She was surprised to find that her eyes were beginning to get misty. “But some of us know. We remember what you did, and we know the price you paid. And we’re grateful, Jim. I can’t even begin to tell you how much.”
Silva tried to continue, but her voice had gone husky with unexpected emotion. “I guess that’s really all I came to say.”
She came to attention, and her right hand performed a slow, deliberate salute. “Thank you.”
Her hand came back down to her side. She executed a precise about-face and walked away, leaving the headstone to stand among the ranks of its brothers and sisters under the gray Texas sky.
AUTHOR’S NOTE
Anyone with an understanding of orbital mechanics (or a working knowledge of physics) will spot the fact that I’ve taken some literary license with the orbit of the Chinese surveillance satellite known as Redbird One. The flight path I’ve described for the satellite is at too low an altitude, and too far from the famous “Clarke belt” to support a geostationary orbit. I haven’t attempted to calculate what the duration of such an orbit might be in the real world, but it’s a safe bet that it would not remain stable for the ten days predicted in the story.
I could attempt to justify my departure from Keplerian motion by pointing out that Redbird One could be an experimental statite (static satellite), a hypothetical satellite which employs a solar sail to modify its orbit. Theoretically, a properly-configured statite could hold itself in a geostationary “orbit” at much lower altitudes and with inclinations far different from the traditional equatorial orbits used for geostationary positioning. I could make such a claim, but I won’t. The simple fact is, the story called for a satellite at a lower altitude, and well out of the geostationary belt, and I followed the needs of the plot.
Purists and aficionados of space technology are advised that my criminal misuse of orbital mechanics was premeditated, and carried out with malice-aforethought. In other words, it wasn’t an oversight. I done it on purpose.
— Jeff Edwards