One night in June 2001, Brian Patrick Regan drove out to Pocahontas State Park in Virginia and walked through the muggy darkness into the woods.

The former Air Force sergeant wore a backpack on his bearish 6′5″ frame; a sawed-off shovel handle stuck out of the top as he made his way along soft creek beds, avoiding hiking trails. Inside the pack was a night-vision monocle and a pile of classified material he had stolen from his longtime employer, the National Reconnaissance Office — the US agency that manages the nation’s spy satellites.

If the rare event that something goes wrong on a space shuttle mission, NASA is ready with a rescue plan that would undoubtedly make many Hollywood directors and tough boy actors piss their pants.