Taking a seat, Maria put a napkin in her lap. “Will Tom Novak be one of the American astronauts on that mission?”
Because the USSR-U.S.A. mission was over two years away, neither country had publicly announced who would fly the mission. An official announcement of the crews was to happen later that month in America, an event Viktor would probably have to attend. He took a sip of the vodka as he looked at his wife. “I hope so. I would enjoy working with that man.”
THE APOLLO 16 capsule was out of radio contact with mission control as they flew through their second orbit on the night side of Earth. With the cabin lights on, the ship’s bright and sterile interior glistened in the planet’s dark shadow. Tom and his crewmates were going through their long checklists, preparing their ship for the Trans-Lunar Injection, scheduled in twenty-five minutes. TLI would be the last operation for their Saturn V rocket. The first two boosters had operated flawlessly and had long ago been released. It was up to the third stage to do the rocket’s final job, blasting the men off on a correct path to the moon. After firing, the booster would separate from the Apollo spacecraft, and once the Lunar Module was extracted, the third stage would drift along in a slightly altered course, eventually crashing into the lunar surface.
With a hint of frustration in his voice, Dusty complained, “Man, I keep floating into the instrument panel.”
All the men were still in their spacesuits, minus their gloves and helmet. The suits naturally wanted to expand. This was fine when floating around in the cabin, but constantly battled the astronaut when sitting in his seat, if not strapped in. Once his body relaxed, the suit would slowly take over, pushing the occupant toward the panel.
Tom had been fighting the problem ever since unbuckling himself. He looked over at Dusty. “Just make sure you don’t knock any switches. We don’t want to jettison the docking ring and lose our mission.”
Even though the key switches were guarded, there was always the possibility in the tight quarters of knocking open a cover and accidently flipping a switch. A few operations were irreversible. Losing the docking ring was one of them. Such a mishap would mean they would have no way of docking with the Lunar Module, and without the LM, they would be unable to land on the moon, essentially killing the mission.
Nodding in Tom’s direction, Dusty said playfully, “Don’t worry, I won’t do anything stupid.”
Kirk chimed in from the middle seat. “How about none of us do anything stupid this mission?”
Tom and Dusty answered in unison, “Roger that.”
Dusty touched his cheeks and asked Kirk, “Does my face look puffy to you?”
Probably wondering why his fellow traveler was suddenly concerned about his looks, Kirk answered in a sarcastic tone, “No, you look as beautiful as ever.”
“No, seriously. I have this full-headed feeling, plus my sinuses are running.”
In zero gravity, body fluids flowed in all directions. Tom had already experienced the phenomenon on his previous flight. “We all have that going on. You’ll get used to it. At least none of us are showing any signs of space sickness.”
With their tasks completed, Tom and Dusty were waiting for further instructions from Houston. Kirk had a longer list to work on. Tom took advantage of the rare relaxing moment to take in the sights outside his window. Their spacecraft was in an upside down position in relation to Earth, and without gravity, it was as if they were flying under their planet. A stunning view.
Dusty was obviously enjoying what he was looking at too. “I can’t get over this view. It’s out of…umm… it’s amazing!”
Tom knew exactly what Dusty almost said. “I guess certain sayings don’t apply in space.”
Dusty chuckled. “Yeah, I was going to say out of this world, but that’s where we are.”
With a quizzical look, Kirk paused from his work for a moment. “Wow, I never thought of it that way.”
Staying at the window, Dusty pointed up to a swarm of lights glimmering in the darkness over their heads. “Look at all those fires down there.”
Tilting his head more upward, Tom focused on the many small, flickering lights. “You mean up there.”
Dusty sounded intense. “Right, there must be thousands of them. They’re beautiful. What are they?”
“We’re over Africa, so those must be the fires of Africa.”
“They’re spectacular. What are they from?”
Tom had been informed of the fires on his Gemini flight. “Nomads.”
“Wonder if any of them would believe there are three spacemen flying in the night sky over a hundred miles above their heads, looking down on them?”
“Not in a million years.”
Dusty still had excitement in his voice. “Man, seeing the sunrise earlier, then all those thunderstorms, and now this, it’s just incredible.”
Even though Tom had flown around the Earth almost fifty times on his first mission, he never got tired of looking at his planet from space.
Dusty dropped his voice down a couple of decibels. “I’d be happy just floating around Earth for the next eleven days.”
Steadying himself in his seat, Tom pushed his upper body forward to get a good look at his LMP. He didn’t want Dusty jinxing the flight. “You don’t want to say that. We want to fly to the moon.”
Dusty looked over with raised eyebrows. “Of course. I just mean, it’s just so spiritual up here.”
Kirk chimed in. “Dusty, maybe you’ll get an Earth orbit mission later in your career.”
“I wouldn’t mind being a part of Skylab. Think of all the room they’ll have in that Saturn V third stage. They’ll be able to do somersaults from one end of the thing to the other.”
Tom interjected, “Well let’s focus on our moon mission first.”
“Yes, sir.” A quiet moment passed before Dusty asked, “Tom, do you think our kids will ever experience this, maybe as tourists or something?”
“Possibly. Think how far we’ve come in the last thirty years. The V-2 rocket was just developing, and now here we sit in a spacecraft in the year 1972 that will take us to the moon. Who would have ever thought that was possible back in ‘42?”
“True.”
“Then, to think we put a man on the moon just eight years after our first manned space flight, a mere 15-minute flight. Americans are explorers. Thirty years from now, it wouldn’t surprise me if we have a base already on Mars. We’ll probably have space stations floating around Earth and lunar bases on the moon. It should be an incredible time for our kids.”
Dusty turned to Tom. “Funny you talk like that, because Dick mentioned to me once during training he wouldn’t be surprised if it took another forty years before we ever send a man back to the moon.”
With his mouth agape, Tom shot a shocked look toward Dusty. He remembered Dick making a similar comment in the suit-up room, but he assumed his boss meant a decade at the most. “What? He said that? No way. He’s crazy. That would be, what, 2012?” Tom was shaking his head as he pushed himself deeper into his seat. “Why would we stop going to the moon? We just need to take care of some business at home before we return. If our mission and 17 go as planned, I guarantee you we’ll be back by the end of the decade. Shoot, Skylab will be like having a small home circling Earth, and the success of those missions will lead to trips farther into space. Then keep in mind, we already have a Mars mission in the works. Next time I see Dick I’m going to offer him a bet. I’ll even give him odds. One hundred to one on $100 that we will return to the moon before 2012, and I plan on being around to collect.”