Han Solo is steering into the skid. That’s the technique a driver uses when things are going totally wrong, when the vehicle is slipping out of control.
If you saw the first Star Wars film in 1978 you would have been dazzled by the awe inspiring technology the protagonists took for granted. Thirty years later and many of the film's forward-looking ideas are being used in our daily lives.
The book DROIDMAKER is available online in PDF form, as a free download. It has the inside story of how Lucas' work on Empire Strikes Back led to Pixar, as well as digital audio and video, THX, videogames, and lots of other stuff.