But back in January, as he was rocketing skywards in the space shuttle Discovery, it was the last thing he wanted to do.

After blasting off from the Kennedy space centre in Florida, Cmdr. Readdy knew that if something went wrong, he could end up making an emergency landing on the runway of the Island's airport.

Now, having literally seen the world, he is back in Bermuda for a visit to NASA's tracking station at Cooper's Island, during which he helped monitor the weekend launch of the space shuttle Endeavour.

If the shuttle had suffered multiple engine failures, it would have four minutes and 15 seconds to abandon the mission and land back in Florida. For the next four and a half minutes, depending on its speed, it would have to head for Bermuda.

"The Houston control centre would select a runway and the crew would tap that into the computer,'' said Cmdr. Readdy, 40. "The remainder of the engines and steering would attempt to get as close to Bermuda as possible.'' The USNAS and the control tower would have about 20 minutes warning to hold back arriving planes. Then the shuttle would arrive 50,000 feet above the Island, announcing its arrival with a double sonic boom like cannon fire.

It's a scenario no-one wants to happen, and Cmdr. Readdy would rather dwell on the beauty of his eight-day space trip, carrying out experiments on an international scientific flight.

"It's just the most incredible adventure ever,'' he said. "The sights and sounds are very different and exciting and interesting and it's hard to be blase about it.

"After five years training I was as well prepared as anybody can be, and prepared to be pretty blase about it, but it was more beautiful than I could have imagined -- floating weightless in the shuttle cabin when you get into orbit and seeing the Earth out of the window. It was hard to come home.

"When you look down and see the world from space you don't see any cultural divisions or political boundaries. All you see is one world. It becomes really obvious that we share the atmosphere and the water and it's all one total system.

"It drives home the point that we live in a very fragile environment and we need to do everything we can to preserve it.'' Cmdr. Readdy, who is married with a baby son, volunteered to join NASA as a Navy test pilot. He joined in 1986, working on redesigning the shuttles after the Challenger disaster, and then on support jobs for other missions.

He flew on mission 42, with six other crew -- including a woman scientist from Canada -- and soon grew accustomed to sleeping Velcroed to a bulkhead and using a suction toilet.

"Being weightless is great,'' he said, "But afterwards you feel heavy.'' During the three-million-mile trip, the crew took 7,000 pictures of the Earth.

They all came out fine, said Cmdr. Readdy, except for the ones of Bermuda.

"There was cloud all over it,'' he laughed.

FROM OCEAN TO ORBIT -- Commander Bill Readdy (right) first visited Bermuda as a midshipman in the 1972 Newport-Bermuda yacht race. Later, after becoming an astronaut, he worked at NASA's tracking station at the East End. His nostalgia for the Island prompted him to take a Royal Bermuda Yacht Club pennant on his first space trip on the shuttle Discovery in January. Yesterday he returned the pennant to Mr. John Thompson, Commodore of the RBYC, where it will be framed and hung.