"Kristine Kathryn Rusch -- Recovering Apollo 8" - читать интересную книгу автора (Rusch Kristine Kathryn)

The LOS zone scared everyone. Even Richard's father, who rarely ad-mitted being
scared.
Richard's father, the high school math and science teacher, who sat down with his son
on Saturday, December 21—the day Apollo 8 lifted off—and explained, as best he could,
orbital mechanics. He showed Richard the equations, and tried to explain the risk the
astronauts were taking.

One error in the math, one slight miscalculation—even if it were acci-dental—a wobble
in the spacecraft's burn as it left Earth orbit, a miss of a few seconds—could send the
astronauts on a wider orbit around the Moon, or a wider Earth orbit. Or, God forbid, a
straight trajectory away from Earth, away from the Moon, and into the great unknown, never
to return.
Richard's mother thought her husband was helping his son with home-work. When she
discovered his true purpose, she dragged him into their bedroom for one of their whisper
fights.
What do you think you're doing? she asked. He's eight.

He needs to understand, his father said.

No, he doesn't, she said. He'll be frightened for days.

And if they miss? his father said. I'll have to explain it then.

Her voice had a tightness as she said, They won't miss.


But they did.

They missed.

Mission Control had a hunch during the LOS, but they didn't confirm the hunch with the
astronauts, not right away. They asked for a few things, another controlled burn, hoping that
the ship might move back on track, a few more reports than usual just to get the men's
voices on tape while they were still calm (apparently), but nothing they did changed the
tragic fact that the astronauts would not return to Earth.
They would float forever in the darkness of space.

And for a while, they didn't know. The ship itself had limited control and almost no
telemetry. The astronauts had to rely on Mission Control for all of their orbital information—in
fact, for most of their critical infor-mation.
Later, it came out that the astronauts deduced the problem almost im-mediately, and
tried to come up with solutions on their own.

Of course, there were none.
 Which was why Cronkite looked so tense that Christmas Eve, sitting in the area cleared
for broadcasters in Mission Control. Cronkite had known that the three astronauts were still
alive, would remain alive for days as their little capsule headed into the vast beyond. They
stayed in radio con-tact for longer than anyone felt comfortable with, and because they were
heroes, they never complained.