Anyway, we landed at Amelia Earhart International Airport on Howland Island, just a few klicks north of the Equator and Baker Island. The sky was filled with thousands of birds—mostly sooty terns, lesser frigatebirds, and masked boobies, I was told. The guys running the show had found a way to keep the birds away from incoming and outgoing aircraft, but otherwise, they were everywhere. It was pretty amazing. The folks here told me that the eco-terrorists who tried to bring down Slingshot somehow got the idea that it was an ecological hazard. From everything I could see, however, there are more birds now, more fish now, and we can get to space without dumping thousands of tons of pollutants into the air. The way I add it up, everybody wins.
EQUATORIAL PACIFIC—BAKER ISLAND
Our transit to B
