by Neil Clarke
“I guess.”
“You guess? You think it’s possible something like this came in and nobody picked up on it?”
“No, I’m not suggesting that at all, Jerry. I just—I don’t know what I’m suggesting. I’ll get back to you when I have something more. “
Minutes later, Jeanie called: “It’s the east wall of the Cassegrain Crater. “ “And—?”
“I’ve forwarded NASA imagery of the same area. “
I switched on the monitor and ran the images. There was the same crater wall, the same pock-marked moonscape. But no dome. Nothing at all unusual.
Dated July, 1968. More than a year after the Soviet imagery.
I called Mary and told her: The Russians just screwed up.
“The President can’t say that. “
“All he has to say is that NASA has no evidence of any dome or anything else on the far side of the Moon. Probably he should just turn it into a joke. Make some remark about setting up a Martian liaison unit.”
She didn’t think it was funny.
When the subject came up at the presidential press conference, Gorman and Alexandrov both simply had a good laugh. Alexandrov blamed it on Khrushchev, and the laughter got louder. Then they moved on to how the Minerva mission—the long-awaited Return to the Moon—marked the beginning of a new era for the world.
The story kicked around in the tabloids for two or three more days. The Washington Post ran an op-ed using the dome to demonstrate how gullible we all are when the media says anything. Then Cory Abbott, who’d just won a Golden Globe for his portrayal of Einstein in Albert and Me, crashed his car into a street light and blacked out the entire town of Dekker, California. And just like that the dome story was gone.
On the morning of the launch, Roscosmos, the Russian space agency, issued a statement that the image was a result of defective technology. The Minerva lifted off on schedule and, while the world watched, it crossed to the Moon and completed a few orbits. Its lander touched down gently on the Mare Maskelyne. Marcia Beckett surprised everyone when she demurred leading the way out through the airlock, sending instead Cosmonaut Yuri Petrov, who descended and then signaled his crewmates to join him.
When all were assembled on the regolith, Petrov made the statement that, in the light of later events, has become immortal: “We are here on the Moon because, during the last century, we avoided the war that would have destroyed us all. And we have come together. Now we stand as never before, united for all mankind. “
I wasn’t especially impressed at the time. It sounded like the usual generalized nonsense. Which shows you what my judgment is worth.
I watched on my office monitor. And as the ceremony proceeded, I looked past the space travelers, across the barren wasteland of the Mare Maskelyne, wondering which was the shortest path to the Cassegrain crater.
I knew I should have just let it go, but I couldn’t. I could imagine no explanation for the Russians doctoring their satellite imagery. Vasili told me that everyone with whom he’d spoken was shocked. That the images had been dug out of the archives and distributed without inspection. And, as far as could be determined, without anyone distorting them. “I just don’t understand it, Jerry,”he said.
Mary told me not to worry about it. “We have more important things to do,” she said.
There was no one left at NASA from the 1960s. In fact, I knew of only one person living at Cape Kennedy who had been part of the Agency when Apollo 11 went to the Moon: Amos Kelly, who’d been one of my grandfather’s buddies. He was still in the area, where he served with the Friends of NASA, a group of volunteers who lent occasional support but mostly threw parties. I looked him up. He’d come to the Agency in 1965 as a technician. Eventually, he’d become one of the operational managers.
He was in his mid-eighties, but he sounded good. “Sure, Jerry, I remember you. It’s been a long time,” he said, when I got him on the phone. I’d been a little kid when he used to stop by to pick up my grandfather for an evening of poker. “ What can I do for you?”
“This is going to sound silly, Amos.”
“Nothing sounds silly to me. I used to work for the government. “
“Did you see the story in the tabloids about the dome?”
“How could I miss it?”
“You ever hear anything like that before?”
“You mean did we think there were Martians on the Moon?” He laughed, turned away to tell someone that the call was for him, and then laughed again. “Is that a serious question, Jerry?”
“I guess not.”
“Good. By the way, you’ve done pretty well for yourself at the Agency. Your granddad would have been proud. “
“Thanks.”
He told me how much he missed the old days, missed my grandfather, how they’d had a good crew. “Best years ofmy life. I could never believe they’d just scuttle the program the way they did’’
Finally he asked what the Russians had said about the images. I told him what Vasili told me. “Well’’ he said, “maybe they haven’t changed that much after all’’
Twenty minutes later he called back. “I was reading the story in the Bedrock. It says that the object was in the Cassegrain Crater. “
“Yes. That’s correct.”
“There was talk of a Cassegrain Project at one time. Back in the sixties. I don’t know what it was supposed to be. Whether it was anything more than a rumor. Nobody seemed to know anything definitive about it. I recall at the time thinking it was one of those things so highly classified that even its existence was off the table. “ “The Cassegrain Project.”
“Yes.”
“But you have no idea what it was about?”
“None. I’m sorry. Wish I could help. “
“Would you tell me if you knew?”
“It’s a long time ago, Jerry. I can’t believe security would still be an issue. “ “Amos, you were pretty high in the Agency—”
“Not that high. “
“Do you remember anything else?”
“Nothing. Nada. As far as I know, nothing ever came of any of it, so the whole thing eventually went away. “
Searching NASA’s archives on “Cassegrain” yielded only data about the crater. So I took to wandering around the facility, talking offhandedly with senior employees. It must feel good to see us back on the Moon, huh, Ralph? Makes all thefrustration worthwhile. By the way, did you ever hear of a Cassegrain Project?
They all laughed. Crazy Russians.
On the day the Minerva slipped out of lunar orbit and started home, Mary called me into her office. “We’ll want to get the crew onstage for the press when they get back, Jerry. You might give the staging some thought.”
“Okay. Will it be at Edwards?”
“Negative. We’re going to do it here at the Cape.” We talked over some of the details, the scheduling, guest speakers, points we’d want to make with the media. Then as I was getting ready to leave, she stopped me. “One more thing. The Cassegrain business—” I straightened and came to attention. Mary Gridley was a no-nonsense hard-charger. She was in her fifties, and years of dealing with bureaucratic nonsense had left her with little patience. She was physically diminutive, but she could probably have intimidated the Pope. “—I want you to leave it alone.”
She picked up a pen, put it back down, and stared at me. “Jerry, I know you’ve been asking around about that idiot dome. Listen, you’re good at what you do. You’ll probably enjoy a long, happy career with us. But that won’t happen if people stop taking you seriously. You understand what I mean?”
After the shuttle landing and subsequent celebration, I went on the road. “We need to take advantage of the moment,” Mary said. “There’ll never be a better time to get some good press.”
So I did a PR tour, giving interviews, addressing prayer breakfasts and Rotary meetings, doing what I could to raise the consciousness of the public. NASA wanted Moonbase. It was the next logical step. Should have had it decades ag
o and would have if the politicians hadn’t squandered the nation’s resources on pointless wars and interventions. But it would be expensive, and we hadn’t succeeded yet in getting the voters on board. That somehow had become my responsibility.
In Seattle, I appeared at a Chamber of Commerce dinner with Arnold Banner, an astronaut who’d never gotten higher than the space station. But nevertheless he was an astronaut, and he hailed from the Apollo era. During the course of the meal I asked whether he’d ever heard of a Cassegrain Project. He said something about tabloids and gave me a disapproving look.
We brought in astronauts wherever we could. In Los Angeles, at a Marine charities fUndraiser, we had both Marcia Beckett and Yuri Petrov, which would have been the highlight of the tour, except for Frank Allen.
Frank was in his nineties. He looked exhausted. His veins bulged and I wasn’t sure he didn’t need oxygen.
He was the fourth of the Apollo-era astronauts I talked with during those two weeks. And when I asked about the Cassegrain Project, his eyes went wide and his mouth tightened. Then he regained control. “Cassandra,” he said, looking past me into a distant place. “It’s classified.”
“Not Cassandra, Frank. Cassegrain.”
“Oh. Yeah. Of course.”
“I have a clearance.”
“How high?”
“Secret.”
“Not enough.”
“Just give me a hint. What do you know?”
“Jerry, I’ve already said too much. Even its existence is classified.”
Cassandra.
When I got back to the Cape I did a search on Cassandra and found that a lot of people with that name had worked for the Agency over the years. Other Cassandras had made contributions in various ways, leading programs to get kids interested in space science, collaborating with NASA physicists in analyzing the data collected by space-born telescopes, editing publications to make NASA more accessible to the lay public. They’d been everywhere. You couldn’t bring in a NASA guest speaker without discovering a Cassandra somewhere among the people who’d made the request. Buried among the names so deeply that I almost missed it was a single entry: The Cassandra Project, storage 27176B Redstone.
So secret its existence was classified?
The reference was to the Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama where NASA stores rocket engines, partially-completed satellites, control panels from test stands, and a multitude of other artifacts dating back to Apollo. I called them.
A baritone voice informed me I had reached the NASA Storage Facility. “Sgt. Saber speaking.”
I couldn’t resist smiling at the name, but I knew he’d heard all the jokes. I identified myself. Then: “Sergeant, you have a listing for the Cassandra Project.” I gave him the number. “Can I get access to the contents?”
“One minute,please, Mr. Carter.”
While I waited, I glanced around the office at the photos of Neil Armstrong and Lawrence Bergman and Marcia Beckett. In one, I was standing beside Bergmann, who’d been the guy who’d sold the President on returning to the Moon. In another, I was standing by while Marcia spoke with some Alabama school kids during a tour of the Marshall Space Flight Center. Marcia was a charmer of the first order. I’ve always suspected she got the Minerva assignment partially because they knew the public would love her.
“When were you planning to come, Mr. Carter?”
“I’m not sure yet. Within the next week or so.”
“Let us know in advance and there’ll be no problem. “
“It’s not classified, then?”
“No, sir. I’m looking at its history now. It was originally classified, but that was removed by the Restricted Access Depository Act more than twenty years ago. “
I had to get through another round of ceremonies and press conferences before I could get away. Finally, things quieted down. The astronauts went back to their routines, the VIPs went back to whatever it was they normally do, and life on the Cape returned to normal. I put in for leave.
“You deserve it,” Mary said.
Next day, armed with a copy of the Restricted Access Depository Act, I was on my way to Los Angeles to pay another visit to a certain elderly retired astronaut.
“I can’t believe it,” Frank Allen said.
He lived with his granddaughter and her family of about eight, in Pasadena. She shepherded us into her office—she was a tax expert of some sort— brought some lemonade, and left us alone.
“What can’t you believe? That they declassified it?”
“That the story never got out in the first place.” Frank was back at the desk. I’d sunk into a leather settee.
“What’s the story, Frank? Was the dome really there?”
“Yes.”
“NASA doctored its own Cassegrain imagery? To eliminate all traces?”
“I don’t know anything about that.”
“So what do you know?”
“They sent us up to take a look. In late 1968.” He paused. “We landed almost on top of the damned thing.”
“Before Apollo 11.”
“Yes.”
I sat there in shock. And I’ve been around a while, so I don’t shock easily. “They advertised the flight as a test run, Jerry. It was supposed to be purely an orbital mission. Everything else, the dome, the descent, everything was top secret. Didn’t happen.”
“You actually got to the dome?”
He hesitated. A lifetime of keeping his mouth shut was getting in the way. “Yes,” he said. “We came down about a half mile away. Max was brilliant.” Max Donnelly. The lunar module pilot. “What happened?”
“I remember thinking the Russians had beaten us. They’d gotten to the Moon and we hadn’t even known about it.
“There weren’t any antennas or anything. Just a big, silvery dome. About the size of a two-story house. No windows. No hammer and sickle markings. Nothing. Except a door.
“We had sunlight. The mission had been planned so we wouldn’t have to approach it in the dark.” He shifted his position in the chair and bit down on a grunt.
“You okay, Frank?” I asked.
“My knees. They don’t work as well as they used to.” He rubbed the right one, then rearranged himself—gently this time. “We didn’t know what to expect. Max said he thought the thing was pretty old because there were no tracks in the ground. We walked up to the front door. It had a knob. I thought the place would be locked, but I tried it and the thing didn’t move at first but then something gave way and I was able to pull the door open.”
“What was inside?”
“A table. There was a cloth on the table. And something flat under the cloth. And that’s all there was.”
“Nothing else?”
“Not a thing.” He shook his head. “Max lifted the cloth. Under it was a rectangular plate. Made from some kind of metal.” He stopped and stared at me. “There was writing on it.”
“Writing? What did it say?”
“I don’t know. Never found out. It looked like Greek. We brought the plate back home with us and turned it over to the bosses. Next thing they called us in and debriefed us. Reminded us it was all top secret. Whatever the thing said, it must have scared the bejesus out of Nixon and his people. Because they never said anything, and I guess the Russians didn’t either.”
“You never heard anything more at all?”
“Well, other than the next Apollo mission, which went back and destroyed the dome. Leveled it.”
“How do you know?”
“I knew the crew. We talked to each other, right? They wouldn’t say it directly. Just shook their heads: Nothing to worry about anymore.”
Outside, kids were shouting, tossing a football around. “Greek?”
“That’s what it looked like.”
“A message from Plato.”
He just shook his head as if to say: Who knew?
“Well, Frank, I guess that explains why they called it the Cassandra Project.”
“Sh
e wasn’t a Greek, was she?”
“You have another theory?”
“Maybe Cassegrain was too hard for the people in the Oval Office to pronounce.”
I told Mary what I knew. She wasn’t happy. “I really wish you’d left it alone, J erry.”
“There’s no way I could have done that.”
“Not now, anyhow.” She let me see her frustration. “You know what it’ll mean for the Agency, right? If NASA lied about something like this, and it becomes public knowledge, nobody will ever trust us again.”
“It was a long time ago, Mary. Anyhow, the Agency wasn’t lying. It was the Administration.”
“Yeah,” she said. “Good luck selling that one to the public.”
The NASA storage complex at the Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville is home to rockets, a lunar landing vehicle, automated telescopes, satellites, a space station, and a multitude of other devices that had kept the American space program alive, if not particularly robust, over almost seventy years. Some were housed inside sprawling warehouses; others occupied outdoor exhibition sites.
I parked in the shadow of a Saturn V, the rocket that had carried the Apollo missions into space. I’ve always been impressed with the sheer audacity of anybody who’d be willing to sit on top of one of those things while someone lit the fuse. Had it been up to me, we’d probably never have lifted off at Kitty Hawk.
I went inside the Archive Office, got directions and a pass, and fifteen minutes later entered one of the warehouses. An attendant escorted me past cages and storage rooms filled with all kinds of boxes and crates. Somewhere in the center of it all, we stopped at a cubicle while the attendant compared my pass with the number on the door. The interior was visible through a wall of wire mesh. Cartons were piled up, all labeled. Several were open, with electronic equipment visible inside them.
The attendant unlocked the door and we went in. He turned on an overhead light and did a quick survey, settling on a box that was one of several on a shelf. My heart rate started to pick up while he looked at the tag. “This is it, Mr. Carter,” he said. “Cassandra.”
“Is this everything?”
