Zero Phase by Brennan Gerald

Author:Brennan, Gerald [Brennan, Gerald]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Tortoise Books
Published: 2013-12-30T23:00:00+00:00

During the first hour after orbital insertion, we are flying through the moon’s shadow. Launched into lunar night. A bisected universe. Everything above: innumerable stars and galaxies. And nothing below but cold dark blankness. I saw it on Apollo 8 and it still gives me chills.

In this phase, we can’t see Odyssey. We have to track him with the rendezvous radar. Making sure everyone’s where they’re supposed to be. Trusting in the unseen.

Terminal Phase Insertion takes place after crossing the lunar terminator. Another crucial burn. Talking to Ken on the VHF but still out of contact with Houston. Now that we are out of the moon’s shadow and aligned properly I can see the cloud of oxygen around the CSM. It’s flecked with pieces of debris that hang suspended and glint as they catch the sun.

“Oh, Lord, that’s quite a cloud,” I say.

A crackling transmission. “…quarius, Odyssey, say again, over.”

“That’s quite a cloud you’ve got around you, Ken. But I will say, it’s easy to get a visual on you when you’re surrounded by debris.”

“Always look on the bright side, huh?” Ken says.

I steal a glimpse at this bright slice of the far side. A much different view of the moon than most humans see. None of the dark lowlands. I will only see it twice more, and never after today. We are closing the gap.

“Aquarius, Houston, how do you read, over?” Houston calls us up after AOS.

“We’re here, Houston. TPI was nominal and everybody’s where they’re supposed to be.”

A crackle. “…you have the numbers, Aquarius?”

Freddo reads them off: “Noun 81, plus 62.1, plus 0.1, plus 63.1. The burn went on time. We nulled PGNS to 00 plus 0.1.”

“We have sight of Odyssey and it is a fair-sized cloud orbiting with them,” I add.

“Roger, Aquarius. Odyssey, how’s it working from your end?”

“Well, the sextant was pretty much useless. But I was able to pick up a VHF range after TPI, and I saw their strobe once we were in range for that.”

Ken wasn’t able to get a visual on us with the optics. No surprises there. But he could determine our range based on the VHF signals, and then he saw our strobe, so we’re still OK.

“Roger, Odyssey,” Houston calls. Then: “Aquarius, take your time on the way in. We’d like to have Fred get some pictures of the CSM.”

“We’ll see what we can do, Houston.”

“And Odyssey, you were able to get the LM weight of 5600 pounds loaded into the DAP?”

“Roger, Houston,” Ken answers. He had to get our weight entered into his computer so the autopilot functions properly once we’re docked. Despite the crisis, we still have to check all the boxes.

The CSM is obviously in bad shape. We ease our way in close. Then Ken does a quick RCS rotation to put the damaged side of the spacecraft in front of us.

Freddo and I both gasp.

“Houston, Aquarius, there’s a side of the spacecraft missing. The entire panel appears to have been blown off. We can see in along that shelf, and Tank 2 is completely gone.

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