Descriptions of the Illustrations for "Shoot Out at the Cape"

The cryorat is a rat wearing a scarf and a tobogann hat, with icecicles dangling from his whiskers. return

There is a large white truss structure sitting on the floor. Atop the truss are two roughly cylindrical objects, well wrapped in sheets of white material. From the nearer end of each cylinder extends a cylinder on about half the diameter. Each smaller cylinder has a dark end. return

The same truss structure with its cylinders as in the last photo is now sitting on a wide, low cart with caster wheels. You can see the reflection of the assembly in the polished white floor. In the background is a tripod supporting a small piece of equipment. return

This is an overhead view of the work area. A worker in a white "bunny suit" (clean area suit) is seated working on a piece of the equipment. A large, shiny metal tank next to him (probably a storage dewar for liquid helium) has a hose running to yet a third large metallic apparatus (of which we can see only the top plate, which is mostly bare.) Behind this equipment and the dewar is a computer monitor. There are several cables of hoses draped around the pieces of equipment. return

The 2 cylindrical SHOOT dewars sit on the same white truss structure as in earlier pictures. This truss has now been expanded, so that the original truss is just one side of an equilateral triangle. This triangular truss will fit into the Shuttle bay, holding the dewars up in the bay. The whole structure is shown in this photo hanging from a crane in a large room with white walls. return

The space shuttle Eneavour is shown riding on the crawler which takes it to the launch pad. The crawler is a large tracked vehicle. Though it would dwarf and normal road vehicle (including a bus) it is dwarfed by the Shuttle riding atop it. The Shuttle, with the external tank and boosters attached, sits with its nose pointing up, just as it will sit at the launch pad. return

In cramped quarters, 4 guys in white "bunny suit" coveralls and hoods wrestle with equipment in a white room. return

In this photo, we look the length of the Shuttle bay, while the bay doors are open. At the near end, a truss structure crosses the bay. Small cylinders, looking to be only a couple of feet in diameter, are attached to the truss. At the far end of the bay is a boxy structure that fills the bay from side to side but only takes up a tiny fraction of the bay's length. The structure is covered in white. This boxy structure contains the SHOOT dewars and carrying trusses. return

This picture shows a Shuttle launch. Endeavour is about halfway up the launch tower, but the white-hot flames from the solid rocket boosters still stretch all the way down to the pad. Above is blue sky, below is billowing white smoke. return