Brown, Dale - Independent 01 (10 page)

 
         
Minutes later a white-clad technician
flashed one last thumps-up through the entry way access, then ducked below, and
the heavy main entrance hatch closed with a
thump.

           
“
Enterprise
,
side hatch secure.”

           
“Roger,
copy,” Sontag said. “Crew, cabin pressurization coming up. Pressure on your
ears.” Commander Will flipped switches, and Ann could feel her ears pop as the
cabin pressure was increased to check for leaks or an unsecured hatch.

           
“Control,
this is
Enterprise
.
Cabin pressure normal, one-six point
seven p.s.i.
Over
.”

           
“Roger,
Enterprise
.
Out.”

           
“Ann,
you’re cleared for power on your payload monitoring panel,” the pilot, Sontag
said. “Check out your baby back there and report any problems when your check
is completed.”

           
“Roger.”
Ann flipped a guarded switch marked “PL MON ONE” and watched as the instrument
panel to her right came to life. Except for a few miscellaneous supplies, the
Skybolt laser she had developed was
Enterprise's
only cargo on this trip, and it was her job to check the systems on the
forty-thou sand-pound laser module to be sure there was no damage that might
cause contamination or a hazard during launch.

           
The
exhaustive check of the laser module’s five separate sections took longer than
she had expected. Finally she reported back. “Payload monitor power off,
Colonel. Check complete. Everything’s in the green. Ready for launch.”

           
“Control,
this is
Enterprise
.
Ready to resume
countdown.
Over,” Sontag reported.

           
Colonel
Will, with six years flying space shuttles, turned to the computer keyboard,
punched in “SPEC 99 PRO” and the computer monitor on Sontag’s side changed from
a blank screen to a pictorial representation of the
Enterprise
's
launch trajectory. Will
checked
the display. In case of a malfunction of all three
of the general navigation computers, the GNCs, he would fly the
Enterprise
manually into orbit using the computer display as a road map. He keyed his
microphone. “Control, this is
Enterprise
.
Flight plan loaded and checked.
Over.”

           
The
checklists ran faster and faster. From T-minus twenty minutes to T-minus five
minutes, Will and Sontag worked furiously. Their main job was to start the
three auxiliary power units, the APUs, which supplied hydraulic power to
Enterprise
.
During launch the APUs would make sure
the
Enterprise
's
aerodynamic surfaces were in their
streamlined launch position; during landing or during an emergency the APUs
would supply hydraulic power to the surfaces to allow the shuttle to be flown
like a conventional airplane.

           
After
T-minus five minutes Will and Sontag could do little but watch the computers on
Enterprise
and acknowledge status checks from Vandenburg Launch Control.

           
“T-minus
two minutes,” Launch Control reported. “H-two and O-two tanks pressurized,
Enterprise
.
You are
go
for launch.
Over.”

           
“Copy,
Control. We’re go for launch.” Sontag looked over his shoulder once more at
Page, Schultz and Baker.

           
“Here we
go....”

           
“Put the
pedal to the metal, Colonel,” Schultz said and immediately regretted it. Pretty
callow stuff, he told himself. The others indulged him by ignoring it. Ann
settled herself as far as possible in her seat and pulled her seat straps tight
as she could stand it. The air felt electric—not stuffy or humid but
super-charged with power. Far below she could feel the rumble of another piece
of equipment—the solid rocket booster’s ignition APUs. The thought of six
million pounds of thrust about to be let loose made her eyes shut tight.

           
“T-minus
ten seconds ... nine... eight....”

           
She nearly
jumped out of her seat as she felt a gentle touch on her left hand.

           
“Relax.”

           
It was
Marty Schultz, nodding. “It’ll be fine, relax.”

           
She took a
deep breath, feeling as if it was the first she’d taken in hours.

           
“... Six
... five. .. four.... ignition sequence start... main engine one ignition...
two ignition ... three ignition.. ..” Sontag wasn’t talking over the
interphone—he was screaming out loud cross cockpit: “... Manifold pressure good
all three engines... three in the green    ”

           
One hundred
feet behind Ann, the three main engines were cranking out one-and-a-quarter
million pounds of thrust, but almost no noise or vibration could be felt. Ann
did feel a
twang
, the sway of the
orbiter towards the external tank as the main engines moved toward full thrust,
but even that wasn’t too noticeable.

           
She knew
from endless simulation what came next. She could just make out the ABORT light
on the front instrument panel It hadn’t come on, thank God. When the orbiter
realigns itself after the
twang
it
meant—

           
It felt as
if a freight train had just rumbled out of nowhere right beside her—from
near-quiet to ear-splitting sound—as the solid rocket boosters ignited. She
couldn’t help letting out a gasp as the solid rocket boosters, the SRBs,
exploded into action. In three seconds the thrust beneath her had been
multiplied by a factor of five; now the fury of over six million pounds of
thrust was alive, and
Enterprise
had not yet even left earth.

           
Suddenly a
huge hand pressed against her chest, causing her to involuntarily expel air in
a grunt. Stars clouded her vision, but she could see the launch service tower
drop from view.

           
Airborne.

           
“
Enterprise
,
you have cleared the tower. Engines
look good.” Ann was surprised to see Will and Sontag reaching up to their
forward instrument panels; she tried to raise her hand against the “g” forces,
found they were light but building. Soon even lifting one hand took effort.

           
“Control,
this is
Enterprise
.
Main engines at
sixty-five percent.
Over.”

           
“Roger,
Enterprise
.
Standing by for max Q.”

           
Ann
clutched the armrests of her seat. Here came one of the most critical moments
of the launch—the moment when all of the dynamic pressures affecting the
shuttle were—

           
“Max Q,
Control.
Main
engines one hundred percent.”

           
“Roger,
people. Very pretty launch. Spectacular. Out.”

           
That was
it? No earth-shaking rumble, no squashed face, no blasts of Vulcan heat? The
“g” forces were noticeable, but Ann had felt worse lots of times.

           
“Coming up
on SRB burnout, Control.”

           
The solid
rocket boosters burned out and were jettisoned precisely on schedule, under
computer control.
Enterprise
was now several hundred miles west of
Mexico
on its southern pole-to-pole trajectory. The SRB motor casings, each floating
to earth under three one- hundred-fifteen-foot-diameter parachutes, would be
retrieved over the
Pacific Ocean
.

           
Enterprise
's
ride was somewhat different from
other shuttle flights. First,
Enterprise
was following an eccentric
elliptical polar orbit instead of a circular equatorial orbit. And second,
Enterprise
was climbing
to an altitude of one thousand miles so that it could rendezvous with
Silver
Tower
as it traveled in high orbit.
Because of fuel limitations, previous shuttle flights had been limited to a
maximum altitude of about seven hundred miles above earth.

           
It was
several hours before Will finally announced: “Welcome to space, crew. OMS bum
is complete. We are in orbit.” Relief washed across everyone’s face.

 
         
“We’re within a few miles of
Silver
Tower
’s orbit,” Sontag reported
over interphone. “We saved ourselves a few hundred pounds of fuel on that bum,
so we have a small safety margin. I’m estimating linkup with
Silver
Tower
in two hours—it’s about
fifteen thousand miles ahead of us, but we’re gaining
..
.. Marty, you’re clear to open the cargo bay doors. After that you’ll all be
cleared to unstrap to begin system checkouts. Kevin, check the middeck for any
damage or anything out of place.”

           
Schultz and
Baker acknowledged Sontag’s call and began to unstrap. Ann looked on as
Schultz’s straps began to float around his vacated seat before he resecured
them.

           
“Remember,”
Schultz said, “even though you’re weightless up here in orbit, your body still
has mass that you need to overcome, which means stopping yourself after you get
moving.”

           
“So I
noticed,” Baker mumbled after he’d unstrapped and promptly collided head-first
with the ceiling.

           
Schultz
watched as Baker maneuvered himself around and floated out of sight down the
ladder to the middeck level of the crew compartment.

           
“Now to get
those cargo bay doors,” Schultz said. With Ann floating beside him, he made his
way to the aft flight deck instrument panel. Ann looked out the windows facing
into the cargo bay but it was too dark to make out any detail.

           
“Panel R13
has the door controls,” Schultz was saying. Over interphone he said, “Check
power levels for cargo bay doors, Colonel Sontag.”

           
Sontag
checked the power distribution panel near his right elbow. “Switches set.” Next
he checked a bank of three ammeters, switching the monitor controls through
each of the fuel cells to check their output. “Power’s on-line, Marty.”

           
“Rog.” To
Ann, Schultz said, “Okay. Electrical power runs the hydraulic motors that
operate the doors. There are also electrical backups, plus the doors can be
opened and closed by the remote manipulator arms and even with an emergency
space walk if necessary. The radiators deploy after the doors are fully open.”
Then over interphone Schultz reported: “Doors coming open.”

           
“Clear to
open,” Colonel Will said.

           
Schultz
activated the controls. Instantly the payload bay was bathed in a brilliant
blue-white light that reflected off the aluminum insulation covering the
Skybolt laser module. The space shuttle
Enterprise
was flying upside down in relation to
the earth’s surface, so
Enterprise
’s
sky was the earth—and Ann was seeing this “sky” for the first
time. “My God....”

           
The
Enterprise
was
just crossing the dawn-line between
Hawaii
and
Australia
.
It looked like a relief map being lighted from the side— each island in
Micronesia
,
it seemed, was visible in stark detail. They could recognize the Solomons, the
Samoas
,
even the
New Hebrides
Islands
.
There were a few puffs of clouds but otherwise it was like looking at a
meticulously rendered painting of the whole South Pacific.

           
“Ann?”

           
“It’s ...
beautiful... so
immaculate
....” She
said quietly. Schultz nodded. “I never stop being awed by it myself. If that
sight doesn’t move you, you belong in a rubber room.” He turned to the
interphone. “Bay doors open. Radiators deployed. No damage so far as I can see
on the radiators.”

           
“Copy,”
Sontag said. Will double-checked his readouts with Mission Control through a
direct UHF radio and data-link originating in a station antenna farm at Yarra
Yarra in
western
Australia
.

           
“Mission
Control confirms clear for orbit and rendezvous with Armstrong.”