"If he does get away with the 'privilege' claim, which I doubt, the lawyers will still be watching every move. When the first 'suspected terrorist' label appears, the reporter, the publisher and even the owner of the paper will find themselves sued for defamation, and the whole circus starts again.
"Meanwhile, newspapers, and magazines friendly to me will be publishing puff pieces about my humble beginnings, my military service in Iraq, and how I'm kind to little old ladies. Those are the newspapers and magazines that will be getting genuine news releases from me, pictures of the Buran, coupled with pictures of a missile, stories making fun of the hysterical ones, even tours of Alcântara, and stories about how the upcoming mission will star a famous astronaut, and will feature a VISIT TO A COMET. Nice headline, eh?
He smiled. "No, gentlemen, I think they will find their usual defamation plan won't work. But that doesn't mean they'll stop. The reason I came here today is to make sure that your government is watchful for dirty tricks. Oh, not just the usual diplomatic protests and pressure, but perhaps protest marches demanding that the 'terrorist' be thrown out; and senators calling for investigations of my activities. Covert CIA missions to defame me, and maybe even you gentlemen. Pressure will arise to throw me out, arrest me, or turn me over to the Americans. I'm prepared to resist the U.S. government," he continued, "but it is your country, and I am only a visitor. I cannot resist Brazil."
"Brazil is strong and independent," said General Genesa. "We will not let a lot of yanqui newspapers dictate our actions," he glanced at Frank, "or destroy our friends. We will be on guard, Senhor Weatherly. You were honest with us, and warned us at our first meeting that not all would go smoothly. But Brasileiros are strong people. Do not fear for your safety here."
Almendes rose, and nodded. "I agree, Senhor Weatherly. The General will watch your back, and I will watch the backs of our government. But I would suggest you do anything possible to speed up your project."
Frank nodded. "I plan to, sir. But men's lives are at stake. I must make haste slowly."
Chapter 6
By the four-month mark, the three Burans were safely ensconced in their new hangar in Brazil, along with all the tools, parts, and machinery. Since the orbiters could no longer be identified as "Energia Buran," or "Ramenskoye Buran," or "Baikonur Buran," they had begun referring to them by abbreviating their registration numbers. Frank had decided to start with the so-called 'Baikonur Buran', registration number OK-1K2, since it was in the best condition, and was a 'flight' Buran. Technicians swarmed over the ship they were calling "K2." Blueprints allowed the electronics techs to identify circuits, and every centimeter of wiring was removed and carefully inspected before being replaced with new wire.
In a "clean room" in one of the ferrocement buildings, suited computer experts converted designs by other experts into modern computer systems. Frank was told that the four computers aboard 2K totaled less than a megabyte of memory, and program storage was less than 10 megabytes. The new computers were designed to have more than a million times the memory and storage of the old systems. In addition, the storage would be on super-fast solid-state drives, with no moving parts to fail. The Buran was moving into the twenty-first century.
The Burans had been equipped with ejection seats, for possible low-altitude use in case of an emergency on landing. David pronounced himself willing to do away with them, and the rest of the crew agreed. "We could save about twenty kilos each, and there are eight of them," he said, "and if I don't get killed riding a comet or an asteroid, I'm damned if I'm gonna need an ejection seat to get home!"
Frank was doubtful, but finally agreed when Ternayev told him that the seats had been a political decision; if something catastrophic happened to the spacecraft on re-entry, the seats were unlikely to be of any real value. David and his hull crew were scrutinizing every inch of the airframe, inside and out. Space is the ultimate hazardous environment, and his own precious skin would be riding on this twenty-five-year-old spacecraft. Frank was confident that David would miss nothing.
Burans had been equipped with orbital maneuvering rockets at their rear. Unlike the U.S. Shuttles, though, these were not their main engines. The main engines were located on the huge main fuel tank, the "core stage" to which the Buran would be clamped. After a number of discussions, including one by phone with Dr. Ternayev at RKK Energia, it was decided to replace the onboard rockets with the latest ion engines they could buy, a design called "LiLFA", which used solid lithium as a propellant, once again resulting in significant weight savings.
In a very pleasant surprise, Frank learned that Dr. Ternayev had arranged to get himself appointed the liaison engineer for RKK Energia that was required by the contract. He was delighted. He and Ternayev were kindred spirits, true believers in space flight.
Ternayev's first order of business once he arrived in Brazil was to evaluate the huge Energia core stage, the combination fuel tank and main engine that would take the Buran to space. A true professional, Ternayev was conversant with every rocket motor being produced by every nation in the world.
"For the main engine," he decreed, "There is nothing better than the original RD-0120 engine. It is the most powerful rocket engine ever produced. The Atlas V uses a half-scale version of it, and the Energia booster uses four of them."
"Looking at the statistical comparison, I think I agree," Frank replied. "Of course, the Soviets were not noted for conservatism in their claims. But will the engines be usable after all these years?"
Ternayev laughed. "Rocket engine is not like auto engine," he said. "They are very simple in design. I will examine the engines on the booster tank. If any parts are damaged or corroded, we will simply have them machined. You wisely insisted on receiving all the technical drawings. Theoretically, any good machine ship could build us a new booster engine. Energia, or those damned Ukrainians, could sell us new ones."
Frank frowned. "Should we do that? Would it make the ship safer, or more fuel efficient?"
Ternayev frowned. "Perhaps. And there are design modifications that would improve it. But, no. It would take too long. You do not have two years to develop modifications, install, and test on old core stage."
Frank shook his head. "I certainly don't! We have six months to launch if we're going to intercept Carter IV. Okay," he continued, "What about the strap-ons?"
"Ah! The strap-ons. They are, of course, your first stage. The core stage was designed for strap-ons using the RD-170 rocket engine. Latest version RD-171 is produced in Ukraine, for the Zenit 3 booster.
"So, this strap on is still produced." Frank said slowly. "Anton, I've been thinking. I did some research on the Internet, and found a comparison of various launch vehicles. Are the strap-ons changeable? I mean, what if instead of using four Zenit strap ons, we used four Proton M's? If we could do that, we could lift a lot more payload. It looks like they have about a third more payload than the Zenit."
The smaller man grinned. "Ha! Is true. The Proton M is much larger rocket than Zenit. But I do not think it can be used as a strap-on; it uses strap-ons of its own."
"Well," Frank said doubtfully, "It's probably crazy, anyway, but my actual idea was to get both the Buran and the core stage into space. The tank would be about empty at that time anyway, so its mass should be reduced a lot. But all we're going to have at that comet is what we take there. We're planning to break the water ice down into oxy and hydrogen. It would really be neat to have that big-ass tank to put the oxygen and hydrogen in, and that big-ass booster for zooming around!"