Shadowing Practice: The Chopsticks get Chopped - Starbase Summary - Learn English Speaking with Video
Creating lesson...
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Alright folks, we're back it says on the screen.
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It's time for another Starbase summary.
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We're going to start it off with some percussive maintenance over at Massey's.
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Got to get those flanges to line up.
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Also, the chopsticks have been a little bit more chopped lately.
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There's actually a lot more of the chopsticks missing than you might first realize looking at these shots.
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Talk about that in just a little bit later in the video and also, hey, work on the Gigabay.
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Big city access there.
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Putting some more panels on the Gigabay with one of those, I think it's like a window washer sort of thing.
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In any event, let's roll it all the way over to Massey's to start.
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August 12th, got a couple test tanks in there, 43.1 and 18, and some change there.
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But again, these are the incomplete tanks where they're testing specific parts, specific wells, specific layouts, specific interfaces, flanges, that sort of stuff.
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They put it in the nosecone jail there because that's a big, solid structure that they can use to put different forces on the nose cone
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that it might encounter in flight or potentially when other things are docking with it.
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I don't know, maybe in orbit or something like that.
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There's that 18.3, 18 and change, whatever.
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You know, if you see the 18 but then you don't remember if it's .3 or .4 or whatever, you can just say 18 and change, and that's some movie magic for y'all when I don't read the labels quite fast enough.
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Remember, I don't practice this.
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I just watch the video, and I tell you about what I see as it comes across.
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I'm not allowed to pause.
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I'm not allowed to rewind or anything like that.
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It's almost like a Starbase reaction video.
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But it's all good, because it helps me keep up with what's going on at Starbase.
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Like those false grid fins they had there, if you scroll back a little bit.
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Here's some booster locks landing tank work.
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That was where our percussive maintenance came in.
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We've traveled up there, not taking the stairs or ladders.
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We used the lift.
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Also a good way to get your tools up there
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when you have the engineer's hammer that you need to use to tippity-tap on that little flange.
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It really looks like he's trying to get that flange to line up, like maybe the bolts.
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I don't know, you tighten down too many of those bolts.
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You'd think that the flanges would be made in such a way
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that you wouldn't get things out of spec so the bolts bind it up, but just a little bit.
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You've got a flat mating surface like that, a little bit of off angle can make those things bind up.
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Tolerances, how do they work?
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lifting up some stuff that was a clamp arm
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and some other parts
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that they were lifting up to the top there you can tell this is caesar
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because it's beautiful low-light nighttime photography it's the air separation unit
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it's like the catch oh there's mysterious shadows happening the play
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of lights on the side of the air separation unit here on Boca Chica Beach.
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Across the street from the ASU, there's Orbital Pad 1.
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This is where we can start to see the first parts of that chopstick getting chopped.
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I feel like there's like a who will watch the watchers sort of thing in here, like who will chop the chopsticks.
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It's possible that a starship is going to chop the chopsticks one day, or a booster, equal opportunity chopstick chopper.
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but here they're doing in a very controlled manner.
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We'll get some close-ups of those in the daytime coming up in just a little bit, but there's more missing.
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Start looking now.
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There's more missing than you think.
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Got the crane boom in there.
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That actually looks like counterweights that are moving around.
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They got a big sling.
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This looks like that tomahawk T-bone chop thing just above the load there.
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It looked like almost like a come-along or something.
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What do you have there?
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There's like a little...
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Does it look like a comet on the top of the stream?
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Did y'all see that?
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I'm going to have to ask Caesar what that was.
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Certainly not.
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But there was like a smudge at the top that I was wondering what it was.
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More nighttime shots here.
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Here we're going to move a trench wall segment over and flip it.
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Just flip it over.
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There you go.
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Scientific process.
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Whump!
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I heard that in my mind.
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I heard the whump when you saw all of the dust fly over.
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Okay, the chopstick chopping continues.
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Say that ten times fast.
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So it's not just a horizontal piece and a little bit of the vertical piece.
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The whole big vertical piece, compare it, pause the video, compare it to the other side.
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There's a huge vertical piece, and you see the rusty bit?
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The rusty sort of square tube there?
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They did that to support the chopsticks, it looks like.
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It's like a temporary thing on there with a little dog-eared flange thing.
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They're taking out a larger part of those chopsticks than I had originally first realized.
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So why are they doing that?
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I don't have an exact answer from SpaceX, right?
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But I really wonder, it could be two things in my mind.
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Are they optimizing the chopsticks, or chop-timizing them, you might say, to remove unnecessary mass from the end of the structure so
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that the chopsticks can move more quickly and have more control over how they move?
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Or did they find a flaw?
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Is there, like, just on that one side, was there a crack or a defect in the pipe or something that warranted more than just a patch, right?
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I'm curious.
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Like I said, I don't have an official angle.
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That answer, that's one reason I like watching this, because it's roadside rocket science.
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I like to watch it
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and sort of see what I think might be the answer based on the context
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and clues that we're given here that we can observe.
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But I saw some other footage in there, you know, working on pad two.
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Here's some deliveries at the tank farm.
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Got the trucks.
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What's with that gray one?
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You're weird.
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What is that, like primer?
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Huh.
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They're usually all painted super light colors because they're cryo.
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I wonder if that one was carrying something different.
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Well, it's here at the cryo stations.
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You can see the white ice frozen onto the pipes there.
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Perfect.
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Thank you, Colleen.
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Well done.
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I did not know that that shot was coming up next, but you can literally see the insulation, the black ribbed structures there,
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and then the ice forming on the uninsulated parts.
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Look at the little drop.
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It's a clean-out flange or something.
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I don't know what it is.
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Then a big stainless steel wrapped part up there at the top.
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Braided is the word I was looking for.
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Braided, not a-braided.
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It's braided stainless steel.
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But just look at all the different insulation and how cold it gets in there, that humidity just freezing on there.
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And then when you have less space between bolts, it actually sort of grows like it's a pipe frost
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and the bolts are close enough together
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that it just freezes in almost one solid something compare
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that to the other bolts over there uh they did not
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have frost on them yet here's 1073 does anybody else have
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the app for their phone there's an app there's probably more than one app
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but uh you can decode those numbers like
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if you're driving down the road and you see a truck
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and it's got a number on it you can you can decode it it's like oh that's diesel.
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That's regular automotive gasoline.
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That's liquid aluminum.
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I've seen that before.
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I don't remember what the number was, but I was like, what?
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Anyways, hey, pad one OLM assembly begins.
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This is a long range shot.
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That leads me to wonder exactly where that assembly was happening because that shot was such a long range shot.
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It seems like we would have had a closer up camera
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if it was actually a pad one but there's a QR code
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that doesn't work very well if you scan
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that with your phone it probably sends you to another Rick Astley video I'm making
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that up clearly I don't think that that don't scan
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that with your phone who knows there's the top of the gigabay no cladding all the way up yet
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but as you saw they were still installing panels this actually looks like maybe not working on a is
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that a little panel that's around the door no that's a
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big rail you can see the black area then the big structural parts
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that dude is like hauling on that is he trying to move that whole thing over
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huh that that did look like they were working on the door tracks
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or the flashing maybe you could say around the door tracks there
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but he was pulling that whole thing over maybe so the other
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so the other guy could get a better angle on whatever he was working on.
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Do a big tilt up here.
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You can see some of the door tracks there just to the left of the black panels.
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You can see the door track going all the way up.
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That's going to be a little bit crazy.
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Got some ceiling, attic, whatever you want to call up there for the doors to roll into.
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Is that somebody working maybe?
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There's somebody in a lift, a little basket thing.
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Yeah, it looks like the basket all the way up on that left-hand side there.
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There's somebody monkeying around.
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Not really monkeying around.
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Oh, and real quick, I guess we're going to hop over to McGregor again.
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Again, we're not putting McGregor in every single one of these.
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It does.
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McGregor's always there.
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It's always doing stuff.
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But that looked like it was an abort happening.
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And then shortly thereafter, abort, just it fired up.
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Then it didn't keep firing.
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This is what an actual Merlin test looks like at the Merlin test stands.
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They got a couple little test stands in there.
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You see a little building that looks like it's on stilts.
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and they fire these things down a little redirector, sort of a flame trench thing.
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They've got a place to do vacuums.
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They've got a place to do sea levels.
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And then there's the plume.
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Those are RP-1.
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You see those plumes are definitely a different color than you get from the methane plumes.
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I've parked a white truck out there downwind, and you get a pretty good amount of soot on your white vehicle if you're close enough,
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but it's a little bit different than the methane rockets.
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Got a piece of hardware coming in here as well.
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It's a wrapped second stage it looks like.
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Just scooting along.
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Really, again, I asked for us to put these in here, but I really just don't think that people understand.
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It's corn, by the way.
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That's why you can only see a little bit of the truck.
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I don't think people understand how much work happens at McGregor.
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We're all so enamored with Starbase and the big launch pads and that sort of stuff.
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And McGregor over here, there's the stage two.
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Leaving the test stand, McGregor's over here just cranking out solid work every single day.
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Like, this is what you need to keep up the cadence for the Falcon 9s.
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Wow, look at that.
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You thought the nozzle was stubby before.
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This is overdoing it a little bit.
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Again, I specifically ask that we introduce these McGregor clips to some of these videos just
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because I just don't think that people understand this blocking and tackling that's critical to SpaceX success happening out at McGregor.
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So hug a McGregor employee today if you got one.
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Probably most of y'all don't have one.
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Anyways, say thanks in the comments.
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Hey, that's the star base summary folks always reading the comments
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down below my name is john there at the top
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if i respond respond to you down below i'll probably say
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das there's more of those missing guys it's just a big
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old chunk of the chopsticks missing let me know what you're guessing on
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that but we appreciate you watching and we will see you next time
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What You'll Learn from This Clip
This video is a goldmine for english speaking practice, especially if you want to sound more natural in casual, conversational settings. You’ll pick up how to: 1) use "filler phrases" like "in any event" or "you know" to keep a flow going, even when you’re thinking on your feet; 2) simplify numbers (e.g., "18 and change" instead of "18.3") to avoid overcomplicating speech; and 3) describe technical processes in relatable terms ("tippity-tap on that little flange" instead of formal jargon). These skills are key for sounding confident in real-world chats, whether you’re talking about space tech or daily tasks.
Listen For These Sounds
Connected speech is everywhere in this dialogue—listen closely for how words link together. For example, "got to get" becomes "gotta get" (a common reduction), and "sort of thing" blends into "sorta thing." You’ll also hear "whaddya" (from "what do you") in phrases like "whaddya think." These small changes make speech faster and more natural, so practice noticing them. They’re perfect for shadowspeak—mimicking native speakers to build fluency.
Say It Like a Native
The speaker’s rhythm is relaxed and conversational, with stress on key words like "percussive maintenance" or "chopsticks getting chopped." To mirror this, focus on: 1) pausing briefly before important details (like "Talk about that in just a little bit later in the video"); 2) using a rising tone when asking rhetorical questions ("how do they work?"); and 3) emphasizing contrast ("more missing than you might first realize"). A shadowing app can help you match this rhythm—play short clips, pause, and repeat, trying to copy the speed and stress. Over time, you’ll start to sound more like a native, even when discussing complex topics.
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.