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SpaceX Starship, a giant weapon? · Elon Musk Podcast

• 0:01
  Hey everybody, welcome back to the Elon Musk podcast.
• 0:05
  This is a show where we discuss. The critical crossroads, The
• 0:08
  shape SpaceX. Tesla X, The Boring Company, and
• 0:12
  Neuralink and I'm. Your host.
• 0:14
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• 0:18
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• 0:20
  Go to clubelon.supercast.com to find out how.
• 0:25
  There's a link in the show notes.
• 0:26
  SpaceX is working with the Department of Defense on the
• 0:30
  Starship program. And this is a huge leap for
• 0:33
  SpaceX because currently they launched Department of Defense
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  satellites with the Falcon 9 rocket.
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  But with Starship, that's a whole other game.
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  It's huge. It can take tons of cargo to low
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  Earth orbit and beyond. And the Department of Defense is
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  greedy, and they want to stick their fangs into the Starship
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  program as deep as possible. They're frothing at the mouth of
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  this thing because it can transport cargo anywhere in the
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  world from point A to point B in about an hour.
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  So any amount of tonnage that the Department of Defense needs,
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  they can get it there within an hour.
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  And SpaceX could provide that if the Starship is successful.
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  Now they've already had a few test launches IFT 1, IFT 2.
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  They're coming up on IFT 3 sometime in February.
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  Hopefully, and if they are successful with this, will be a
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  game changer for SpaceX. The Department of Defense is
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  looking deep into space XS reserves and they know that they
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  can count on SpaceX to make a rocket that's going to be
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  sustainable for the near term and also the long term of the
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  Department of Defense for the United States.
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  So, and what does the Department of Defense need now?
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  They already have the Falcon 9, right?
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  They can transport stuff up into space, but they want to do point
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  to point. They want to do people from
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  point A to point B. But do they want SpaceX in
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  charge of this? That is the key.
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  The Department of Defense works with other contractors and they
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  make sure that they are in charge of the Rockets and not
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  the people and the the producers of the Rockets.
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  So they want to do this now with SpaceX.
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  And there's been some insight here from Irene Klotz.
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  The Department of Defense has requested take over Starship for
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  individual missions from Aviation Week network and wrote
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  a great article about this. Irene did a great job here.
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  So let's see here. I'm sorry.
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  Brian Everstein did the article, Irene posted it.
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  The Pentagon has approached SpaceX about potentially taking
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  over Starship for sensitive, potentially dangerous missions
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  as a government owned the government operated asset.
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  Instead of contracting the company to launch payloads so
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  the government would control the Starship, the particular
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  Starship or starships, they would launch them on their own
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  accord. Maybe they would launch them
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  through SpaceX. We're not sure yet, but they're
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  looking into it. How do you feel about that?
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  How do you feel about the government being in control of
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  starships? Because the Starship is supposed
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  to send people in cargo to the moon and to Mars in a peaceful
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  way, is it OK for the Department of Defense to get their hands on
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  the Starship and the technology behind Starship?
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  And if they can launch it themselves, is that a good
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  thing? Let me know in the comments
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  because I I have mixed emotions about this one because I think
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  it's important to realize that SpaceX isn't just in it for the
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  humanity benefit. Sending people to the moon to
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  Mars beyond is great, but they already do Department of Defense
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  stuff. They've sent up spy satellites
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  for the Department of Defense is they're up there already, so
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  they're already in bed with the Department of Defense.
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  Is this a game changer though? Is this a different thing?
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  What could they transport on Starship they could not
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  transport on a Falcon 9 and that's transporting troops and
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  cargo across the world, the Department of Defense
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  represented said. We've had conversations, It
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  really came down to specific mission where it's a very
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  specific and sometimes elevated risk or maybe a dangerous use
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  case for the Department of Defense where they're asking
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  themselves do we need to own it as a particular asset.
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  SpaceX, can you accommodate that?
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  Basically asking SpaceX, hey, can you build this Starship?
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  It's like when somebody builds the Department of Defense a
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  tank, and that tank is owned by the government Now the builder
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  doesn't own it anymore. The Department of Defense owns
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  that tank. Is this what's going to happen
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  to starships in the future? And they said we've been
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  exploring all kinds of options to deal with those questions.
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  You know, they they move cargo like I was saying, like they're
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  going to be moving cargo. They already have a Starship
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  contract with the Department of Defense to move cargo.
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  And eventually they'll have a contract to move people once
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  they human rate this. And of course, we know that it's
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  capable of carrying. I think Elon said 100 people at
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  a time. So if you could get 100 troops
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  anywhere in the world within an hour, would you do it?
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  If you're the Department of Defense, of course you would.
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  You'd buy your own rockets to do it too.
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  And you'd build your own Starship facility where you
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  could launch the starships. You could catch the boosters.
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  It'll be all under the watchful eye of SpaceX.
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  They'd build it, probably. They'd contract them to build
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  the launch pads, the landing pads, the Rockets, of course,
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  and or at least give them the blueprints, if you want to put
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  it in a very broad term, to build these things, to build the
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  launchpad, the landing pad, the chopsticks, the arms, the tower,
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  everything. And once SpaceX nails this, the
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  Department of Defense is going to be all over this.
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  I want to know, of course, like, I want to know what you think,
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  because I'm still, I know what SpaceX does already.
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  I know that they do this for the Department of Defense already,
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  Air Force already Space Force already NASA of course because
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  they're they're a department of the US government.
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  But is this a different thing with the government owning
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  starships? Is this a whole, this is a huge
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  leap. You know you making those assets
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  and then they go on to say if we can buy the commercial service
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  that's what we're going to do. But there might be some use
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  cases where we where there needs to be a government owned,
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  government operated vehicle. That transfer can happen on the
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  fly. So if they can buy a commercial
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  service, say OK, let's load up some cargo from Boca Chica
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  Starbase, Texas and fly it to some place, you know anywhere
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  else in the world, That's not bad, That's not a bad thing.
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  Just get the military to bring down their assets, to bring down
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  their cargo to Starbase loaded up on a Starship and then launch
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  it from now. That's not a big deal.
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  They do that all the time. They do that with cargo planes,
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  cargo helicopters, etcetera. This is a rocket though.
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  It's pretty big deal, pretty different.
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  But if the Department of Defense could do this and their own
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  property, how often would they do this?
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  It's a little bit scary that they would have that power to
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  get anywhere in the world within an hour.
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  Ish. How to say about an hour?
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  So Brian, you nailed it. That's a great article and it's
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  short. It's easy to read, but I think
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  we may be in trouble. I'm just saying this is very
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  powerful, this is very powerful. And I think we have to keep an
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  eye on this because there's just so many things could happen with
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  the Starship that it was just it was a game changer for
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  everything, for the cargo and the people and other assets that
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  the government and the Department of Defense can move
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  around. So I just want to have a
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  discussion with you today because I thought it was
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  pertinent. And I think the Starship, even
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  though we have Mars on the horizon, is it possible that bad
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  things can happen on Earth because of the Starship?
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  And does that sway your opinion about SpaceX?
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  All the other rocket companies do it, not the same thing.
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  They build systems for the Department of Defense.
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  So there's already precedent being set.
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  SpaceX, like I said before, takes cargo to space for the
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  Department of Defense. I don't know.
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  There's so many things, there's so many things to think about.
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  It's in my wheelhouse, but I'm not in the Department of
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  Defense. So I understand why they do it.
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  I really do. I understand why they would do
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  it. It makes tons of sense.
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  But is it the right thing to do? I don't know.
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  I don't know. That's where I'm.
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  I don't know. So I want to have a discussion
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  about this. I want you guys to talk about it
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  because I think we need to. We need to make our voices heard
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  about this stuff. I think it's important that we
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  have a strong military, but I also think it's important that
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  sometimes you do the right thing.
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  I know, let's skip. But if this is a ton of money
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  for SpaceX, does it outweigh? Do they use this Department of
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  Defense money to build more starships?
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  To get more cargo to Mars? To get more people to Mars?
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  Is it worth it at the end of the day to get people to Mars by
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  doing this? By selling starships to the
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  Department of Defense? Possible billions of dollar
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  investment from the DoD towards SpaceX and towards Starbase?
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  And that's a lot of money. When you are a rocket company,
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  it's a lot of money. So yeah, there's a lot, there's
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  a lot to consider here. And hope you take this into
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  consideration when you think about SpaceX too, because even
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  though their aspirations are huge and monumental, and they're
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  going to get us to other planets and take cargo everywhere in the
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  solar system, that's wonderful. But what's the trade off?
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  I'll leave you with that. What's the trade off?
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  Let me know in the comments. Thanks for watching.
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  All right. Take care everybody.
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