waiting for the shuttle to "land", originally uploaded by docfranxusc.

It was steamy on the runway...and this was only 9am.

As it turns out, if the shuttle decides to land on DGar, we'll have about 55 minutes to prepare...apparently, it will drop out of the sky at some ridiculous angle (like 20degrees DOWN), and spiral...with the finesse of a giant coke machine...to burn off atmospheric energy before it glides nicely to a stop on our little plot of land. mmm...you're supposed to give the thing 1250yds in all directions in case it decides to explode...well, 1250yds either way is...WATER...so as long as we're upwind we should be okay. The shuttle contains hypergolic chemicals, which need no source to ignite, and thus it's a little dangerous to get too close, at least in the beginning. medical sits at the 1250yd line and wiats for the fire crews to bring the astronuats to us..