Launch on Need by Daniel Guiteras (small books to read txt) 📗

CNN Mobile Studio

THE CNN CAMERA in front of Stangley came on before he was ready. His eyes were noticeably red from crying, and he was still wiping away tears as he began to recap what was happening with the flight of Atlantis.

“Truly a magnificent sight! Atlantis and her crew are well on their way now. In fact, they will be in orbit in less than five minutes. Really amazing.” Stangley wiped his right eye once more. “Joining us now is veteran shuttle astronaut Randy Abrams, ah, Commander Randy Abrams I should say, excuse me.” Abrams was now on the split screen looking directly into the camera. He smiled in a somewhat reserved manner, and his eyes also were bloodshot and wet around the corners.

“Thank you for joining us here on CNN at this late hour.”

“It’s great to be here, John.”

“Commander, can that launch be described as anything less than fantastic, awe-inspiring, spectacular?”

“No, John, it was certainly all of that and more.”

“And the setting of a night launch.”

“You’re right, a night launch is always very dramatic. And watching this launch, knowing that Atlantis and her crew are on their way to rescue the crew of Columbia, was incredible. Understand that these astronauts are personal friends of mine. I almost couldn’t make it on camera in time. I was weeping like a baby as I watched Atlantis climb.”

“Well, I can certainly relate to the weeping,” Stangley paused briefly. “Now Randy, tell us what the astronauts are doing right now, what they’re feeling. Put us onboard Atlantis.”

“Right, well the astronauts are no doubt thinking about getting ready for the rendezvous with Columbia and what their specific roles will be with the rescue mission. The commander and pilot, Avery and Rivas, will be concerned with the approach to Columbia and maintaining the proper distance from Columbia. Mission specialists Mullen and Garrett will be rehearsing procedures for the transfer of Columbia’s crew to Atlantis.”

“And the whole transfer process, the space walk, as I understand it, is expected to take hours, isn’t that right?”

“Yes, it will take about six hours to get all seven Columbia astronauts onboard Atlantis.”

“Six hours seems like a long time.”

“It is, but remember that walking in space is very slow, exacting work. And with all the hard work that’s been done on the ground getting Atlantis ready, the astronauts certainly don’t want to make mistakes up in space.”

“I can’t wait to see the live images of the spacewalk,” Stangley said with obvious relish. “And so as we look at Atlantis again now and see where they are in terms of reaching orbit—their next launch milestone is MECO?”

“That’s right John. Main engine cutoff; or MECO as we like to call it, is when the three main engines are cut off completely, suddenly, really, at the exact point where we want to be in orbit. And this is one of the most amazing sensations. It always leaves the biggest impression on me, more so than even the launch itself. Before MECO, the astronauts are being pushed down into their seats—remember the astronauts are on their backs during launch—and the thrust of the engines vibrates through their spines.”

“With a force of several g’s isn’t that right?”

“Right, it’s about two-and-a-half times the force of gravity. It’s a very strange sensation. If you’ve ever ridden a roller coaster that accelerates hard from a standing start, and have felt your back and head being pushed into the seat, then you’ve experienced some of what we feel on liftoff. But on a roller coaster, when the acceleration slows, you typically return to one g, the normal force of gravity. During a shuttle launch, you’re pushed back into your seat at two-and-a-half times normal gravity. And when you reach MECO, the point where the shuttle engines turn off, you don’t return to one g like you would on Earth. Instead, you become instantly weightless—it’s a very strange transition.”

“I can only imagine, commander. My stomach is turning right now just thinking about it.”

Chapter 50

“NOT SO FAST, got a few pictures to look at first,” Ken Brown said as he watched Stangley’s CNN interview of Commander Randy Abrams from his office TV. “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves, Jesus.” Then he pushed himself up from his chair, grimaced from a spike of back pain, and walked semi-stooped into the media room to meet with his staff.

The photo engineers were pouring over Atlantis’s launch films, and focusing specifically on L-plus-32 seconds, the exact point in Atlantis’s launch where Brown thought he’d seen something. They used all their familiar review techniques: normal speed, slow-mo, twice normal speed, then slow-mo in reverse. They examined the video images like they always had—carefully, thoroughly. But something was different, something was wrong.

As the engineers watched the video images, they could see nothing out of the ordinary, nothing that stood out. It was the same falling ice and foam insulation they had looked at hundreds of times, maybe even thousands. All of a sudden the engineers could not differentiate between foam and ice debris, or discern how the fall characteristics of the debris might represent a problem for Atlantis. All they could see was images of Columbia. It was as if their databases of experience had been wiped clean, the key search words changed in some way that kept them from relating what they saw now to any potential hazard.

The photo engineers could not get the image of Columbia’s debris strike out of their minds—how much damage it had produced to the leading edge of the wing, and how they had not even seen the strike on the preliminary films.

They simply did not trust themselves to draw any conclusions about this launch.

Brown had been right; there were several flashes of debris that were easily seen in slow-motion runs, debris that crept down along the external tank and disappeared out of sight. More bi-pod ramp foam? Had it caused any