the docs get their turn, originally uploaded by docfranxusc.

Now, you might be wondering why it is that I am looking at an astronaut..and here it is: Diego Garcia is an alternate landing site for the space shuttle. Very COOL. Although it will be a very bad day for all if the thing actually lands here. Why? Well, it's not b/c we don't have enough runway -- apparently our runway is approximately 3 miles long. A decent target size. ...no...

it MIGHT just have to do with the fact that we're smack in the middle of the Indian Ocean, oh about 11,500 miles from Kennedy Space Center. It would take 48hrs to get any other NASA personnel on the island, not to mention the fact that they would bring in over 500 people to case the joint, figure out what went wrong and then begin building an 8,000 ton CRANE to LIFT the shuttle onto the back of a 747 or onto a barge and get the thing out of here. Hmmm...or it would become a really neat museum on the island. A place to have parties. Because, of course, that's what we do here.

They estimate it would take at least 3 months from emergency landing to get all those people off the island after it lands, and did I mention the connection were slow here?? Dear.

Either way, the medical staff needed training in aerospace and outer space medicine and in emergency shuttle landing maneuvering. The info is fascinating. The dynamics of their cardiovascular systems while theyare in space are nearly opposite of ours in Zero gravity, so they go from having a bunch of circulation around their arms and head to crash landing it aroudn their feet...a lot of dizzy space cadets (literally) running around...

We spent almost 10 hours training and running a drill to simulate what our life might be like if the shuttle landed in Dgar. Being prepared IS helpful.