Forgot Something?

Two minutes to go and Captain Wallace gave the crew the time signal. He looked at the camera relays from the dock and noticed what looked like the cabin access ladder still attached under the cabin door. "Can't be", he thought. "Lieutenant Hereshoff, take a quick look at the upper cockpit dock camera and let me know what you see", he tried to keep any urgency off the intercom. "Can't see anything now sir, the vibrations are blurring the picture." Lieutenant Hereshoff looked over toward the Captain, trying to understand his concern. "Roger that Lieutenant. Set  for Launch". Captain Wallace gave the final command.  Each communications station echoed the Set for Launch. "Thirty seconds." Captain Wallace checked his major indicators and emergency screen patterns. "Ten Seconds" They were smoothly accelerating at a moderate G force. "All systems A Function." He turned and gave Hereshoff a hand signal to come up by him. The young Lieutenant undid his seat belts and came right by the Captain. "What is it?" He whispered in response to the signal. "Get me a clear picture of our cabin door". The Captain was visibly upset. "Roger that Captain", and the Lieutenant was off to his console. A few seconds later and there it was, a nightmare solidifying. The access ladder was still attached. Hereshoff forgot to pull it into the cabin and stow it. No real problem, of course, except their insurance would no doubt be revoked and there went his Captain's license as well. Wallace signaled Hereshoff over again. "Look", he said. "You forgot to pull it in. It's all over." You said to leave it, Captain." Hereshoff was worried now too. "I meant to leave the hatch, we can check it inside, how can you possibly leave the ladder outside?" "This has got to be a joke Heshy, right? Tell me it's a joke?" Hereshoff was becoming more and more pale. "It's all recorded. They'll see that and laugh. There's nothing we can do about it. They can't miss it, we might as well start looking for new jobs. Thirty years of intense training and the cockpit access ladder is actually out there right now. Do you have any idea how stupid that actually looks?"