Unknowing.
Her stifled sneeze had jostled her arm and created an imperfection on the underside of the join. Like a pebble, a small ball of solder had cooled separately, trapped and hidden under a thin covering strand. A little sphere of metal, held securely in place against gravity.
Pursuit was the last Apollo Command Module to fly, and not all of its equipment was as rigorously tested as the first flights had been. The qualification process had already been proven, and money was tighter than ever. The original heavy vibration testing had been reduced to an approved laboratory shake test; the solder imperfection held through it, and the transponder passed its subsequent functional check flawlessly and was carefully installed in Pursuit’s avionics bay.
But the combination of actual launch vibration and acceleration shook it loose. The heavy forces at Max Q stressed the thin metal covering strand, and the sudden jolt of staging broke the ball free. The second-stage engines’ acceleration pushed the small drop of solder into the adjoining circuit board and held it there. A tiny bit of metal, fallen out of harm’s way, held in place by the forces of the launch.
When the third-stage motor shut off, the spacecraft was suddenly weightless, orbiting around the Earth. The little metal orb drifted gently up from its resting place, becoming a tiny conductive balloon in a playground of circuitry.
Small thrusters fired to point Pursuit in the right direction, giving a gentle acceleration to the ship. It moved sideways, floating the metal pebble into a new part of the transponder’s circuitry. As Chad pushed the comm button to talk, the circuit was activated and shorted across two wires touching the solder ball, welding it into its new resting place. The electrical short dropped the current well below normal, and the signal didn’t get through. Chad’s voice dead-ended inside the box.
A stifled sneeze, 19 months earlier in Phoenix, Arizona, had caused the failure of the primary voice circuitry for Pursuit, Apollo 18’s Command Module.
The crew was just talking to themselves.
Top Secret
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY—UNITES STATES OF AMERICA
The President’s Daily Brief—Addendum 16 April 1973—08:00 EST
FOR THE PRESIDENT ONLY
PRINCIPAL DEVELOPMENTS—Addendum
NASA reports a successful launch at 07:32 EST this morning of Apollo 18, with an all-military crew reporting to Vice Chief of Naval Operations, Admiral Maurice Weisner, and the Joint Chiefs. Initial mission tasking is in support of the NSA and CIA, to photo-document and, if possible, disable the Soviet spy satellite Almaz （‘Diamond’）， which launched from Baikonur USSR on 3 April. Almaz has the most capable on-orbit optical spy capability of any spacecraft, Soviet or American, estimated to be able to resolve objects on the surface as small as one foot. If operational, this would have significant negative SIGINT impacts for the USA.
Almaz needs to be operated real-time by cosmo-nauts on board, required for film loading, unloading, processing and subsequent film de-orbit/parachute return to the USSR. Almaz is as-yet unmanned and thus pre-operational, with no CIA/NSA indications of the upcoming cosmonaut launch date.
At approximately 10:35 today Apollo 18 astronaut Captain Lucas Hemming, USMC, will perform a solo spacewalk to photograph and disable Almaz by cutting external cables and/or cooling/fuel lines. Unlike all previous Apollo missions, there is a total public blackout of communications and crew activities during this 2-hour phase of flight, and potentially subsequent.
Once Almaz ops are complete, Apollo 18 will fire its engine to leave Earth orbit for the Moon at approximately 11:30 EST. Transit to the Moon will take 3 days. The flight profile will more closely resemble all previous Apollo missions from that point forward.
—Addendum End—
24
Pursuit, Earth Orbit
“Woo-hoo, sorry, guys. That one’s a real stinker!”
The air pressure inside the cabin had dropped steadily, as planned, during launch, and was now holding at one-third of what it had been in Florida. The gases in everyone’s guts had expanded, and all three of them were farting.
Michael winced. “Geez, Luke, keep that in your own spacesuit, would ya?”
“How’s the alignment going, Michael?” Chad had jettisoned the exterior covers that protected the optical systems during launch, and Michael was sighting through the built-in cameras, carefully turning Pursuit to align with specific stars. When he was sure he had it exact, he entered the data into the navigation computer. They needed precise orientation for the upcoming maneuver to raise their orbit up to match Almaz.
“Looking good, Boss. The stars are right where they were in the sim.”