There is a value I expect to find in LOCAL STORAGE that is null when you first try play the game — I was not allowing for that.
I should have know to blow away local storage when testing. Since I have been developing it, of course, at some point that value was added to my local storage and I was free to write all manner of bugs that assume it is there.
I seem to have gotten the rescue message even though I landed at a base. In the following screenshot I've landed at Maginus and it can be seen in the scope that I'm on the pad. Chrome 100.0 on Kubuntu 20.04.
At the very least I should let the player know they are off by a hair on the landing (if that turns out to the the case and not just a bug).