Mike Hatch

It outlined the procedures for a launchpad escape, for bailing out, and for a crash landing escape. I had every step committed to memory and didnБЂ™t need the card but it gave me something to read during the wait. I also asked her to put a light stick next to the altimeter in front of me. In a bailout scenario, after pulling the emergency cockpit depressurization handle, I would watch the altimeter until it indicated we were below fifty thousand feet. Then, I would blow the side hatch and deploy the bailout slide boom. I would be the first outБЂ¦into the ink black of a North Atlantic winter night and all the perils that it embodied. JeannieБЂ™s face was beaded in sweat as she crawled over me to make my connections. Kevin Chilton, one of the ASPs, was the last to leave the cockpit. He pulled the pin that locked a safety cover over the cockpit depressurization and hatch jettison handles. Assuming we made orbit, I would reinsert the pin. He handed it to me. БЂњGood luck, Mike.БЂ«БЂњThanks, Chilly. See you at Edwards.БЂ«I heard the hatch close, the mechanicalthunking noise carrying a note of finality ...»