“Almost there, boys,” Michael said, his attention focused on the digital readouts and the timer as the speed climbed to over 25,000 feet per second.
And then it was over. The third stage shut itself down exactly on time, and the smooth, easy push of its single engine was instantly gone. For the first time in their lives, the three men were weightless.
Luke burst out laughing. “We’re here!” He plucked his checklist off the Velcro and floated it in front of his helmet, gently spinning it. “Would you look at that!”
Michael leaned back and peered through his overhead windows. The blackness of space and the curve of the blue North Atlantic horizon filled his view. “Mother of God!” he said.
“Work to do, boys,” Chad interjected, bursting their bubble. They each turned the page in their checklists and began the urgent steps that would convert their vehicle from a rocketship to a spaceship.
“Houston, we’re with you on Launch page 2-10,” Chad said.
A pause. No response.
“Houston, do you read?”
The returning call was scratchy and garbled.
Michael spoke. “I think I heard him repeat that we were GO for orbit there at the end.”
Chad nodded. “Agreed. It’s likely just bad comms through the North Atlantic relay ship.” He glanced at his flight plan. “We’ll have them back through the South Pacific ship in an hour or so.”
Chad turned and looked at them both.
“Step one complete, boys. Now let’s go find us a spy satellite.”
23
Kennedy Space Center
The white and blue NASA helicopter was waiting in a roped-off area on the lawn beside Launch Control, its blades slowly turning. Kaz paused to look up at the last of the Saturn V’s dispersing smoke, then grabbed the handrail and swung into the passenger bench seat in the back, next to Al Shepard. JW was already strapped in on the far side.
“What a launch!” Kaz shouted.
JW had a huge grin on his face, and Al nodded, unclipping the headphones from the bulkhead and cinching up his lap belt for the short ride to their jet, which would take them back to Mission Control in Houston.
The whine from the engines increased and the rotors spun up. The pilot was a Vietnam vet, and expertly plucked the helo off the ground, turning and pitching to accelerate to the south, towards Patrick Air Force Base.
Kaz looked down out the side window at the roads, already jammed all the way back to the causeway with departing cars and camper vans, thinking that Laura was somewhere down there in that mess. One day maybe he’d be on the ground watching her launch into space. The image made him smile.
The helicopter rapidly covered the 25 miles across the Banana River and along the sands of Cocoa Beach. Soon the Air Force housing and broad runways of Patrick filled the windscreen. The pilot brought the helicopter in fast, flared hard and set it down as light as a feather next to the NASA Gulfstream G-II that was waiting for them. He turned and nodded, nonchalant.
“Well flown,” Al Shepard said. Kaz saw the pilot’s neck flush red and knew that he’d dine out on that compliment from the first American in space for the rest of his life.
As they climbed out, Al raised a finger to Kaz. “Have them hold the jet. I need to make a phone call.” He turned and walked briskly towards the hangar. Kaz and JW transferred the bags and climbed the airstairs onto the G-II.
The plane filled quickly as key Apollo mission personnel arrived at Patrick. By the time Al walked back across the tarmac, his was the last empty seat, next to Kaz. As he settled in, the plane’s flight engineer raised the stairs and the pilots started taxiing.
Al didn’t speak as the plane climbed away from Patrick, staring out the window as they headed west across the Gulf towards Houston. Finally he turned to Kaz, looking somber.
“Tell me again what you saw that day at Tom Hoffman’s crash. From the moment you got to the field that morning.”
Kaz didn’t ask, but guessed this had something to do with the phone call Al had just made. He kept his tone factual, trying to recall the exact timeline of the morning and who he’d seen when. He described arriving at Ellington, walking through the hangar and then hitching a ride from the ops desk to watch the LLTV fly. He was starting into what he’d observed as Tom’s helicopter flew past when Al interrupted him.
“Did you notice Tom’s helo on the ground as you drove out to the LLTV site?”
Kaz thought back. “Not really. It was a decent day for weather; several jets had gone flying. The ramp was, maybe, half-full.”