"Robert A. Heinlein - Destination Moon" - читать интересную книгу автора (Heinlein Robert A)

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DESTINATION MOON




Today, with space full of ships, colonies on the inner planets, and Earth’s Moon so close that
pilots on the Luna run sleep home nights, it is• hard to imagine when ‘flying to the Moon” was a
figure of speech for the impossible, when men who thought it could be done were visionaries,
crackpots.
It is hard to realize the opposition they faced, to understand why they persisted, what they
thought.
— Farquharson, History of Transportation, III: 414

I

The Mojave Desert was gray with first morning light, but at the construction site lights were
still burning in the office of the technical director. The office was quiet, save for petulant
burbling of a pot of coffee.
Three men were present—the director himself, Doc
tor Robert Corley, Lincoln-tall and lean, Rear Admiral “Red” Bowles, regular navy retired, and Jim
Barnes, head of Barnes Aircraft, Barnes Tool Works, other enterpnses.
All three needed shaves; Barnes badly needed a haircut as well. Barnes was seated at
Corley’s desk; Bowles sprawled on a couch, apparently asleep and looking like a fat, redheaded
baby; Doctor Corley paced the room, following a well worn pattern.
He stopped, and stared out the window. A thousand yards away on the floor of the desert a
great ship, pointed and sleek, thrust up into the sky, ready to punch out through Earth’s thick
atmosphere.
Wearily he turned away and picked up a letter from the desk; it read:

Reaction Associates, Inc.
Mojave, California.

Gentlemen:

Your request to test the engine of your atomic-powered rocket ship at the site of its
construction is regretfully denied.
Although it is conceded that no real danger of atomic explosion exists, a belief in such
danger does exist in the public mind. It is the policy of the Commission—Corley skipped down to
the last paragraph:—therefore, test is authorized at the Special Weapons Testing Center, South
Pacific. Arrangements may be—

He stopped and shoved the letter at Barnes. “If we’ve got to test at Eniwetok, we’ve got to find
the money to do it.”
Barnes’ voice showed exasperation. “Doc, I’ve told you the syndicate won’t put up another
dime; there is no other money to be found.”
“Confound it—we should have government money!”
Barnes grunted. “Tell that to Congress.”
Without opening his eyes Bowles commented, “The United States is going to stall around and