Steven Alan Hawley is a former NASA astronaut who flew on five U.S. Space Shuttle flights. He is professor of physics and astronomy and director of engineering physics at the University of Kansas.
Wikipedia
“Gee, I thought we'd be a lot higher at MECO!”
referring to shuttle mission STS 41-D's pad abort; the shuttles engines had ignited seconds before launch when the the launch was aborted with the shuttle still on the ground. MECO, or "Main Engine Cut-Off", usually occurs more than 100 km above the ground as the last stage of the ascent
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