Pilgrimage (The New World) (9 page)

The other significant change in America was how the military was treated upon their return from foreign conflict. Ross had heard first hand from his father and grandfather that they, along with their fellow soldiers, had been welcomed home with open arms after World Wars I & II, and similar respect had been given to those who returned from the Korean conflict. The Vietnam War however, which had been the catalyst for much of the recent social unrest, had been a different story.

For the next thirty days Ross would be on leave, so he and Patty once again made the most of it. She had no idea where his next posting would be, but Ross had assured her he wouldn’t be going back into a combat scenario like Vietnam. The two of them discussed many things during the next few weeks, including Ross having been shot down. Patty was initially angry with him for keeping the information from her, but then understood his reasoning once he explained the situation to her.

As the time grew closer to the end of his leave, Ross received a letter with his new orders. Patty was at work when the letter arrived, so he took a deep breath before opening it. Ross was very excited with the contents of the letter, and rubbed the emblem on his necklace as he thought about how he could surprise Patty with the news when she got home.

That evening over dinner, Ross informed Patty that they would have to give up the apartment and move for his new posting. His leave had been extended an additional week, but he would have to report for duty on Monday, September 15th. They could live together in the housing on base because it was a non-combat location, and if they didn’t have everything packed up by the time he needed to report she could join him at a later date. Patty was in no mood to be separated from Ross again, and vowed to be ready in time. She then took a deep breath and asked him where they would be moving to.

Ross beamed with excitement, as he revealed that they would only need to move about fifteen miles from their present location. He had been accepted into the astronaut program at NASA, and the bulk of his education and training would take place in Houston, Texas. It was the most wonderful news for both of them, as Ross could pursue his dream of going into space someday, while Patty could keep her present job and the friends she had met since relocating to Houston.

The housing subdivision that they moved into near the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center was occupied by several other astronauts and their families, so they felt an instant connection with many of their new neighbors. As they began to unload their possessions from the moving van, Patty asked Ross which room he intended to use for his new office. He walked through each room of the house, and then placed his fishing pole with the red bow still attached and Grandpa Hank’s flag in the corner to signify he had reached a decision.

On his first day at NASA Ross realized he was definitely one of the youngest pilots in the astronaut program, but he had apparently received a few letters of recommendation to help pave the way. He would soon begin what would become many years of rigorous training for something that only a very elite group of people in America were chosen to do. The work would be challenging, but the reward would be something that Ross had wanted to do since his youthful days of talking about space with Grandpa Hank.

ROSS SAT AT
one end of the long table that had all six members of the mission crew facing the media. It had been six and a half years since the day he became an astronaut in September of 1975, and he would finally be going on a flight into space as a mission specialist aboard the space shuttle. Ross would be thirty-two years old in a few months, and had worked hard to get where he was. Another promotion during that time had made him a Lieutenant Commander in the Navy, and he was still young enough that he might be able to make multiple flights into space.

The past several years had been filled with great news for Ross and his family. He and Patty now had a four year-old daughter named Aurora who had arrived on November 16, 1977, and Patty was due to deliver a second child in a few months. Jessica had finished her degree at Rice University in the spring of 1976, and had continued on to law school. She was now working at a firm in Houston, so Ross and Patty had a chance to get together with her often.

They were both very proud of Jessica, but Ross thought there were two drawbacks to his younger sister’s prowess. For one, he would probably never win another argument with her as she fine-tuned her trial techniques whenever she could, and two was that she now had a new reason to keep the leg brace on. Ross tried to explain to Jessica that she would get more respect as a good lawyer without pulling on the jury’s heart strings, but law school had taught her to take full advantage of any opportunity that may present itself. Ross thought her leg was fine and she had become a beautiful young woman of twenty-seven who was destined for success, yet she continued to rely on the leg brace.

Most of the questions from the media in attendance were directed at the mission commander or the pilot, but Ross and the three other members of the crew were there for the sake of team unity and photographs. This would be the last of such gatherings for the benefit of the media, as the crew of the shuttle was scheduled for launch in less than a week. When this briefing was over, the crew would soon be on their way to Cape Canaveral for final preparations.

Ross was actually surprised when one of the reporters directed a question at him about the payload of the mission, but he showed his poise by answering completely without rambling on. As the crew rose to exit the room, a few senior members of NASA were in the adjacent corridor discussing Ross. He was unaware of it at the time, but they were adding his name to a list of candidates for a future mission.

It was all Ross could do to keep from screaming “Yee-Haw” as the space shuttle Challenger pulled away from the launch platform during the early morning hours in March of 1982. The awesome power and amazing technology associated with launching something of that size and weight into space was unequaled, and he was enjoying every second of the bumpy and jolting ride. Ross’ steady vital signs had not gone un-noticed by the flight surgeon and senior members of NASA. The monitors revealed that all the vital signs of the other five astronauts were racing wildly from excitement, fear, or outright panic, while Ross remained calm throughout it all.

Eventually the ride began to smooth out, and soon the Challenger reached orbit as planned. The mission of five days was a complete success, and the spacewalk that Ross and one other crew member needed to perform in order to assist in the deployment of a communications satellite went perfectly.

Ross couldn’t help himself after the task had been completed, as he lingered outside of the shuttle on a tether looking down at the Earth for as long as the mission specs would allow before reluctantly coming back inside. As they were helped out of their spacesuits, Ross had a huge smile on his face that couldn’t be misinterpreted. He had finally made it out to space, and he wanted to come back again as soon as the crew rotations would allow for it.

Once again the crews’ vital signs rose or sped up considerably as the shuttle became a ball of fire during re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere, but Ross was smiling from ear to ear. There were easier ways to leave Florida on the east coast and arrive in the desert of Southern California five days later, but this had been a much more spectacular way to do it. The Challenger shook violently as it fought its way back towards Earth, and Ross just rolled with the punches.

Safely back on terra firma and at “wheels stop” on the long runway of Edwards Air Force Base in the Mojave Desert, Ross couldn’t help it as he said, “Let’s do that again!” The statement broke the tension that all had felt with the landing, and would be one of the last things recorded on the official transcript of the flight. Ross had gained some notoriety with the mission commander and pilot for his work before and during the mission, but was still unaware of how much he had impressed some of the senior staff by his actions.

The debriefing of the crew went well for all involved, and NASA was pleased that the communications satellite was sending back a strong signal. Before long the astronauts had all been returned to Houston, and Ross was welcomed by the warm embrace of his wife and little girl.

Less than three months later Patty gave birth to their second daughter, as Rachel joined the family on June 11, 1982. On the day that Rachel turned three months old, more good news came along. Ross had been selected to join the crew of another space shuttle mission that was slated to launch in slightly less than a year. His preparations for that flight would be significantly different than his previous mission, as he had been selected as the shuttle pilot for an August 1983 launch.

THE NEXT ELEVEN
months went by quickly. Ross had been very busy with his training for the upcoming space shuttle mission; while Patty had her hands full back at the house just trying to keep up with the needs of their two little girls. Rachel had celebrated her first birthday a few months back, and Aurora would celebrate her sixth before Thanksgiving rolled around. Jessica was also becoming more and more involved with the law firm, so the opportunities for the three adults to get together were difficult to come by.

On this occasion, Ross occupied a center seat at the long table that faced the media corps less than a week prior to launch, but he handled the spotlight well. He, and the mission commander, were the target of the majority of their questions, but Ross would divert a question to another member of the crew if it was more applicable to their task while in flight. Ross believed it was important for the media to understand that all members of a crew are equally important to the success of a mission, and they deserved as much of the spotlight as he and the mission commander. It was just one more aspect of his leadership abilities that had caught the attention of the senior staff at NASA.