Dusty chuckled. “That’s $10,000 if you lose.”
Tom said with confidence. “I have faith in NASA and the American people, so I don’t plan on losing. Besides, in today’s dollars it’s probably only $1,000.”
“In that case, that means that if you win, you’d get, umm… a whopping $10.”
Tom grinned. “Good point. Maybe I should up that bet.”
THOUGH ANNE HAD been pleased with the quaint first-floor room of the Cocoa Beach motel, she was eager to get home. Both suitcases were by the door, packed, and ready to go. She did a final search of the room to make certain she hadn’t missed anything. Once finished, she grinned at the sight of her son being a typical seven-year-old, jumping from one bed to the other, something she wouldn’t allow him to do at home. Though the sheets and covers were being destroyed, Peter needed the release, especially after behaving for over five hours at Kennedy. With a long plane ride coming up, she decided to let the boy continue with his rambunctious play while she walked the bags over to the lobby.
“Peter, I’ll be right back. I’m going to go drop off our bags.”
In midflight, Peter turned and waved, saying between heavy gasps of air, “Okay, Mommy.”
Anne chuckled as she opened the door. When she stepped outside she was surprised to see a handful of reporters and cameramen waiting in the parking lot. Before she could close the door, she was surrounded, a couple of microphones shoved directly in front of her face.
“Mrs. Novak, can we get your thoughts on the launch?”
Anne calmly set the suitcases down and straightened her dress. She put a smile on her face. She knew what the NASA protocol was, and to her, this was her job. “Sure. What would you gentlemen like to know?”
“Were you at all nervous or scared watching the rocket blast off?”
Anne did her best to sound upbeat and decisive. “I believe in NASA and the thousands of men and women who put in many long hours getting that Saturn V rocket ready to fly. I thought the launch was exciting, and of course, I was relieved it all went as planned. I know Tom had a wonderful ride all the way up.”
One of the photographers poked his head into the room before turning to Anne. “Is it okay if I get a couple of pictures of your son playing?”
Anne wasn’t sure the motel would approve of a child jumping on their beds, but still gave a nod.
“Mrs. Novak, are you going to fly back to Houston now?”
Anne regained her smile. “Yes. As you can see from my boy’s antics behind me, I need to get him back home to his friends.” A strong arm came out of nowhere and caught her off guard, wrapping tightly around her shoulders. Anne jerked her head over to see Chris Riddick standing next to her with a cocky grin.
The astronaut nuzzled in close. “Are these men bothering you?”
Chris’s strong cologne made Anne nauseous. She tried to pull away, but his grip was too tight. “I’m fine, thanks.”
A voice shouted out, “Hey! Aren’t you an astronaut?”
Chris looked at the reporter, his smug grin getting even bigger. “I am. The name’s Chris Riddick. I’m also a neighbor and friend of the Novaks’, so I expect you boys to be nice to this pretty lady.”
“Can we get a couple of shots of you two together?”
Chris pulled Anne even tighter. “My pleasure.”
Anne wanted to break free but feared such a scene might reflect badly on NASA. Unable to discreetly pry herself away, she had no choice but to force a smile in the direction of the flashing bulbs.
SOMETHING WASN’T RIGHT, and Tom worried the worst was happening. The third stage engine fired right on time, but the TLI burn sending them to the moon was not going smoothly. The engine growled as high-frequency oscillations vibrated their couches, a potentially disastrous sign. Even though his hand was on the abort handle, he planned on riding out the burn. He wasn’t concerned for their safety. His worry was that the shaking could lead to the engine cutting off prematurely. If that happened, there would be no trip to the moon. Without reaching a high enough velocity to escape their planet’s pull, the ship would be dragged back into a slow-decaying orbit until it plunged back to Earth.
“16, everything looks fine.”
Tom was pleased mission control wasn’t aware of the problem, and he certainly wasn’t going to alert them of the issue. He didn’t want to risk the mission being cut short. He steadied himself as he said with a strong and positive tone, “Roger, the ride is good.”
Staying calm, Kirk pointed to the obvious as he struggled to speak through the shaking. “You can see the vibrations on the g-meter.”
Staying off box so mission control couldn’t hear them, Tom answered, “Let’s hang in there. It appears Houston doesn’t see the problem.”
The shaking definitely wasn’t raining on Dusty’s parade. “What a ride! This might be our last chance to clear our sinuses.”
Tom smiled at Dusty’s little joke. With the acceleration creating a false gravity, the fluids in their heads were draining. With only thirty more seconds before engine cutoff, Tom crossed his fingers. “Thirty seconds until shutdown.”
Kirk revealed his concern. “Come on, baby, burn.”
Tom called out the final seconds. “5, 4, 3, 2, 1.” Right on the dot, the engine stopped. He informed Houston. “Cutoff!”
“Roger, 16, engine shutdown. All looks good.”
Tom checked their velocity and saw a reading of 35,520 feet per second. Perfect. They were going to the moon. Relieved, Tom wanted to give the engine a big kiss. The machine fought through the vibrations, sending them into deep space to fulfill their dream. He leaned over and flashed an enthusiastic thumbs-up sign to his partners. “Boys, we’re on our way!”
23
LITTLE GREEN MEN
All Apollo missions had their share of glitches, so it was no surprise Apollo 16 was experiencing one. Tom’s concern was how severe the situation was. A large, white panel dangling off the third stage booster was preventing the mission from continuing. The stubborn piece was one of four panels that had been protecting the lunar module during launch. These metal panels were supposed to open up like the petals of a flower so Kirk could pull their Apollo spacecraft away from the third stage. All four panels should have automatically dislodged and floated away, exposing the LM for capture. Kirk was to turn Galaxy around 180 degrees before returning to dock and pulling out the LM. Because the spidery-looking lunar module, nicknamed Explorer, was built with a fragile skin similar to tin foil, trying to retrieve it with an unpredictable panel nearby was simply too risky.
No way was Tom going to lose this mission, not after coming this far. Even though the dangling panel was as large as a garage door, it could easily be moved in space. While Kirk flew Galaxy close by Explorer, Tom spent well over an hour trying to convince mission control the panel could be manually released during a spacewalk. Houston wasn’t so sure and debated all possible solutions. No one came up with a better idea, and the final consensus was to either scrap the mission or attempt the spacewalk. The biggest concern was how the panel would react when it was dislodged. Many feared it could swing toward the astronaut, possibly ripping his suit. Tom argued it could be done safely. Houston finally relented.
Having trained over the last two years for the only spacewalk scheduled for their flight, Kirk pressed mission control to be the one to perform the fix. NASA eventually selected Tom because of his long EVA experience on Gemini. They considered this a unique and challenging spacewalk that no astronaut had specifically trained for. Houston felt Tom was the best man for the job, and as the commander, he was given the nod.