship landing on that that
00:15:12
same flight it didn't work but they got
00:15:15
surprisingly close for something that
00:15:16
was thought to be genuinely impossible
00:15:19
at the time none of the version 1.1
00:15:22
Rockets ever successfully landed and
00:15:25
then in June 2015 the Falcon 9
00:15:27
experienced a mid-air failure and broke
00:15:30
apart this gave SpaceX enough pause to
00:15:33
shut down operations until they were
00:15:35
able to come back with another revision
00:15:37
to the booster design Falcon 9 version
00:15:39
1.2 is also sometimes referred to as
00:15:42
Falcon 9 full thrust just slightly
00:15:45
longer now reaching 70 meters in length
00:15:47
and getting a massive increase in power
00:15:49
to 1.7 million pounds of thrust most of
00:15:53
this power gain came from SpaceX cooling
00:15:55
their liquid oxygen and Rocket Fuel to
00:15:57
lower temperatures which increases their
00:16:00
energy density this is where SpaceX
00:16:02
really followed through on their promise
00:16:04
to learn through failure because the
00:16:07
first launch of the Falcon 9 full thrust
00:16:09
also marked the first successful Landing
00:16:12
of an orbital rocket booster in the
00:16:14
history of space flight with the booster
00:16:16
touching down onto a SpaceX landing pad
00:16:18
at Cape Canaveral the full thrust went
00:16:21
through a series of small tweaks and
00:16:23
variations over the years as SpaceX
00:16:25
prepared to finalize the rocket into its
00:16:28
ultimate form the reason that they had
00:16:30
to do this was in order to get the
00:16:31
Falcon 9 crew raided by NASA it's fine
00:16:34
to play around with variables when there
00:16:36
is only money and equipment on the line
00:16:38
but once it's agreed that a rocket is
00:16:40
safe to carry human beings then you have
00:16:42
to stop messing with it so we arrive at
00:16:45
the Falcon 9 Block 5. it's the exact
00:16:48
same size as the previous version and
00:16:51
only slightly more powerful at 1.8
00:16:53
million pounds of total thrust the most
00:16:56
obvious visual cue to identify these
00:16:58
variants is the black paint in the
00:17:00
middle and on the landing legs the real
00:17:02
upgrades here are being made to increase
00:17:04
the overall reusability of the rocket
00:17:07
booster remember we talked about the
00:17:09
difference between reusable and
00:17:10
refurbishable the Falcon 9 full thrust
00:17:13
was refurbishable in some situations but
00:17:16
for the most part SpaceX only recovered
00:17:18
those boosters they didn't reuse them
00:17:21
very often the first SpaceX launch to
00:17:23
use a refurbished Falcon 9 happened in
00:17:25
March 2017 and it made use of a booster
00:17:29
that had been recovered over one year
00:17:31
prior as far as changes with the block 5
00:17:34
SpaceX upgraded the turbo pumps inside
00:17:36
their Merlin engines when it was
00:17:38
discovered that the units formed a very
00:17:40
small micro cracks after being launched
00:17:42
and recovered the grid fins on the side
00:17:44
of the rocket were also made stronger
00:17:46
with an upgrade from aluminum to
00:17:48
Titanium metal at the time these fins
00:17:50
were the largest single pieces of forged
00:17:53
titanium ever made and therefore
00:17:55
incredibly expensive but this gave them
00:17:57
a much greater resistance to the heat of
00:17:59
re-entry and greater control over the
00:18:01
Rocket's angle of attack as it coasted
00:18:04
through the air the entire body of the
00:18:06
Falcon 9 was given a thermal protective
00:18:08
coating that reduced heat absorption
00:18:10
across the entire rocket in addition a
00:18:13
new reusable and replaceable liquid
00:18:15
cooled heat shield was added to the base
00:18:17
of the rocket for greater protection of
00:18:19
the engines and plumbing system the
00:18:21
block 5 Landing legs were upgraded to
00:18:23
allow them to both extend and retract
00:18:26
the previous legs actually couldn't fold
00:18:28
back up after the rocket was recovered
00:18:30
they had to be unbolted and removed
00:18:32
SpaceX also made an improvement to the
00:18:35
cpovs on the Block 5. these are ultra
00:18:38
high pressure tanks that are wrapped in
00:18:40
carbon fiber they are used to store
00:18:42
helium gas that maintains pressure
00:18:44
inside fuel tanks as they empty and a
00:18:47
copv failure was linked to both of the
00:18:49
previous Falcon 9 explosions one in air
00:18:52
and one on the launch pad
00:18:54
it's been five years now since SpaceX
00:18:56
made all of those reusability upgrades
00:18:58
to the Falcon 9. so what do they have to
00:19:01
show for it did they make a truly
00:19:03
reusable rocket earlier this summer on
00:19:06
July 10th SpaceX successfully launched
00:19:08
and landed Falcon 9 booster b1058 for
00:19:12
the 16th time this is the same booster
00:19:15
that launched astronauts Doug Hurley and
00:19:17
Bob benkin to the International Space
00:19:19
Station in May 2020 the first time a
00:19:22
crew had ever flown on a SpaceX rocket
00:19:25
so that's 16 flights in just over three
00:19:29
years SpaceX had originally believed
00:19:31
that the Falcon 9 block 5 would be good
00:19:33
for up to 10 launches and landings but
00:19:36
that lifespan projection increased to 15
00:19:38
launches in 2022 and right now SpaceX
00:19:41
has certified b1058 for up to 20
00:19:44
launches and based on extended life
00:19:47
vibration testing by SpaceX Engineers
00:19:49
they think that the block 5 could
00:19:51
withstand as many as 60 launches and
00:19:54
Landings for comparison the Space
00:19:56
Shuttle Discovery completed 39 missions
00:19:59
more than any other shuttle in the fleet
00:20:01
on average there were only between five
00:20:04
and eight space shuttle launches in any
00:20:06
given year with 135 total missions
00:20:09
spread across 30 years and five vehicles
00:20:12
so that's not a whole lot of precedent
00:20:15
to work with but according to the
00:20:17
numbers that we do have yeah the Falcon
00:20:20
9 is an extremely reusable rocket
00:20:22
booster and a good one at that so now
00:20:25
all we have left to do is sit and wait
00:20:28
for the next leap forward to begin can
00:20:31
the Starship take reusable Rockets to
00:20:33
the next level
00:20:35
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00:20:37
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00:20:40
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00:20:42
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