I think if we look at station you know we've kind of really spent the past 10 years assembling space station we've built a tremendous facility in space you know we have probably the most phenomenal research facility ever available in in space to take advantage of microgravity has a vacuum system high rate data video all kinds of capability that any research lab and on the ground would be would be proud to have so our next challenge will be to take that same energy that same zeal that we put into assembly and apply it to research and utilization so we've done research all along as we were assembling but we weren't able to focus and spend the quality time on the research activities that we will be able to now it's nice we know we have a nice 10-year period as congress has given some extension dates out to 2020 so we know we have a good period of time and it's up to us and the team to go utilize the research community that's out there and then make sure we get some really quality research on board space station well the the g whiz thing is the zero gravity having a long-term laboratory with zero gravity is very unique and i think it's one that i hope that we will reap the benefits from in the future from a scientific perspective in a much more active way we are the experiment and initially when people hear me say that they think that I'm talking about the crew members being guinea pigs for life sciences experiments and certainly there's an element of that we we give a little blood and other things in pursuit of that kind of research but when i say we are the experiment I'm talking about the entire team of government agencies in the international partnership and all the contractor teams that support in the development of the is the hardware software the integration the testing the assembly and then the day-to-day operations all of that is so significant in scope and magnitude and complexity but the team has pulled it off to that extent i think that that is the great experiment of is we don't just take the money and launch it into space we aren't sending dollar bills or 100 bills into space we're actually investing the money so all of the effort that goes into conceiving and designing and constructing and operating and launching a space vehicle requires a lot of thought and that thought actually produces things that are over and above what was the intention in the beginning so the classic example is that because of the effort to get to the moon in the 60s there was a lot of miniaturization and that miniaturization ended up spinning off into a lot of things and for which we today can do things like talk on cell phones and take hd video with cameras that fit in your pocket and that sort of thing so likewise in the future people will be reaping the benefits of the efforts that are underway today to go into low earth orbit to operate the is or someday go beyond there and we don't know what they are today but the one thing that I'm sure of is that something more than just space flight itself will come out of it i think the more glorious part of space travel is the launch and so everybody thinks about space travel during a shuttle launch or a Soyuz launch but the international space station is a little bit more unique because people are actually living and working up in space 24 hours a day seven days a week 365 days a year and what that means is that there's a myriad of people on the ground all over the world making sure that every aspect of that spacecraft is working correctly and the crew on board is healthy and safe the shuttle's been invaluable to allowing us to build station the components that were delivered to space by the shuttle there's no other way we could have really got those elements to orbit other than through the space shuttle and also the space shuttle has been more than just a delivery of these elements it's been our work platform it brings its own robotic arm to help with assembly it brings its own airlock which we used early on for the crews to to go do space walks from so and it also brings a working crew the seven crew members are there to help and assist in the assembly operation so so each assembly flight was unique in its own right the shuttle not only brought the hardware but it brought the workers it brought the work platform to work off of and it was it was the asset that made station possible if it wasn't for shuttle we could not have built this station that exists today space station is the culminating engineering effort of 15 countries children should be able to look up and in simple all and wonder that we have accomplished this engineering feat that folks can float and do wonderful science and learn more about what we're doing on earth as well as going farther and the third thing i would say is it provides a goal maybe an inspiration for the for the children to be able to want to contribute to our future together we are building the future to participate is much much more than somebody who understands math and science it is individuals that understand math and science it's individuals that can communicate clearly individuals that understand other languages and other cultures and so kids should go to school they should specialize in what they're good at and what they're interested in with an understanding that that will apply their goals hopefully to participate in the exploration of other planets in the future looking back on the contribution that the international space station made for you know civilization when we have you know school children now in middle school you know and then building a colony and living there and having their kids there and we say that this one step in low earth orbit with the is was what got us there you know it was the springboard it was the the lifeboat it was the peace that made it all happen and that's what legacy is all about building from one piece and then looking back and saying that's what got us to where we are now and it's all about you know inspiring the next generation of explorers that will be those people walking on the margin surface we have built this with nations that have not always been friendly with each other and together here we've actually built this platform together here we're building what's going to happen next and together we are responsible for the future and together is our future fifteen nations one international space station together is the future.