Peter was impressed Allen actually knew Viktor was a Soviet cosmonaut since he flew prior to the wall falling. “He’s seventy-five, and in great physical shape. With his knowledge and flight experience of the Soyuz, along with his Russian background, I feel he would be an invaluable addition and a tremendous help.”
Allen shrugged. “Should be no problem. We can just as easily get two men into space as we can one. When is he going to arrive for training?”
“He should be here in a few days,” said Peter.
“Good,” said Allen as he walked up the steps to the hatch before swirling around, his large body covering the entrance. “How about you go on in and check it out?”
Peter was more than happy to oblige. He was eager to see the inside of the capsule that would be taking him to space. Alan shuffled aside as Peter stepped up to the small platform and squatted to peek inside. The capsule’s lights were already on, brightly illuminating the interior. As he peered around, he noticed it was quite different from the Shuttle; it was more like one of his dad’s capsules. The ship had four seats up front sitting side by side. He squeezed his six-foot one-inch frame through the entryway, and sat in one of the middle seats, taking a moment to study the control panel. It was obviously not like his dad’s. The control panel was set up with computer screens and displays, rather than the many gauges and switches that surrounded his dad’s cockpit. Before him was a futuristic and impressive-looking panel. Allen poked his head in and watched Peter ogle over his baby.
Though the set up was different than the Shuttle, Peter’s experience still enabled him to determine what most of the instruments and displays were used for. Yet it was obvious he would still require quite a bit of education before he would be able to operate one. Directly in front of each outside seat was a large monitor with its own window. These seats had two hand controllers on each arm rest. Peter assumed the controller on the right was the rotational controller while the one on the left one was the translational controller. Peter was sure these seats were for the commander and pilot.
“What do you think?” asked Allen, still grinning proudly.
“Impressive.” Peter swiveled his head around observing all the controls.
“Do most of the instruments make sense?”
“Most.” Peter was being generous, but wanted to give Allen a good first impression of his knowledge.
Allen proceeded to give a brief description on how the instruments worked. Peter was all ears and impressed the CEO knew so much detail. “You know the folks at the space station are not going to be expecting you, right?”
Peter nodded.
“So you’re going to have to dock this baby yourself instead of the ISS arm grabbing you, like it will for our unmanned capsules. We will fly you to within fifty meters of the station before passing control to you. Think you can handle it?”
In the short time he had been around Allen, he knew how much he cared for his equipment so he emphatically answered, “Absolutely! I’m your man.”
“Good. How about you try on the headset?” Allen pointed to the snoopy cap hanging in front of one of the pilot seats.
Peter moved over to the end seat and slid the cap on before being asked to test the headset to see if it worked. “Testing, one, two, three,” said Peter into the small microphone. He gave a thumbs-up after hearing the operator on the other end.
Allen gave him a canary-eating grin. “Great! How about we see what you can do. I’ll have the operators run a simulation. Let’s see if you can dock this baby.”
Peter’s jaw dropped. I sure hope he’s kidding. But before he could interject, Allen closed the hatch. He wasn’t ready for the locking of the latch. He grimaced and assumed this was a test to see what kind of astronaut he was. He liked the challenge, but he could use more education on how the systems were interlinked. He quickly reviewed everything Allen had pointed out.
Within a minute, his headset came alive. “Okay, Peter, this is Mission Control. We’re going to start the simulation where you are fifty meters out from the space station. When we give you clearance, we want you to proceed at .05 meters per second toward the docking port and hold at the ten meter mark, over.”
Peter had no choice except to wing it. “Roger, Mission Control.”
He focused on the monitor in front of him, reviewing its display of various views of the space station in reference to his location. He found where he could change the screen to give different angles and orientation. He decided to go with “God’s view,” which allowed him the best view of the space station and his spacecraft. The display had x and y coordinates showing his distance, along with altitude, range, and speed all with respect to the station. He looked out the window above the control panel at a video screen showing an animated scene of the space station. Wow, that’s cool.
He slowly wrapped his fingers around each controller and took one last look at the key instruments he sensed would be needed for the exercise.
“Galileo 1, this is Mission Control. You are cleared for initial stage docking with Node 2 Zenith, over.”
“Roger, Mission Control,” Peter said. Knowing the design of the space station helped. Fortunately he knew exactly where the Node 2 was, sometimes called by its given name, Harmony. Harmony had a total of four ports: starboard, forward, port and zenith. Harmony was now highlighted by a green-lined box on the monitor in front of him, indicating that was his target. He started to move the rotational controller slightly back to pitch the capsule upward so he was aimed at the space station. The pistons underneath the capsule suddenly jolted, giving him a simulated movement. I didn’t even have to put a quarter in this thing.
Peter focused, wanting to give a good impression to Allen and the operators. Come on Peter, you can do this. He was about to move the translational controller forward before remembering he needed to pop open the front cone of the capsule, exposing the docking adapter, or he wouldn’t have been able to dock. Good job Peter, you don’t want to start off with a screw up. While holding his position, he flipped the switch and heard a soft rumbling motor sound. Peering out his window, he could see an animation showing the tip of the capsule had swung open. Cool! A light on his display signaled cone detachment. “Mission Control, Galileo 1 has cone detachment.”
“Roger, Galileo 1. We confirm detachment and clearance. Please proceed to initial stage docking.”
“Roger, Mission Control.” Peter began to sweat. He continued monitoring the instruments, cautiously moving the capsule toward the station. Soon he was at the ten meter mark and glanced outside, confirming he was aligned correctly. The large black cross known as the Stand-off-Cross, his docking target, was a little off center. He rotated the left controller slightly to get Galileo in perfect alignment. Once he felt good with his position he radioed, “Mission Control, Galileo 1 at the ten meter mark and on target. Holding for clearance to proceed, over.”
“Roger, Galileo. Continue to hold while we confirm your position.” The radio went quiet. Peter was feeling pretty damn good about himself. As he waited, he took a moment gazing out the window at the animated space station. He began tapping his fingers on the controllers imagining in just a month he would actually be docking in space.
The radio came back alive. “Galileo 1, all systems look good and you are cleared to dock.”
“Roger, Mission Control.” He pushed the translational controller forward and carefully proceeded to the ISS docking ring. Five meters away and all looked good. Peter took his eye off the monitor to locate the docking switch in the cabin that would initiate a series of hooks to engage the ISS. The hydraulic pistons abruptly lurched him forward. What the hell was that? He quickly looked out the window to see the Stand-off-Cross no longer there. Shit, where did it go? He looked back down at the monitor; his heart stopped. The Galileo was in a slow roll increasing in intensity, yet he was not moving either controller. The roll was taking him toward the space station. Damn it, I’m going to crash if I don’t stop this thing. Peter had only a few seconds to fix the problem. His sweating increased as he tried to counteract the roll, adjusting the left controller, but he was not having any luck. “Mission Control, I have a problem, I’m rolling out of control.”