Margaritifer Basin (Margaritifer Trilogy Book 1) (47 page)

Jeff nodded.

“I will say this though; herding
rocket scientists is a lot like herding cats.”

Jeff laughed. “They are a strange
breed, aren’t they?”

Chrissie nodded. “Good night and,
thank you.”

Jeff walked into the tower study
and stood for a while gazing at the moonlight dancing on the cove far below.
Even in the comfort of Wrentham House with the fireplace glowing he felt the
coming chill of winter. Soon there would be snow. He reflected briefly on
events of the past year and a half and shook his head. “What a ride.”

Saturday, December 7,
2013 (T minus 836 days)

            Abby glanced at Jeff. “Pearl Harbor Day. You
superstitious?”

Jeff shook his head. “No. But ask
me again in an hour.”

            Jeff, Abby, Gabe and Susan stood together behind
the front desks in the Spacecraft Operations Center of the Atlas Spaceflight
Operations Center at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, looking across the
Launch Control Center.

            “This is unbelievable,” Gabe said, staring at
the video wall and the image of the brilliantly lit Atlas V 521 sitting on
launch pad LC-41 in the pre-dawn darkness. “Oh god I hope it works.”

            Jeff put his arm around her shoulder and gave
her a squeeze. “It’ll work. It damn well better, it cost me $110 million.”

The launch sequence was in a
thirty-minute hold for final cryogenic fueling. In another half an hour the
countdown would recommence for their first launch.

            A Lockheed Martin staffer came down the stairs
behind them, “Sir, they’re ready for you in the Hospitality Room.”

            “Yeah, okay, thanks. On our way.” He turned to
the others. “Media time folks. Let’s go talk to the press for a few minutes.”
Jeff led the team out of the SOC and down the hall to the Hospitality Room.
“Good morning all. You’re up bright and early. We’ve got about fifteen minutes
and you already have our prepared statements from yesterday so, if you’ve got
any last minute questions, fire away.”

            “Jerry Bell, AP. As this is the first launch of
an Atlas V 521 to Mars, are you concerned at all about the rocket’s
reliability?”

            Jeff smiled. “No, we have complete confidence in
the 521, ULA, Lockheed Martin and Boeing. Atlas Vs launched the MRO and New
Horizons and we’re confident this one will get the job done for us. Obviously
we’re nervous and a little apprehensive. This is our first launch and, you
know, things happen. And because of our tight schedule we can’t afford many
mishaps. But we’re confident.”

            “Susan Graf,
Houston
Chronicle
. Mr. Grey, could you give us a brief overview of how this
launch relates to your launches scheduled for next week?”

            “Sure. By the way, there are some folders on the
table over there that cover the whole thing in nauseating detail. You might
want to grab one. But in short, this launch is essentially our surveyor. It’s
based on the Viking Program of the late 1970s. In fact, our craft was built
from the actual original Viking schematics, but updated considerably with
current technology. This craft has two parts, an orbiter and a lander. The
lander will, hopefully, land in close vicinity to our intended landing site in
the Margaritifer Basin, and provide us with some ground level imagery of the
site. But, uh, most importantly it will serve as a navigation beacon for the
cargo vessel launching next week to home in on. This lander will arrive on Mars
about three weeks before the cargo will arrive and during that time we’ll be
able to establish its exact location and then offset its beacon –
electronically – to provide the later cargo lander a precise target for our
landing site. The orbiter will be initially inserted into a 1,500 x 32,600
kilometer synchronous orbit, as was Viking 1. Following lander separation, the
orbiter will be trimmed into a 17,031 kilometer geostationary orbit
approximately forty-five degrees west of our landing site. That will give us
continual communications capability while we’re on the planet and exploring it
– as line of site communications are pretty limited – and will also provide us
with much more consistent communications with Earth. So, in a nutshell, this
package is Christopher Columbus.” Jeff nodded to another reporter. “Yeah.”

            “Larry Gephardt,
USA
Today
. You mentioned your tight schedule and this being your ‘surveyor.’
What will you do if this mission fails?”

            Jeff laughed. “Well, aren’t you the cheery one
this morning. Uh, go home and have a stiff drink and good cry. No, uh, we have
a lot of redundancy built in. It would certainly be inconvenient, but not the
end of the world. Assuming the worst case – say, the rocket blows up on the
launch pad – we’ll still go ahead with our cargo launch next week. Its landing
accuracy may not be quite as good as we would hope for, but we’ll find it. And,
there is a backup beacon in that package. So, we’ll make do. As for the
orbiter, we haven’t built a backup, but we certainly could and would take it
with us when we launch. So, though it would certainly be annoying, loss of this
package would not result in any change at all in our schedule.”

            A voice came over the building public address
system. “Cryogenic operations are complete, countdown will recommence in three
minutes at T minus 30 minutes.”

            “Okay,” Jeff said, “one more question then we
gotta go. Yeah, in the back.”

            “Silvia Sanchez,
Orlando
Sentinel
. As I understand it, your launch next week actually consists of
three launches. I see rockets staged on pads 37 and 40, but where’s the third?”

            “Sitting over in the Vertical Integration
Facility, waiting for LC-41 to clear.”

            “Will Lockheed Martin have sufficient time to
stage that rocket?”

            “Well, they told me they can do it. As soon as
we’re done this morning, the Mobile Launch Platform will return to the VIF,
pickup our 551, and head back here. They have a week, and they said that was
enough. Okay everyone, sorry to cut this short but we need to get back into the
SOC… and start wringing our hands.” He grinned. “Following the launch we’ll be
happy to talk to you again, if you’d like.”

            As Jeff reentered the SOC the Lockheed Martin
Commercial Launch Services Launch Director announced, “We are Go for launch at
T minus 30 minutes and counting.”

            Jeff sat at the front left desk, donned a
communications headset, and punched up the direct line to Newport. “Newport,
Jeff. Chrissie, how’s it looking there?”

            “Looking good. I really think we could do it
from here if they’d let us.”

            “Yeah, well, the insurance company would
probably take a dim view of that.”

            “You sure have a roomful of excited people here,
even though they don’t have much to do except watch. Sure wish I was there.”

            “Yeah, I wish you were too. But, they also serve
who sit and watch the video displays.”

            “I don’t think that quote will make you famous,
boss.”

            “Ah well, guess we’ll just have to find
something else.”

            “I wish my granddad could see me now,” Abby said
from the desk behind Jeff.

            Jeff glanced around at her. “He wouldn’t be any
prouder of you than I am.”

            Abby looked down at him and smiled softly.

“We are at T minus four minutes and
holding,” came the announcement from Launch Control. “Countdown will recommence
in ninety seconds.”

            Rather than listen to ASOC PAO, Jeff tuned into
Heidi’s PAO commentary from Newport.

            PAO, “Five minutes. The Launch Director at LC-41
has informed Launch Control that the Atlas V, ‘Mars One Alpha’ is Go for
launch. The countdown will recommence in sixty seconds. We are Go for Mars One
Alpha. Automatic sequencing will commence at three minutes and fifteen
seconds.”

            “She sure sounds professional,” Susan said.

            “You listening to Heidi?” Jeff asked.

            “Yeah.”

            PAO, “Countdown has recommenced at T minus four
4 minutes. We have green boards at the Cape and Newport. All stations are
reporting Go for launch. Captain Jeffrey Grey and his crew – Dr. Gabriel
Frederick, Lieutenant Commander Abigail Nolan, and Dr. Susan Lú – are watching
eagerly from the Atlas Spaceflight Operations Center at Cape Canaveral,
anxiously awaiting the first giant step on their path to Mars.”

            “Nice touch,” Susan said.

            “Yeah, she’s got a feel for this.”

            PAO, “Three minutes fifteen seconds and
counting. Automatic sequencing has begun and the firing command has been
received. Three minutes and counting – we are Go for launch. At this point,
barring any problems, all mission elements are in the hands of the computers.”

            “I wonder if that includes us?” said Jeff.

            Gabe, sitting beside him, laughed nervously.
“God, I hope not.”

            PAO, “Two minutes forty seconds and counting.
All launch control personnel at Cape Canaveral and Newport are intently
watching the Atlas V’s parameters for even the most minor of system errors.
There are none and we are Go for launch. Two minutes fifteen seconds and
counting. Final fuel tank pressurization is now taking place. Two minutes and counting.
Oxidizer tank pressure is building and we are Go for launch.”

            “Does she sound a bit excited to you?” said
Susan.

            Jeff laughed. “Uh, just a little. Probably
thinking about the millions of people that are listening to her.”

            Abby grinned. “Sounds like she’s about to wet
her pants.”

            “Gabe, you knew her at Caltech, didn’t you?”
said Jeff.

            “Yeah, but not real well. She’s an engineer so
we didn’t run into one another a lot. I remember her as smart and very
methodical. Good math.”

            “As good as yours?”

            “No.”

            Jeff grinned. “Did you pick her off the list?”

            “Yeah, I recommended her to Chrissie.”

            “Good call.”

            She smiled. “Thanks.”

            PAO, “One minute thirty-five seconds and
counting. Mars One Alpha’s destination is now 148,700,000 miles and 297 days
away. We are Go for launch.

            “T minus 50 seconds and counting. Power is
switching to internal.”

            Gabe took Jeff’s hand and squeezed it. He
glanced at her and smiled nervously.

            PAO, “Forty seconds and counting. The Atlas V is
on internal power. All fuel and oxidizer tanks are now fully pressurized.
Thirty seconds and Mars One Alpha is Go for launch.”

            PAO, “Fifteen seconds. Twelve seconds, 10, 9, 8,
guidance to internal, 6, 5, 4, ignition, 2, 1, the clock is running and we have
liftoff of Mars One Alpha from Cape Canaveral Air Force Base at 6:48:32 a.m.
Eastern Time.”

            Even though four miles away, the roar of the
Atlas’ thunderous exhaust shook the building. Jeff, Gabe, Abby and Susan sat
transfixed, staring at the video wall as the rocket slowly rose into the dim
morning light.

            “Go baby,” Abby said. “Go!”

            Susan elbowed Jeff in the ribs.

            Jeff gasped, “Huh? What?”

            “If you keep holding your breath you’re going to
pass out and miss all the fun.”

            He started breathing again. “Oops. Thanks.”

            Susan grinned.

            PAO, “We are at T plus 39 seconds, altitude five
kilometers, velocity 497 meters per second, throttling down to 93%, roll and
pitch programs commencing. Throttling down is for the purpose of minimizing
dynamic pressure while the rocket rolls and pitches to its new heading.”

            PAO, “At T plus 59 seconds, Mars One Alpha is at
Max Q, the point of maximum dynamic pressure, roll and pitch are complete and
we are throttling back up to 100%. Altitude is 12.8 kilometers, velocity 668
meters per second.”

            “That was quick,” said Susan “There’s nothing
left but a vapor trail.”

            Jeff sighed. “Doesn’t take long, does it?”

            “And that’s all there is to it?”

            “Well, there’s lots more, but we won’t be seeing
it. At least not this time.”

            Abby shook her head. “Can you imagine being
seated on the top of that?”

            Susan groaned, “I’m trying not to.”

            PAO, “At T plus 118 seconds we have solid rocket
booster separation. Altitude is now 58.2 kilometers, velocity 1,212 meters per
second, and all systems are Go. Mars One Alpha is changing call signs and is
now Mars One
Pathfinder
.”

            Jeff turned to Abby, Gabe and Susan. “Well, it’s
a couple minutes before staging, then 3-1/2 hours of off-and-on Centaur burns
before she’s actually headed for Mars. What do you guys want to do? I think
I’ve lost the capacity for rational thought.”

            They all glanced back and forth at one another
for a minute.

            “I have an idea,” Abby said.

            “What?”

            “Well, we can monitor the rest of this on the
plane. And we’ve got three more launches in the next eight days. And we’ve been
at this non-stop for three months since we got back from Gaucin. And Chrissie’s
herding a flock of eggheads around the house…”

            Jeff smiled, “Yeah, yeah, yeah… cut to the
chase.”

            “Okay, I say we fly over to New Orleans. It’s
not in the itinerary, but screw the itinerary. We can be there by lunch. Let’s
go get us some Creole shrimp, champagne and hotel rooms and sleep in. It’s not
like we haven’t earned – and deserve – a day off. We can go back to Newport
Monday.”