Chelomei’s harsh voice came through the squawk box.
“I see the astronaut. Are you ready?”
“Da, Glavni Director. We are ready.” Gabdul rubbed his palms on his legs to wipe off the sweat.
He quickly double-checked his command selections, watching the spacewalker get bigger with each image.
Not spacewalker, he corrected himself wryly. Moonwalker. “Lunok-hod” in Russian. Same as us.
——
“Houston, Chad here, you’ll want to see this.” His voice was breathy with physical exertion.
Kaz looked intently at the front screen, watching the white of Chad’s spacesuit against the moonscape as he bulkily walked towards Lunokhod, hauling the small handcart behind him.
“See what, Chad?”
The figure had stopped and was pointing off to the right.
“There’s a really dark spot flush with the surface over there. Maybe a couple hundred feet away, hard to tell. Want me to go have a closer look?”
Kaz ran through possible explanations and mission priorities in his head.
“Chad, are there any rover tracks near what you’re seeing?”
“Nope. Pristine Moon dirt. I mean, regolith.”
Kaz nodded. If the Soviets hadn’t investigated it, they likely hadn’t seen it. He glanced at the Flight Director for a decision.
Gene said, “CAPCOM, Lunokhod survey is priority for now. Geology can wait a few more minutes—the rocks aren’t going anywhere. Tell him we’ll have him swing by it on the way back.”
When Kaz passed the word, Chad shrugged. He’d been trying out different ways to walk, balancing the stiff bulk of the suit with the strange lightness of one-sixth gravity. Like the moonwalkers before him, he settled on a two-footed loping, hopping motion.
Kaz pushed a button on his comm panel to talk to the geology back room. “Laura, I’m sure you heard what Chad said.”
Her excitement came through his headset. “Sure did! We think we see a smudge where he pointed, but need to get a closer look to know for sure. Can Michael zoom in and see anything when he passes overhead in Pursuit?”
“Good idea. He’s just back on our side of the Moon again now. I’ll ask him.”
Kaz reset his comm switches. “Pursuit, Houston, welcome back Earthside. How was the view around back?”
The delight in Michael’s voice was palpable. “Kaz, you can tell Pink Floyd I have Dark Side of the Moon playing full blast on cassette up here!”
Kaz smiled. “I’m just glad I don’t have to hear you singing along. Meanwhile, you probably overheard Chad, but we’d like you to look closely at the landing site with the sextant telescope. Let us know if you see anything worth investigating.”
“Already on it, wilco.”
Michael floated down to the Nav panel, carefully grabbing the small joystick with his fingertips to point the telescope.
Kaz had an idea. “Svetlana, Houston, how are you doing?” The State Department interpreter translated.
“Normalna.” Fine.
Kaz nodded for the interpreter to describe to her where to look. Svetlana leaned towards the window and peered hard off to the right of Lunokhod as directed, squinting against the harsh contrast of the light.
“There are dusty rolling hills and lots of small rocks,” she said. “The Sun is not too high, so the shadows are fairly long.” Be methodical! She followed the line of Chad’s new footprints and deliberately searched to the right.
“I see one odd shadow, like a low spot. Maybe a small crater.”
The interpreter translated for the room, and Kaz nodded thoughtfully. “Copy, thanks.”
Svetlana looked back at Chad. Time to do something.
Chelomei had been listening intently. What are the Americans seeing? He looked at the timer: 40 minutes until the big dish in Simferopol could no longer see the Moon and they lost direct comms. On the screen, the astronaut was almost at Lunokhod. He heard him speak.
“Houston, I’m approaching the rover and starting to take pictures.”
Chad turned his whole body to point the chest-mounted Hasselblad motor-drive camera, reaching underneath to squeeze the pistol grip trigger.
Kaz watched the distant figure shuffling slowly around the silver rover, small on the screen. “Copy, Chad. Those photos will be of great interest to our intel folks here.”
“Kaz, it looks a lot like we expected: an eight-wheeled silver bathtub with a solar array lid open, a bunch of instruments dangling on arms out front.” Chad completed his circuit and looked closely. “Three cameras on the front, and looks like a few wide-angle camera lenses on the side and back.” He glanced up at the Earth. “They’re probably looking at me right now.”