Moore chuckled.
“The mission parameters are a bit different for this one.”
MacKay nodded.
“Yeah. One more and we’re good to go, I guess.”
The shuttle pilots completed one more successful mission run with the dummy payload, and they were good to go for the mission.
It was early September when they were finally ready to go. Everything had been tested, the pilots were back in practice, everybody had signed off.
“So what should I set as the launch date?” ChaoLi asked that Thursday night.
“I think we should launch Monday,” JieMin said.
“Next week, not the week after?”
JieMin nodded.
“I don’t think there’s anything to be gained by waiting. It will take four days for the probe to be in position, and if it is successful Friday, it will really give us something to celebrate for Landing Day on Saturday.”
“That’s right. September the fifteenth is Saturday a week coming. Well, that kind of works.”
ChaoLi nodded.
“Fair enough. Next Monday.”
The next day at the Friday project status meeting, ChaoLi made the announcement.
“We will launch next Monday, September tenth, gentlemen. So let’s make it a success, and then we can all go home Friday for the long holiday weekend.”
Success!
September tenth was a beautiful day, like most days in Arcadia City. There was no morning shower today, and the hyperspace probe test team didn’t have to wait for it before they started operations.
They used a shuttleport tow tractor to pull the hyperspace probe out of the warehouse and onto the nearby shuttlepad. Technicians swarmed the device, checking everything. Then the fuel and oxygen trucks filled the tanks to one hundred percent.
The launch crew were standing by in the large space-capable cargo shuttle. They lifted off their pad and settled onto the hyperspace probe, as they had practiced with the dummy loads earlier. They latched the shuttle to the hyperspace probe and were good to go.
“Shuttle Z-1 to Arcadia Control. We are all systems Go and awaiting clearance.”
“Arcadia Control to Shuttle Z-1. Other traffic is being held. You have clearance for takeoff and bearing zero-niner to space.”
“Shuttle Z-1 to Arcadia Control. Roger clearance for takeoff and bearing zero-niner to space.”
“We ready?” Justin Moore asked his co-pilot.
“We’re good,” Gavin MacKay said.
Moore nodded to MacKay, and the co-pilot began spooling up the massive engines. When they neared their operational revolutions, Moore focused the thrust and the massive craft and its pendent payload lifted off the pad.
At thirty-five thousand feet, MacKay began feeding oxygen to the engines as well as fuel, maintaining the thrust they needed to attain the high orbit required for the mission.
“Approaching thirty thousand miles,” MacKay said.
Moore nodded.
“Roger that. Ready for maneuvering.”
“Thirty thousand miles.”
“Reduce thrust to zero,” Moore said.
MacKay cut the flow of oxygen and fuel to the engines, which continued to spin without anything to push against.
“Thrust at zero.”
“Releasing payload.”
Moore flipped the switch to disengage the shuttle’s load latches.
“Latch release confirmed,” MacKay said.
“Rotating engines.”
Moore rotated the engine nacelles so they were pointed ‘down’ from the shuttle cabin point of view.
“Engine rotation confirmed,” MacKay said.
“Bring up engines to five percent.”
MacKay started a greatly reduced oxygen and fuel flow back into the still-rotating engines. A small amount of gravity returned to the cabin as the shuttle separated vertically off the probe.
“Separation confirmed,” MacKay said.
Moore rotated the rear engine nacelles until they were pointed almost straight up, and the shuttle flipped over. As it came back around to be pointing back to Arcadia, he rotated both engines to point straight back, away from Arcadia.
“Bring engines up to full thrust,” Moore said.
MacKay increased the oxygen and fuel flow until the engines were at full thrust. The cabin gravity went to several gees of push back into the seats as the shuttle, now released of the heavy probe, accelerated much more rapidly than it had accelerated when loaded.
“Time to head for home,” MacKay said.
“Telemetry indicates the shuttle has released the probe. The pilots report successful release. They’re on the way back. We have ninety seconds remaining on the five-minute safety margin before the probe’s engines start.”
Over thirty thousand miles away, the computer’s timer ran out, and it began the rocket ignition process by starting the fuel and oxygen pumps. As before, it leaked primer fuel and oxygen out the engine nozzles, then ignited them. The rockets lit, and the computer increased fuel and oxygen flow. With that established, the computer focused the nozzles and went to maximum thrust.
“Sir, probe reports it is now at maximum thrust. All engines nominal.”
Seventy-five minutes later, with the fuel and oxygen reserves at sixty percent, the computer shut down the rocket engines. The probe continued to separate from Arcadia at its new velocity. It would take four days to coast to the test location.
“The probe reports shutdown of the engines, sir. The probe is at target velocity.”
“All right, then,” Borovsky said. “I guess that’s it for today. Standby crew is on-shift. We’ll see everybody else on Friday.”
Friday came, bright and sunny, but there were no operations out of the Arcadia City Shuttleport related to the project today. All of the action would be a million miles away.
Nevertheless, the command crew all showed up at the control center attached to the warehouse on the shuttleport grounds. Mikhail Borovsky, Karl Huenemann, Chen ChaoLi, and Chen JieMin were there as spectators.
The hyperspace probe’s flight over the last four days had coasted along at its terminal velocity. It had not hit any debris and all its systems were operating within nominal parameters.
The probe’s computer verified its distance from Arcadia by sending a message to the flight control computer in the control center. It timed the delay until acknowledgement to make sure it was as far away as specified. Then the probe’s computer ran up the power
