Burnout: the mystery of Space Shuttle STS-281 (43 page)

In the moonlight, the pool of blood that soaked into the desert floor… was blue.

The ringleader dropped to his knees. Len began to tug at the creatures. "Get it off! Take off the costumes! Help me get this mask off!" Human fingernails clawed at the necks of the dead men, looking for the mask seams, and only coming away blue-stained.

"Those… those aren't costumes, mate," the other youth stammered, staring without recognition at the tiny gecko-like lizard insignia on the left breast of the lizard-men's uniforms. "These… oh, God… these really are lizard-men."

The drug gang stared at each other.

In the distance, a howl rent the night.

The two elders, male and female, kept the trembling Alyawarre faithful huddled in their ritual camp, close to the fire. Outside, far away from the reach of their firelight, could be heard hideous screams issuing from human throats, and the inhuman howls of an unknown predator. After several dreadful hours, the noise ceased.

By dawn, the desert outside the encampment was empty…

… save for two blue stains in the sand.

Appendix A – Glossary

Absolute magnitude
The intrinsic luminosity or brightness of a celestial object such as a star, defined as its brightness viewed from a distance of ten parsecs

ACT
Australian Capital Territory

ADI
Attitude Director Indicator

AGN
Active Galactic Nucleus

Alyawarre
A specific Aboriginal tribe that lives in the Australian Outback near Uluru (Ayers Rock)

APB
All Points Bulletin

Apparent magnitude
The intrinsic luminosity or brightness of a celestial object such as a star, defined as its brightness as viewed from Earth

APU
Auxiliary Power Unit

Area 51
A legendary, highly secure area within the Nevada Test Range, to which urban legend commonly ascribes alien spacecraft, the remains of the Roswell crash (including alien bodies), and research, development, and testing for air and space craft based on the alien technology stored there; also Dreamland, Groom Lake

ASAP
As Soon As Possible

Asterism
A well known grouping of stars, often in a pattern, but not a formally recognized constellation; e.g. the Big and Little Dippers

Att
Attitude

Aussie
Person from Australia

Auto
Automatic

Aux Control
Auxiliary Control, backup control center

Ayers Rock
See Uluru

Bandit
Incoming missile

Bonzer
Australian slang for great, terrific

Burl
Australian slang for "try"

CapCom
Capsule Communicator--control room position; the term is an historic holdover from the early, pre-Shuttle days of space flight

Car park
Australian term for parking lot

CCD
Charge-coupled device; modern astronomical photographic sensor chip

CDR
Commander; Shuttle crew leader

Cepheid
A type of variable star, whose rate of variation is directly related to its brightness; can be used as an indicator of celestial distance

Chunnel
Channel Tunnel; underground/underwater commuter tunnel connecting Great Britain and France

Comm
Communication

Cosmology
Study of the universe as a whole

Coudé
Variety of spectrograph; see Spectrograph

CV
Curriculum vitae; résumé

DAP
Digital Autopilot

D/L
Downlink; refers to any electronic transmission from orbit to ground. Opposite of uplink

Doppler effect
A change in the frequency with which waves (such as sound or light) from a given source reach an observer, when the source and/or the observer are in motion relative to each other. The frequency increases or decreases according to the speed at which the distance between the source and observer is increasing or decreasing. If the objects are moving apart, it is referred to as redshift (see glossary entry); if they are moving together, it is said to be blueshifted.

Double-E
Electrical Engineering

Dreamland
Commonly used euphemistic designator for Area 51

Dreamtime
Aboriginal concept of the beginning of All Things, a time before creation itself; the time before time

DSS
Defense Security Service

DTO
Detailed Technical Objective; an experiment designed to test various capabilities of the Shuttle

Echelle
Variety of spectrograph; see Spectrograph

Empennage
Tail assembly of an airplane or spacecraft

ET
External Tank; also Extra-Terrestrial

Exo
Exo-atmospheric

FAO
Flight Activities Officer; position in flight control

Flight
Flight Director; leader of flight controllers

FOUO
For Official Use Only; government document classification ranking somewhere between Unclassified and Secret

GIB
Guy In Back; second man in a two-man fighter, responsible for weaponry and sensors. The corresponding "guy in front" is the pilot

G IV
A particular stellar spectral class: a G subdwarf

GNC
Guidance, Navigation, and Control; position in flight control

GPC
General Purpose Computer

Grey out
Pilot term for the effects of high g maneuvers on the vision. As the blood is drained from the head, vision deteriorates, and a pilot loses peripheral vision and color perception, resulting in a grey, tunnel vision field of view

Groom Lake
Lake bed within the Nevada Test Range, commonly used as a euphemistic designator for Area 51

GS
Government Service

Hawking Radiation
A type of thermal radiation produced by quantum effects around a singularity, i.e. black hole or wormhole

High bay
Large, tall room for working on large space modules, Shuttles, Space Station components, satellites, et al., often equipped with cranes, etc.

HOSC
Huntsville Operations Support Center; see MSFC

HSI
Horizontal Situation Indicator

Humvee
High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle; sometimes (usually commercially) known as a Hummer, it is the replacement for the Jeep.

IAU
International Astronomical Union

II
Independent Investigator

Inma
Australian Aboriginal sacred ceremony

Insertion
Mission phase which includes launch, ascent, and establishment of orbit; orbital insertion

Intel
Intelligence

JSC
Johnson Space Center; Houston, TX

KSC
Kennedy Space Center, FL; "The Cape," Cape Canaveral

Kurpany
Evil black dog-like monster of Australian Aboriginal Dreamtime

LEO
Low Earth Orbit

LGM
Little Green Men; original term used for a pulsar (see glossary entry) shortly after their discovery, when the repetitive, regular signal was thought to represent intelligence

LOS
Loss Of Signal

Lungkata
Australian Aboriginal name for one of the Lizard-men of Dreamtime; given name

LY
Light year

M&P Lab
Materials and Processes Laboratory; lab division at Marshall Space Flight Center

Mach
The ratio of the speed of an object to the local speed of sound. Also Mach speed, Mach number

MAN
Manual

MCC
Mission Control Center; see JSC

Messier Object
Any astronomical object on the list of over 100 naked-eye nebulae in an eponymous catalogue compiled by French astronomer Charles Messier in the late 18
th
and early 19
th
centuries

Mita
Lizard-man of the Australian Aboriginal Dreamtime; given name

MLS
Microwave scanning beam Landing System

MRE
Meals Ready to Eat; the modern replacement of the old C-ration

MS-1, -2, -3
Mission Specialist 1, 2, or 3; Shuttle crew members

MSFC
Marshall Space Flight Center

NASA
National Aeronautics and Space Administration

NASA Meatball
The circular blue NASA logo with the red chevron and white orbiting dot; affectionately known to all NASA employees and contractors as the "meatball." The logo consisting of the word "NASA" in curved
Star Wars
-style font is likewise known as the "worm."

NASDA
National Space Development Agency of Japan

Nav
Navigation

NAV
An HSI mode – navigation

n. mi.
Nautical Mile

NTS
Next-generation Tethered Satellite, a fictional follow-on to the real life Tethered Satellite project

OBE
Overcome By Events; rendered obsolete or useless due to more recent activity

Occultation
When one space object passes in front of another, unrelated object, and blocks the light from the more distant object. If the two objects orbit each other, it is referred to as an eclipse.

OD
Officer of the Day; duty officer in charge of a facility for that shift/day

OMS pod
Orbital Maneuvering System engine pod

Ops
Operations

Oz
Australian; corruption of the first syllable of "Australia"

PAO
Public Affairs Officer/Office

Parallax
The apparent displacement in position of an object as seen from two different positions not in a straight line with the object; the angular difference in direction of a celestial object when measured from two different points in the Earth's orbit