Weisner said, “As you know, we’ve got some cutting-edge stuff going on in the high desert that’s going to radically change warfare. But only if we can test and prove it in secrecy. You’ve been a test pilot, Kaz. You know what first flights are like in newly developed aircraft. There’s no way we can do those in darkness.”
Kaz set down the photos, no longer focusing on the technical details. He could feel where the conversation was heading.
“When does Almaz launch?” he asked.
Phillips said, “We’ve been watching their normal Proton preparations. Our best guess is in about two weeks. Somewhere in the first week of April.”
“Then they’ll need time to get Almaz checked out in orbit,” Kaz said. “A camera that sophisticated will be too complex to load, point and operate remotely from the ground, so to get the capacity they want, they’ll need to launch a crew on a Soyuz to rendezvous with the station and get the system working. The pictures will all be on wide-format film, which they’ll need to deorbit in canisters or keep on board until the crew returns, maybe after a month or two.”
He looked at the NSA chief. “Have you seen any indication of Soyuz crew launch prep?”
Phillips shook his head. “Not yet, no. We’re still confident Apollo 18 is going to launch before the first Soyuz crew heads for Almaz.”
“So as you’ve already figured out, that’s our window,” Weisner said, “when Almaz is parked in orbit, waiting for its crew.” He looked hard at Kaz and added the key word. “Defenseless.”
Kaz returned his stare. What these men were implying was clear, and stunning.
“So we won’t just be taking close-ups of Almaz anymore.”
Both senior officers shook their heads.
“You’re ordering the crew of Apollo 18 to disable a Soviet spaceship?”
They nodded.
A chill ran up his spine. Kaz said, “So for the first time in history the United States is going to take hostile military action in space.”
16
MSC Headquarters, Houston
“We’re going to do what?” Luke sounded both angry and incredulous.
Kaz had phoned ahead for an urgent meeting of the key players before he’d left Washington. The three crewmembers, along with Al Shepard and Gene Kranz, had gathered in Gene’s office. The door was closed.
He’d brought the top-secret file back to Houston with him, and the men in the room were examining the new pictures of Almaz.
“This comes right from the Joint Chiefs, with the approval of the White House. Apollo 18 has been tasked to disable Almaz before its crew arrives.”
Luke picked up one of the photos and stared at it. “How the hell are we gonna do that?”
“Good question. The NSA ops team had a few suggestions for vulnerable points we could get to with a cutting tool—antenna cables, radiator cooling lines, solar panel cables, docking targets, fuel lines. But this means we need to maneuver very close, and be ready for a spacewalk when we get there.”
Chad blew out sharply through his nose. “Does Washington understand what they’re asking? This is going to be extremely dangerous.”
“Yeah, I said the same thing, and the response is that they want ‘all possible effort.’ ” Kaz mimed the quotation marks for emphasis. “The new CIA chief, Schlesinger, has made it highest priority, and he has the President’s ear.”
Gene Kranz was already thinking of the practicalities. “We’ve got some small bolt cutters in the spacewalk inventory, but we might need to get a bigger set on board. We can’t cut anything that’s got current running through it, but we could cut comms or cooling lines. Maybe fuel, depending.”
They all considered that.
Michael asked the next obvious question. “Who’s gonna go outside?”
Gene thought out loud. “The existing plan for you, Michael, to do the spacewalk on the way back from the Moon to retrieve Pursuit’s external film canisters was already tight for weight margins. We’ll likely have to trade that to get this done.”
Michael shook his head. “But I’m going to have my hands full flying Pursuit close enough to Almaz to pull this off. I can’t do the spacewalk at the same time.” They all saw him realize what he’d just said: he was losing his spacewalk.
Gene nodded. “Agreed. That leaves Luke or Chad. I don’t think we have the CO2 scrubbing reserves to send you both out, and Michael’s going to need help maneuvering that close to another ship.” He looked at both men, his mind ticking through the trade-offs.