See, in the old Apollo program, when the capsule carrying the astronauts came drifting down on its parachutes at the end of the mission, if it splashed down in the ocean with the hatch pointing upward toward the sky, that was called "Stable 1." If it ended up with the hatch pointing at the bottom of the sea, that was "Stable 2." So it was a safe landing, but not the sort of safe landing you really wanted...
But on we go into chapter 3 of Book XV, What Remains!
Eighty-Seven - Stable 2
