here's abc's stephanie sy for our series "into the wild." >> reporter: think of it as the original realityng drama in the wild isn't easy. andy casagrande's wild life photography has been shown in some of the best nature programming. andy captured the money shot. the stalling, the chase, the takedown and the kill. >> so, we just got a cheetah kill. i got the shot. here we go again! heading north on the polar bear express. >> reporter: but his job requires constant travel and incredible patience. >> i'm a professional at waiting. seriously. this is what i do. right camera? >> reporter: endless waiting, unpredictable weather and equipment snafus are part of the job. >> low temperature. cannot access media. what? my camera just froze. come on, you [ bleep ] camera. >> reporter: is it frustrating to be at the mercy of nature and the weather all the time? >> extremely, yeah. i kind of have a joke is that you give these an mails nicknames, you know, like, spiky or george, but sometimes you give them nicknames that are swear words and it can be frustrating. but it's the best job in the world. >>

. >> stephanie sy breaks it down by the numbers. >> zero and liftoff. >> reporter: it takes an astounding million gallons of fuel at liftoff to propel "atlantis" out of the earth's atmosphere. to put that in perspective if you had to fill it at your local gas station it will run you a cool $12.3 million. in fact, road tripping on board isn't cheap. it cost $450,000,000 to launch a space shuttle. combine this with the fact that it comes off the lot with a $1.7 billion sticker price and you've got a very expensive extraterrestrial jaunt. however, if you can handle the sticker shot, the ride up there is pretty amazing. in fact, when "atlantis" is in orbit it travels around the earth at 17,500 miles an hour. at this speed that's fast enough to see a sunrise or sunset every 45 minutes. in fact, "atlantis" has orbited the earth a dizzying 4,648 tons and at 30 years of service in space, all of this time in the sky amounts to an amazing 293 days, 18 hours and 29 minutes and 37 seconds high above the earth. >> range is 104%. >> that fueling process, adding the liquid hydrogen and -- >> these are m