the Carolinas. The spectacular night show also gave the terrorist element on the beach their cue to act. With no radio communication from the Mechanic directing them, the four-man team stood among the reeds at the edge of Cocoa Beach and turned on the seeker heads in the advanced stingers that had been chosen specially for this operation. The five-pound warhead was propelled by a two-stage experimental system designed by Raytheon for a low-cost strike against an orbiting vehicle. The weight was a total of twenty pounds over the standard Stinger system. The warhead would reach the target at twice the speed of sound once the IR detector locked on to the exhaust plume of both the Atlas second stage and Atlantis.
The first team, consisting of two men and their launchers, brought their targeting systems up. The IR lock-on had no trouble detecting the large gas plume of the second stage of the Atlas V, which carried the crew capsule and the Altair lander. The two men never hesitated as they pulled the trigger on the two weapons. A burst of air sent both missiles out of the tubes; after traveling twenty feet the solid propellant boosters fired and the missiles soared skyward. The heat of the launch and brightness of the flash caught everyone’s attention along the beach. Before they could react, the second two-man team launched their own missiles, targeted on Atlantis. At the same moment, a bright flare filled the sky as the solid rocket boosters separated from the mainframe of the shuttle. The men immediately dropped their launchers and turned to make their way off the beach to try to blend in with the stunned onlookers who had witnessed the launching of the four missiles. As some watched the streaking missiles climb toward the heavens, others had turned their attention to the men who were even now making their way into the crowd.
Hugh Evans watched as the first two missiles climbed toward their target, the second stage of Atlas. The three blips on the radar screen were merging at an incredible rate. The U.S. Air Force had put a plan in place in the hectic hours after the Discovery and Endeavour disasters and now that plan was starting to take shape. Four venerable F-15 Eagles had been flying high-air cover for the double launch. Two were delegated to Atlas, two to Atlantis. As Evans stood and watched, he looked over at CAPCOM and shook his head, indicating that he didn’t want Atlantis to know they were being hunted by two supersonic murderers. What was the sense in telling them? he thought. There would be nothing they could do about it.
On the high-altitude camera system deployed at the Cape, they saw the momentary bright flash as the Stinger warheads separated from their first stages. Evans knew they were up against superior technology when he saw the second-stage boosters ignite. He lowered his vision and saw the Eagles as they streaked upward at an intercept angle-he saw that the old fighters were climbing almost straight up into the air.
“Go, go, go!” he said loudly, as the rest of the telemetry technicians watched, most in silent prayer as the four missiles rose to assault their targets.
The four F-15Cs climbed at Mach 2.2, far behind Atlas and Atlantis . The custom-designed planes had been flown down from their training station in North Carolina and were fitted with a large load of compressed oxygen for their specially tailored mission. There had been four of these aircraft on standby in California. As they climbed to sixty thousand feet, the air became so thin the fighters were in danger of flaming out. Any man in aerospace knew that if the fighters didn’t launch their weapons soon, it would be too late.
The four Eagles were equipped with the AIM-120 advanced medium-range, air-to-air missile, better known in naval and Air Force circles as the AMRAAM. The AIM 120-Dm, a solid propellant weapon, is twelve feet long and carries a fragmentation high-explosive warhead. However, the attribute that made it appropriate for this mission was the fact that it didn’t need air to breathe. Also, its speed had been clocked at four times the speed of sound. Its seeker head was what is known in the military as a genius weapon. It didn’t need the launching aircraft to send the instructions for it to seek out its target. It thought on its own.
As the world watched, the F-15s started to slow as they reached their maximum altitude. Then an amazing thing happened. The four external air-delivery systems attached to the inside of the wings started pumping life- giving air into the General Electric engines on the four fighters. The air expanded and gave the Eagles much needed thrust at high altitude where there was no oxygen. The two lead elements locked their AMRAAMs on to the two streaking Stingers as they neared the ten-mile mark. The two fighters launched simultaneously. Four AMRAAMs were targeted on the two smaller missiles.
An amazing thing happened as the Raytheon AMRAAMs locked on to their sister missiles. Their computer brains knew immediately that they could not hit the targets directly. So they calculated time and distance in a microsecond and then streaked above the faster-moving Stingers. They climbed to a mile above them and three miles behind the high-flying Atlas, simultaneously detonating above the Stingers. Shrapnel from the two AMRAAMs peppered the warheads, sending small pieces of metal in all directions. They struck the warheads, igniting one and severely damaging the other as it fought through the cloud of debris to be incinerated by the rocket engines of the Atlas second stage.
The same attack pattern had been chosen by the computers on the second set of AMRAAMs, but this time only one of the expensive missiles detonated above the Stingers. The second traveled on to meet its target-the space shuttle Atlantis.
Hugh Evans thought quickly. The scenario had run a thousand times in his mind and had been discussed with the engineers and flight planners. It had been mapped out with the shuttle commander. The plan was crazy and could end up costing the lives of all twelve astronauts anyway, but he knew now they had no choice as the second Stinger was nearing the streaking Atlantis.
“Now!” Evans shouted.
“ Atlantis, Houston, execute early handoff, now!” CAPCOM said as calmly as he could.
“Houston, Atlantis, executing early handoff.”
As the long-range cameras gave the ground station a grainy view of events, the explosive bolts holding the giant external tank in place on the belly of Atlantis detonated. This happened a full two minutes before it was supposed to; Evans knew they had no choice. They were now deploying the largest and most explosive defensive warhead in history.
The fuel tank broke away and fell right into the path of the Stinger as it was nearing the end of its range. The warhead struck the fiberglass container and detonated. The tank exploded and, as it did, the expanding gases struck Atlantis, increasing its speed by over five hundred miles an hour. This pushed the heavy shuttle well beyond its designated flight path, its nose coming dangerously close to flipping, which would have torn the eggshell-like airframe to pieces. The shuttle pilot took a chance and fired the OHM’s maneuvering jets on the lowest point on the nose. At first Atlantis didn’t respond, and then it started to right itself as the explosion of the external fuel tank lessened. Soon Atlantis was back on course. It would soon be discovered, however, that the shuttle had suffered three holes that punctured the thin outer skin of the engine mounts and continued through the cargo bay, with one piece of the shrapnel actually shearing away the strap on Ryan’s safety harness.
Hugh Evans didn’t celebrate because the emergency maneuver had left the shuttle dangerously low. There were also holes punched in the orbiter and three crewmen who were about to burn up if he didn’t get those cargo bay doors open to the cold of space. He shook his head and looked over at communications. He nodded as everyone in the room took a deep breath before they started calling out their telemetry statuses.
“Inform Atlantis they are a go for low orbit insertion, and tell them to get those three crewmen the hell out of that cargo hold before they burn up.”
“ Atlantis, you are a go for low orbit insertion, and Flight recommends you start your cargo door cycle early to relieve your three crewmen. Get them out of there, over.”
“Houston, we are way ahead of you. We can report that the three crewmen are all fine-a little shaken-but in good shape, over.”
Hugh Evans reached out and picked up the phone. “Put me through please.” He waited until his call was complete. Then he closed his eyes and relaxed for the first time in a month. He opened his eyes as his people
