THE DECISION WOULD BE HADE at about 60,000 feet. Provided nothing had gone fatally wrong and the space shuttle could still be maneuvered into a stable glide, the astronauts aboard, who only minutes before had been on their way to orbit, would prepare to parachute into the ocean. As the orbiter descended, the commander would set its controls to autopilot. The astronaut sitting closest to the outer hatch, on the middeck below, would remove a curved metal housing from the ceiling and install it beside the hatch. Carrying bulky, 70-pound backpacks, the rest of the crew would climb out of their seats and make their way to the hatch, where they'd hook harnesses worn over their spacesuits to lanyards inside the housing. The jump master, the astronaut sitting next to the hatch, would first pull a T-shaped handle near the floor to depressurize the cabin, then another one to blow the hatch with pyrotechnic charges. The equivalent of a 230-mph wind would now rush past the round opening in the shuttle's fuselage. The jump master would activate a release in the newly installed housing, triggering a nine-foot telescoping pole to extend instandy into the rushing air, rammed to its full length by powerful springs.
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