America One - The Launch

by T I WADE

  “This is fantastic!” responded Ryan. “To hell with building a space ship, we should all just fly up here and float around all day.”

  “Believe me, Ryan, its gets boring after a while,” interjected VIN, moving the load out of the shuttle’s cargo bay behind his floating body. “You should have seen the views on DX2014. Earth looked smaller than the moon, and the moon just looked like another star. Those vistas were worth every atom of danger going out there.”

  “What is your most memorable view?” Ryan asked through the intercom.

  “Easy,” replied VIN “seeing thousands of beautiful diamonds glistening in the sun’s rays all around me while I was trying to catch them. It was like one of those discos I used to go to as a teenager, with thousands of lights bouncing around the dance floor. Partner, I have transferred the load to Asterspace III.”

  “Roger that,” replied Jonesy.

  “Mr. Jones, what is your best memory?”

  Jonesy laughed and replied, “After our first journey to DX2014 it was when I saw Mr. Noble come across to Astermine I with a canister I knew had a freshly sealed bottle of vodka in it. I could see the iced bottle through the aluminum canister wall with my x-ray eyes.”

  “Jonesy, really!” chided Maggie.

  “Ms. Sinclair; your best view?”

  “On DX2014, the first time Jonesy allowed me to go out on a spacewalk. He and VIN helped me out of Astermine II. It was on the higher surface where we could see space in its entirety. A complete 180 degree view of space! I believe it is impossible to describe it to someone who wasn’t there. It was as exactly as VIN always describes it; millions of stars so clear that you could just jump up and touch them. It was so romantic!”

  Isn’t this the same vista?” Ryan asked.

  “Sort of,” answered Maggie, “but you have the light from Earth, the moon and the sun, much closer than when we were millions of miles away on DX2014. There, it was dark, very dark; here it is like looking into space from Earth with city lights around you. Out there, there was no added light, which made the stars so much more bright and beautiful. Some shone like diamonds, having different colors. We saw Mars, which actually had a reddish color. We found Saturn through the telescope we took on the second mission and we could see the white band around a bluish looking planet. I think that the worst thing for anybody who comes up here is to not spacewalk, to view the universe around them.”

  “Suzi, close the cargo doors. Fueling is complete, I’m detaching the hose. Jonesy reel it in. I will now float the two passengers over to Asterspace,” stated VIN.

  Ryan watched as VIN floated towards him.

  “I assume I should take Captain Pete Gregory before you, Ryan? Pete can you hear me?” VIN asked. Ryan nodded.

  “Sure Buddy, I’m in the port, Maggie is opening the hatch. Since I will be out here every day for the next couple of weeks before I take over command of America One, I will leave Mr. Richmond to get his jollies walking around out here. I will be happy just to see Suzi’s smiling face. I would assume she doesn’t have her helmet on as usual?”

  “You’ve got that right, Herr Captain Pete,” replied Suzi. “I’m not wearing a helmet if I’m not going out there.”

  VIN grabbed hold of America One’s new commander who floated quickly out of the shuttle’s outer hatch. He knew that this quick exit would happen every time a newbie spacewalker came out of the hatch; accustomed to the gravity on Earth, they thought they had to propel themselves out of the hatch. He buckled Pete to him and then unceremoniously thrust himself towards Asterspace III. Pete, who couldn’t do anything, just floated away with VIN enjoying the view.

  Ryan asked if he could allow his rope to extend and VIN said that once Jonesy closed the cargo bay doors, he could. The doors began to close and Ryan began to allow his rope to play out, just managing to push himself forward, and away from the docking port’s outer hatch one of his feet was near.

  Immediately he began floating away, forward of the shuttle traveling at over 14,000 miles an hour. There was no movement and he could see both pilots, seated with their helmets on, through the forward portal. They looked like they were looking directly at him.

  It was so peaceful and everything was stationary as he floated further and further away, his cord slowly reeling out. He watched as VIN got Pete to the other craft and feet first Pete entered the Asterspace docking port. The hatch closed and VIN looked directly at Ryan.

  “Better watch out for the space shark. Experienced astronauts say that there is a big white space shark out here, and he might just swim up and take you with him,” VIN joked.

  “Well, let him come and get me,” Ryan laughed. “As people say, bow out while you’re at the top. Well, I’m at my top and I wouldn’t really care,” replied Ryan totally relaxed and trying hard not to look around for that space shark sneaking up on him.

  Suddenly, everything went dark around Ryan and the millions of stars were only inches from his eyes. They were much brighter, and he suddenly understood what Maggie had meant.

  “The sun has gone behind the Earth, a normal occurrence a couple of times a day up here,” explained Jonesy. “It scared the bejeezus out of me when it happened for the first time. Partner, we have twenty-three minutes before we must align Sierra Bravo III to get to our Top of D (Descent).

  VIN allowed Ryan to get a full 100 feet in front of the craft and enjoy peace with the universe for a full ten minutes, before he maneuvered over to latch onto his boss. There wasn’t a word spoken for the duration; Ryan’s crew allowed him solitude in the middle of heaven.

  Ryan felt VIN’s hand attach a second rope onto him, and they returned to the shuttle’s opening docking port. VIN released the first rope attached to the shuttle’s port and Maggie pressed a button to wind the cord in. The outer hatch of the port closed as VIN floated him away from the shuttle.

  They had just reached the other docking port when Ryan saw the directional thrusters on each side of the shuttle begin glowing, and it began to sink away from them heading down towards Earth ever so slowly. He couldn’t take his eyes off the beauty of the long, slim shuttle moving around in space like a large shark. It actually did look like a space shark, as it dropped more and more quickly on its descent. First twenty-five feet, then fifty, then one hundred feet below the direction both spacecraft were heading.

  “Mr. Noble, how much time do we have before we need to leave?” Ryan asked.

  “We have about an hour or more before we begin to head up. The flights back to Ivan are slow and easy in order to save fuel. You want to stay out here a little longer?”

  “You bet,” replied Ryan. “I want to watch the shuttle until it disappears.”

  “Well, you have about seven minutes before the sun comes out from behind Earth. Then you won’t see the shuttle so easily. We can stay, and I will propel us out further so that you can have a clear view.”

  It was a beautiful sight to see the shuttle slowly sink away from them.

  A minute later Ryan could just see the shuttle’s rear thruster begin to glow several hundred feet away, and gently, like a boat leaving the quay, SB III began to pick up speed and not only head down, but further out in front of them.

  These few minutes were what Ryan had dreamed about for most of his life; to be a part of the universe and a spectator watching things happen around him.

  The shuttle began to descend rapidly, moving away faster and faster towards Earth. It was about a mile below and ahead of them when the bright light of the sun returned, the glare destroying most of his view of Earth and turning it into a giant silhouette.

  “Time to go, boss,” said VIN simply.

  An hour later he was sitting on one of the rear beds of Asterspace III. The cockpit was much smaller than the shuttles’ cockpits, about two-thirds the size. Asterspace III had the second crew compartment and he was happy to see that the tight submarine-size bunks were ready for use. He was also quite surprised at the gravitational pull from the electromagnetic unit beneath
his feet. Nothing floated in the cockpit. He let go of his helmet, and like a leaf it slowly floated to the floor.

  Suzi was happy to see him and hugged him as soon as he and Pete helped him remove his helmet.

  “I see you are a natural spacewalker, Herr Boss,” Suzi smiled. She was still monitoring the spacecraft while VIN had his helmet removed.

  There wasn’t much room with four in the cockpit area, so both men sat in the rear compartment while Suzi helped VIN get off his helmet and the top half of his space suit.

  “This is my first time in one of these cockpits in space,” Ryan stated. “They are so small!”

  “I prefer to call them cozy,” responded Suzi. “With four in here it is tight. Not for somebody who suffers from the thing…that disease…. That disease of people who don’t like small tight places..?”

  “Claustrophobia,” responded Pete from the rear.

  “Ja, that is the correct word,” continued Suzi. “I’m powering up the thrusters to full power for ten minutes to begin the climb out of our low-Earth orbit. Ryan, the Cloaking Device makes me grind my teeth, but I think you will get used to the whine after several trips.”

  “How did you survive for a whole month in one of these cockpits, Mr. Noble?” Ryan asked.

  “The first trip we only had this small front area. With two people on board, one sits while the other moves about. I can do several exercises; push-ups and other exercises in the central aisle between the seats, but thinking about the bath-bag, I preferred to get outside and walk around. Walking around on the asteroid was a life saver.”

  “I look forward to walking on an asteroid very soon, Mr. Noble. We might be going back to the broken pieces of DX2014 in a few weeks. There is a possibility that they could hit Earth.” Ryan then explained to the Asterspace crew the problem facing Earth, which could start a major catastrophe in a few weeks.

  Pete and VIN took the first leg back to Ivan on the rear bunks, while Ryan was happy to watch Suzi monitor the craft. She didn’t have much to do. The thrusters had increased their speed to 19,000 miles an hour and slowly their altitude rose by a mile a minute. They were still in a growing orbit and ground control down in Nevada plotted Asterspace III’s whereabouts on the large screen, even though the Cloaking Device was on. They adjusted the craft’s speed and climb rate to make sure it stayed away from the International Space Station.

  “Why do you think nobody ever sees our craft going around in orbit?” Suzi asked Ryan.

  “It is beyond me,” Ryan replied sitting back and enjoying a pouch of cold orange juice. “I’m sure several amateur telescopes have picked us up over the last few weeks. I’m also sure that observatories have seen our craft orbiting Earth at low altitude, but I think our presence up here is diminished by several factors. First, junk is everywhere, so many might see our craft and consider it a piece of silver space junk; everything is white, silver or gold up here. Second, many believe that radar visual is everything. They might visibly see our craft through telescopes, but if it doesn’t show up on their radar screen, they might imagine they are seeing things. Third, our craft are small, very small, and do not stay in low orbit for more than four to six hours at a time, a small window to get a lock on such a small object in the vastness of the space around Earth. But I’m sure somebody will let the cat out of the bag sometime soon.”

  For the next several hours, the four occupants dozed or slept. It was a two-day flight back up to Ivan, completing seven long orbits before leveling out of the final orbit at 12,500 miles, the craft’s nose pointing directly at Ivan 10,000 miles higher than Asterspace III. Since Ivan was not stationary, the craft would have to cover 160,000 miles before reaching the space station using as little hydrogen fuel as possible.

  In space it took many hours, or even days to increase, or decrease forward speed by large amounts. All of Ryan’s spacecraft and shuttles could half the time it took to get to Ivan, but they were now choreographed with the three-day launch windows from Earth.

  One of the new pilots, Max Burgos, was in command of the approaching craft going down, with Fritz Warner as co-pilot and cargo master. They flew in formation together for the second half of Suzi’s last 12,500 mile orbit above Earth. Again Ryan suited up and exited through the docking port with VIN to spend ninety minutes this time, and with the longest possible cord. As usual, VIN had the cord attached to the spacecraft and they watched a smaller Earth, the size of a basketball on this spacewalk, spin ever so slowly 12,500 miles below them.

  Astermine II looked beautiful thirty feet away on the starboard side of their craft, and VIN used his jet pack to float Ryan over and look at the helmetless crew waving back through the small forward cockpit portal.

  Over the ship’s intercom system, which was also connected to ground control, the crews could talk to each other within a 1,000 mile range; very little else was done by the pilots in this phase of flight, apart from chat. The computers did all the work, even communicating to each other in the different craft once they were given changes to their usual flight plans from the two spacecraft pilots wanting their craft to fly only thirty feet apart in perfect formation.

  Ryan enjoyed the peace and quiet of his longer walk in space. As VIN often did, they both played out their 300-foot cords and just floated there looking out in all directions. For a while they floated 300 feet in front and in-between both craft, then the same distance over the top of the craft, watching them with Earth’s brightness lighting them up.

  Then VIN guided Ryan to the rear of the two spacecraft, allowing both craft to get in front of them. From 300 feet behind the craft, they looked so small and unimportant in the vastness of space around them.

  For the last twenty minutes Ryan stared in the direction of the moon. As VIN told him, if Ryan stared long enough, he would actually see both planets move a few degrees in their orbits. The moon looked exactly like a crescent moon from Earth, just a little smaller as it was on the other side of Earth and would pass out of view in an hour or so.

  Thirty hours later, Ivan came into sight in front of the first cube of America One. An hour before the crew in Asterspace III could visibly see Ivan, the wall of Cube One facing them could be seen, the sun’s rays shining off the aluminum side facing the sun. All seven cubes were now complete and extended out into space and away from Earth behind the first cube. At first they could only see one cube, the most forward one, which looked three times bigger than Ivan fifty feet away and floating next to it. There had been a problem with the docking port on America One which was going to bond Ivan with the cube and the scientists had separated the craft to repair the problem.

  Asterspace III had three needed parts for the port in her hold; once fitted, Ivan would be docked to one of the rear cubes. Both space stations were still twenty miles behind the communications satellite they were hiding behind. At twenty miles distance, America One looked small behind the satellite which kept it hidden from much of Earth.

  Ryan was on his third spacewalk as he and VIN watched the communications satellite float past a couple of miles away. It was small, about a quarter the size of Ivan. It had its solar wings fully extended, soaking up the sun’s rays. Ryan studied the communications satellite carefully. Somebody was probably watching a television program, or receiving an email from it as he studied it. This was the first time he felt the sensation of movement while spacewalking, seeing something else glide by.

  Earth had again decreased slightly in size, as had the moon. The sun looked the same, but earth was slightly smaller, now 22,500 miles away.

  Hiding Ivan behind the communications satellite had been a good idea. With the satellite in its direct line of view, not much could be seen of Ivan, and now America One, from much of Earth.

  Ryan turned to look at America One less than twenty miles away. He could easily see the line of seven cubes, and that six of the nine cylinder corridors were sticking vertically out of the sides of the cubes at different lengths, and growing by the day. Each of the corridors was bonded ar
ound a sliding door into the cubes.

  At five miles, Ryan could see two minute white floating shapes. Two scientists with jet packs were spacewalking and controlling a forty-foot cylinder they were floating out to the end of one of the corridors. It would take ten cylinders before the outer-accommodation cylinders would be fitted horizontally, 400 feet out from the cubes.

  “First, the two men take an hour to check the welds completed by the robotic spiders on the two new cylinders during their daily three-hour spacewalk,” explained Suzi over the intercom, watching Ryan through her forward cockpit portal. “Then, as we all practiced on earth, they float out the next cylinder and spot weld it to the outer end of the last cylinder. After that they return to get the second cylinder and the first robot to place on the first spot weld to complete the bond. VIN and I haven’t really been needed up to now, but we soon will be. Pete will join the third man waiting for him and they will be able to increase the welding speed to four cylinders per day.”

  “Since we can only bring up six corridor cylinders every three days, once they have caught up connecting the half dozen cylinders already up here, Pete will then be in charge of setting up the insides of the larger accommodation cylinders for habitation,” added Ryan.

  “In the next week great and exciting things are going to happen up here,” smiled Suzi.

  “That is why I’m here,” Ryan smiled back.

  The next few days would see plant life being transferred into the first cube of America One. Cube Two would be fully operational for plant transfer forty-eight hours later. It took time to allow the compressed air to be pumped into the enclosed and sealed cubes from aluminum air tanks, fourteen of them for each cube. Each aluminum air tank weighed nothing in space, but held 250 pounds of fresh Nevada air per square inch. It has taken several flights to get fourteen of these air tanks, packed inside the cylinders and to begin filling the first cube.