He’d returned to his quarters, thrown for a loop, wondering how he should proceed. He couldn’t simply address it with someone who, along with the president, knew that the strict policy was outrageous. Soon, he realized, he was fine with it. If problems arose, he would deal with it discreetly. Just as Dr. Sato had come to realize that her stance on policies affecting the future of humanity could potentially lead to irreconcilable differences and cause temperaments to flair if all options weren’t considered, he too could consider the importance of the appeal and need to preserve cultural antiquities. He’d been inconsiderate. He’d read about significant losses to those treasures in cultures and how deep the thread of pain could be stitched into the vast morass of loss. Humans had repeatedly experienced a hard time recovering from such a severe loss.
Late on Tuesday, on his way to review all the routine maintenance procedures and making sure that all on board were in sequence in terms of the timing of all the stages of the launch, he’d received the weather report. The Air Force Weather officials predicted only a 20% chance of good launch conditions for the following morning. He’d be better off waiting to set the T-27 hours in a day rather than for Wednesday with all the built-in holds to accommodate for the launch team to have a cushion of time for tasks and procedures that his team needed to carry out. Evening conditions would look much better and the weather squadron was expecting 80% “go” conditions during the Thursday window. Despite the fact that all close-outs had been prepared, all backup flight systems were a “go,” all platforms had been secured, and all flight system and navigational systems loaded, activated and retested, they would have to hold. He’d have to coordinate the cryogenic reactants for the fuel cell storage tanks still and make sure all the procedures were followed before T-20 hours for the sound suppression system, and still dial in all engineering briefings.
In the meantime, he wasn’t sure that piloting the shuttle had prepared him for this level of launch. He shook the fear, realizing that if he went to look at the spaceship from the outside and walked through the cave, where so many hours had been spent in preparation, he’d realize that it was all in his head. A day or two of changes, even months of delays, were all part of the real time needs they had to consider to stay real with themselves and give themselves the best chance for a successful launch. Maybe there was a Planet B, but there wasn’t an Imagine B.
He stood looking at the personnel clearing the launch pad and conducting various inspections. It had taken nearly twenty years of blood, sweat and tears to get to the final countdown. Now they were finally going to be looking for a new planet to live on. As he looked at the Imagine, he felt a lot of mixed emotions. On the one hand, he felt a great sense of pride that he and his team had designed and developed a spaceship that no one had thought was possible. This was going to be his home for possibly the next hundred years. On the other hand, he felt that there were certain things on Earth that he would truly miss. He loved going to parks with his children and seeing wondrous wildlife. He also enjoyed boating and fishing when he was younger. He brushed those thoughts aside. He would simply have to find new ways to occupy his free time. As long as he had his family with him, and he felt he could protect them, everything would be all right.
Chapter 56 – Ultimate Sacrifice
Tom Burns, The Imagine, Rocky Mountains, CO
After experiencing these delays, forty-four hours later, it was time to launch. Tom was making announcements encouraging people to get ready. Everybody had to get into their spacesuit. All suits were to be checked to make sure they were airtight. The spacesuits and the interior of Imagine had been pressurized, allowing the people on board to function normally.
At T-4 hours before the blastoff, everyone was in their assigned places. The officers went through the ship one more time to make sure everybody was strapped in correctly. Tom could see that many of the passengers were nervous, but that was to be expected.
At T-2 hours before the flight, Major Johns was running the outside control room and Dorothy was handling the engine room. Tom was in constant contact. President Stevens and Grissom along with several generals and guests were in an observatory location. Each of them understood that the launch would be postponed until further notice should any problem arise.
Sam and Jose were strapped in with Dorothy and Carson in the engine room. Everybody seemed nervous about what might happen on the launch.
As the clock reached T-60 minutes to launch, Major Johns contacted Tom.
Major Johns yelled, “Stop the countdown. We need to stop immediately. All systems are not go, and we are experiencing a major failure with the flow of the fuel. We are running out of time too fast and can’t correct in time for this launch. I’m sorry.”
Tom was seriously disappointed. As he felt all of his mixed emotions, he couldn’t contain his calm disposition any longer. He screamed, “What the hell is wrong?”
“I don’t know, yet, but the control panel indicates the flow of fuel is very uneven as it moves to the rockets and spaceship. If we blast off now, it is possible you will be upside down, on the ground or incinerated. We cannot risk it.”
“Okay. I understand. We will meet in twenty minutes in your control room. I will get the experts together, and we can figure out the solution there.”
Bereft, Tom announced that the launch had been postponed and everyone could unstrap until further notice. Just about every person on the ship let off a groan or cursed. The delay could be anywhere from five to forty-eight hours. If it was going to be longer than that, he would make a new announcement. He contacted the other three spaceships and let them know his status. They were monitoring the launch from their own ships. Tom told them to check their fuel systems to make sure the flow was even, since that seemed to be the problem on the Imagine.
In the control room, everyone stared intently at the screens as Carson and Dorothy started to push buttons to run the simulated launch. Everyone was looking at the instrument’s measures on the panels as the countdown began. They focused their attention on the flow of fuel. After running it a few times in simulations, no one had a clue about what was wrong. Everyone there was deep in thought.
Tom knew they would solve the problem. The only question would be when.
“Thank you all for coming down to look at what happened,” said Tom. “We need to figure out what went wrong and how to fix it as soon as possible. I do not want to sacrifice safety over the need to launch as soon as possible, but we cannot wait another six months or so to leave. So, let’s put our heads together and see what can be done right away. First, Major Johns, can you please explain what happened? You told me it was a problem with the fuel flowing to the rockets. Is that correct?”
The major said, “Yes, sir. We noticed on the control panels that all of the rockets were not getting fuel at the same rate. We felt if you went ahead and launched, some of the rockets would provide much stronger power during lift off and thus, turn the spaceship sideways or even upside down.”
“Thank you, Major, for explaining the situation. You did the right thing. It is obvious we could have destroyed the ship and caused a lot of injuries. Let’s study the simulations with the fuel and propulsion system a few times to see if we can pinpoint the problem. Does anyone see what needs to be fixed and estimate how long it would take? We have some great minds here. We should be able to identify this problem. Obviously, Major Johns is correct in his analysis of the flow of fuel. The other three ships are also looking at the same situation, with the possible exception of the Russians, who seem to have built a different spaceship.”