“Roger, we are studying the data,” said Bernie.
Peter watched Anya’s pendant continue to worsen its wild bounce and feared it might snap the chain. He could now feel the oscillation from the “pogo” through all of the other shaking happening around him.
“Pogo is continuing to get worse!” yelled Peter, as he struggled to remain objective.
“Roger, still studying the data.”
ANYA SAT ALONE on the rooftop of Launch Control, squeezing her sweaty hands nervously together as she stared up at the corkscrewed contrail left in the sky by the rocket, which was now high above the clouds and out of sight. She’d witnessed a perfect blast-off, but was now concerned. The speakers were keeping her informed on the status of the flight and she could hear panic in Peter’s voice as he discussed with Mission Control the problem they were experiencing. Anya bent her head down and did a quick prayer for her men. Lord, please guide them safely into space!
PETER WAS GETTING ALARMED. If the pogo continued to worsen, there was no way they would make it into orbit. The rocket would tear itself apart. Something had to happen and fast. Anya’s necklace was now oscillating up and down the full chain length. Peter tried to lean forward and uncoil the necklace from around the knob, but with all of the shaking and high g-forces they were experiencing, there was no way. Damn. He watched the chain violently whip up and down. Then to his disappointment, the pendant snapped the chain in half and went flying past him. Viktor turned to Peter with a concerned look.
Peter shouted back to Mission Control, “Bernie this is getting serious, we are shaking uncontrollably!”
“Roger, we are shutting down Engine 5,” replied Bernie.
The number 5 engine was the center engine of the nine, and the rocket could still fly safely after losing one engine. But by shutting it off, they’d lost their insurance policy if anything happened to any of the other engines. Losing any one of the eight would prevent them from reaching orbit.
“Roger,” said Peter as he observed the engine being shut down on his monitor. He looked at the broken necklace, now two separate strands bouncing up and down. He studied them for awhile; the bouncing seemed to be reducing.
“Mission Control, the vibration seems to be subsiding,” said Peter with relief in his voice.
“Roger. Reaching altitude of thirty miles with inertia velocity of 3300 mph,” said Mission Control.
Peter glanced at Viktor who was monitoring his instruments. The oscillating had greatly reduced, allowing him a brief sigh of relief to have overcome the problem. All remaining eight engines were at full power. The rocket was reaching above the thick atmosphere, and the ride started to slowly smooth out.
A magical sight unfolded in front of him outside his window; the sky was slowly changing from blue to black. The view reminded him of looking out a window at night back home, seeing stars in the deep black sky, yet sunlight still filled their cockpit from the two windows. Reconciling the two was an odd sensation.
“Altitude is seventy-five miles with an inertia velocity of 6,000 mph,” said Mission Control.
With everything going on, Peter had not noticed the noise had diminished. He suddenly realized all was quiet in the cabin. Damn, I can’t believe the noise is already gone? They were now at an altitude where the air was so thin, they could no longer hear the noise of the engines or the air rushing by the cockpit. The ride was becoming as smooth as glass. They were approaching the final push of the main engines; the gauge said most of the fuel was gone. Surprisingly, they were going faster and faster, and the force of gravity was increasing—he was now experiencing three times the force of gravity at sea level. He wanted to inform Mission Control the engines were throttling, but found with the high g-force, he had to grunt out his observation. “Engines throttling.”
“Roger, approaching MECO,” said Mission Control.
Peter checked his monitor; twenty seconds until MECO, main engine cut-off. He was expecting to be shoved forward when the engines cut off, the opposite of what he had been experiencing so far. He looked at Viktor, who had already tightly gripped his armrests in preparation for MECO. He did the same as he watched the countdown on his monitor, 3… 2… 1… zero. The crushing force on his chest was instantly gone and he and Viktor were flung forward as if shot from a sling shot, their seatbelt straps keeping them from flying into the control panel. An eerie calm and silence filled the cockpit as the rocket coasted without any engine power. Suddenly he felt the cockpit shake, and was relieved to see on the monitor it was the first stage engine separating from the rocket, having done its job. “We have stage separation,” radioed Peter.
“Roger, stage separation is confirmed,” said Mission Control.
Peter looked at Anya’s broken necklace and the two chains looked like snakes in the air. They’re floating! We’re in space! A big grin came across his face. Soon he was pushed back in his seat again as the second stage engine fired. Peter had to get back to business. “Stage 2 has fired,” radioed Peter.
“Roger, stage two power and avionics systems are performing nominally. Altitude is eighty-seven miles,” said Mission Control.
As the rocket rolled, the edge of the earth started to penetrate the blackness of his window. It continued to creep into his window until the planet completely engulfed his view. Wow, what a beautiful sight! Peter couldn’t help but just stare, overtaken by the beauty of the dominating blue ocean and scattered white clouds sprinkled about. With the black backdrop, Earth was a magnificent sight. He thought back to the many times his dad had described seeing the earth from space, but words could not describe it… it was just too beautiful. Sadness seeped in when he realized he would never walk on that planet again.
Mission Control interrupted his thoughts. “Second Stage is approaching SECO.”
Peter focused on the monitors in front of him. “Roger.” SECO was the second stage engine cut-off. Once they reached their desired orbit, the engine would shut off. The countdown for SECO was 5 seconds, 4… 3… 2… 1… zero, engine shutdown. “We have engine shutdown,” radioed Peter.
“Roger, engine shutdown,” said Mission Control.
Peter no longer felt any force on his body. He was now weightless, his body floating underneath his seatbelt. A weird sensation and something he had always dreamt about. His arms started to float up. This is cool!
STILL ALONE ON THE ROOFTOP, Anya heard Bernie say over the speakers, “Newton 9 is successfully in orbit and on course to intercept the International Space Station. Good job, everyone!”
Relieved, Anya took a deep breath and stood from the couch. She started clapping as she looked skyward. Good job, Peter! She said a quick thanks to God for once again answering her prayer before walking to the exit. With Peter and her dad safely in space, she needed to catch the earliest flight to Moscow. She hoped to support her men from Russia’s mission control once they hijacked the Soyuz.
PETER LOOKED OVER AT VIKTOR. “Wow, what a ride.”
Viktor smiled. “Yep. Good job handling pogo problem.”
“Thanks, that was a little intense.”
“Were you scared?”
Peter took awhile to think how to answer; he should be honest. “You know, Viktor, I was scared during launch. Not from dying, but from not being able to finish what we set out to do.”
Viktor smiled. “You not be normal if not scared. Every astronaut is scared during launch.”
“Were you scared?” asked Peter.
“Well, I not shit in my diaper… so not too scared,” said Viktor with a light chuckle.