Jack Enright consulted CRT Number Four, the green television screen mounted on the aft crew station. The CRT graphically displayed the track of the doors as they opened and locked into place outside.
“Doors stopped, Will.”
“Endeavor, Endeavor,” the pilot’s headphones crackled. “Configure AOS via Dakar at 01 Hours 54 Minutes. Be with you about 5 minutes. Backroom wants to know the bay-door status.”
In the late afternoon twilight, Endeavor crossed the bleached terrain of the Western Sahara on the west corner of North Africa between Morocco’s arid Atlas Mountains to Shuttle’s north and Mauritania far to the south. The West African tracking station at Dakar, Senegal, does not have telemetry-receiving facilities but only crackling, UHF radio capabilities. The voice of Mission Control from Houston arrived in a wave of static.
“With you, Houston. Jack has the doors open and locked. No problems on cycling the doors. We have a small amount of debris in the bay; nothin’ serious. Give us a minute to get the radiators outside, please.”
“Copy, Endeavor. We’ll listen while you work.”
“Thanks, Flight… Ready on the radiators, Jack?”
Enright steadied his floating body at the side console across the cabin diagonal from the command pilot’s back.
“At Panel Aft-13A2, Skipper: Radiator deploy System Alpha to deploy and System Bravo to deploy… Lights on, talk-back open.”
Outside in the open bay, two flat rectangular radiator panels swung outward over each side of the bay. Two radiator panels on the forward half of each open door rose over the bay sill and moved slowly toward the open doors.
In the eternal silence of space high above West Africa, the radiator panels moved out and downward toward the door. Each of the four radiators is 126 inches wide and 320 inches long and moved outward by six motors.
“And all stop… Latch control to latch on System A and System B… Okay, Skipper, we have four radiators deployed and latched open.” Enright tapped the 32 black keys of the computer keyboard just below the side console’s television. To his coded inquiry, the CRT displayed the pictorial display of each of the four radiators. “And each radiator is latched 35 point 5 degrees above the bay doors. You can crank ’em up, Will.”
“You got that, Dakar?”
“Every word, Will. Lose you in two minutes. Let’s get the ATCS on-line before you go over the edge if we can.”
“Okay, Flight. Powering up the Active Thermal Control System.”
The Aircraft Commander strapped into the left front seat reached over his helmeted head to touch the rows of round, black circuit breakers on the ceiling of the forward flightdeck.
“Main DC bus A, Overhead Panel-14, freon radiator controllers One and Two, breakers closed. Overhead Panel-15, radiator controllers One and Two, Main bus B, closed and closed.” The command pilot turned to the panel bristling with 134 circuit breakers behind his left shoulder.
“And, Panel Left-4, bus AC-1: Breakers freon Loop One, pump A, closed, closed and closed; freon Loop Two, pump B, all three breakers closed. Bus AC-2: Loop One, pump B, three breakers closed. And, AC-3: freon Loop Two, pump A, closed, closed and closed. freon signal conditioners AC-2 closed and AC-3 closed. Radiator controllers IB and 2B, bus AC-1, both closed. On bus AC-2, rad controller 1A, closed. And bus AC-3, rad controller 2A closed… Okay, Flight, moving to Panel Left-3.” The pilot studied the panel for the Atmosphere Revitalization System on the cabin wall at his left elbow. “freon pumps set to pump A, Loops One and Two; radiator controllers, Loops One and Two, set auto; outlet temperature to normal. And, bypass valves, Loops One and Two, set auto… And we’re lookin’ at four good radiators. Loop One outlet temp is 34 degrees Fahrenheit and Loop Two at 36 degrees.”
Outside, freon refrigerant carried Endeavor’s body heat from the cabin and equipment water circulation lines to the freon lines, where the refrigerant flowed through the radiators latched to the open bay doors. There, the freon bled the heat into space. The heat from freon coolant Loop One is carried to the two radiators on the portside bay door behind the command pilot. Loop Two flows into the twin radiators on the starboard side behind the copilot’s empty seat.
“Good news, Endeavor. You’re going over the edge here. Expect to contact Indian Ocean Ship in fourteen minutes. Next sunset in three minutes…”
The ground’s voice broke up into static as the silent Soyuz, the slowly rolling LACE, and the upside-down Endeavor, crossed the Prime Meridian of Greenwich for Shuttle’s second time at MET 01 Hours and 59 Minutes aloft. No ground station would be within earshot of Shuttle until the ship reached the Indian Ocean in a quarter of an hour.
“Only three minutes of daylight left, Jack. Let’s set up our attitude-hold while we can still see the target.”
“Want me to do it, Will?” Enright radioed from the rear station. Shuttle can be flown from either the forward seat or from the center of the rear crew station.
“I might as well fly her… Important to keep busy at my age.” The seated, tall flier smiled.
“Glad I didn’t say that,” Enright chuckled over the intercom.
“Okay,” the AC said to himself. “We’ll ask Mother to hold us with the payload bay facing the target. Mode select on the autopilot in LVLH with reference X-POP and minus Y.”
Working the eighteen pushbuttons on the digital autopilot control panel by his right thigh and the black keys of his computer keyboard, the AC ordered the computers to yaw the ship sideways until Endeavor rode with her body perpendicular to their orbital path with the open bay facing LACE. In the Local Vertical-Local Horizontal reference matrix, Mother chose the best combination of Shuttle’s 19 Z-axis, RCS thrusters which control the ship’s roll and pitch rotation, to crank Endeavor over on her side until the open bay faced LACE. When Mother stopped the ship’s slow twist, Shuttle floated on her side with the open bay door behind the command pilot pointing toward dusky Africa. The open door behind Enright’s empty right seat pointed skyward. Over Africa, the ship’s nose faced north as Endeavor coasted lying on her left side.
“Maneuver complete, Jack, with one minute of daylight to spare. I can see the target out the top of my center window. You got her back there?”
Enright floated 5 feet behind his empty seat. He raised his helmeted face to the starboard, overhead window. The large portal faced west along their track already flown. The white sun hung just above the western horizon with excruciating brightness.
“Nothin’ but sun out here, Skipper. I’ll have her after sunset in twilight.”
Crossing the border between Nigeria and Niger, just north of Kano, Nigeria, 2 hours and 2 minutes aloft, Shuttle flew into twilight as the sun fell rapidly toward the western horizon. At Endeavor’s speed of 300 miles per minute, the sun set quickly with its explosion of bright colors all along the hazy blue band of the Earth’s film of air.
“Got her now,” Enright called as the sun slipped below the planet’s far corner. The final moments of twilight bathed the black, shining sides of LACE in orange flame. And then it was night. Only the steady white glow of the running lights on Soyuz could be seen on LACE’s far side.
Suddenly and silently, a pair of piercing arc lights illuminated on Soyuz in the darkness absolute. The two white beacons fell brightly upon LACE now clearly visible. Without air to scatter the light, no beam corridors reached between Soyuz and the fully illuminated, gently rolling LACE.
“A little help from Brother Ivan, Skipper.”
“Seems so, Jack.”
As Endeavor on her side sped into the shadow of her second African night, the rear crew station was bright with its interior lights and with the six floodlights in the payload bay filling the two large windows at eye level on the rear bulkhead wall.