"Brown, Dale - Silver Tower" - читать интересную книгу автора (Brown Dale)
She let herself be led to the jeep, rode with the security guard commander, nodding absently at his comments.
No, damn it, she wasn't afraid to die. She knew it was possible, knew it could happen any moment without any warning. But, to coin a clich6, it went with the territory, and it was a territory she badly wanted.
As her attention drifted back to the security guard, she heard him saying he'd always wanted to go up on the shuttle but didn't have any specialized degree beyond a B.S. Besides he was only an enlisted man . . . "All you need is.a technical degree and you can be any rank. Doesn't matter. Hey, I don't have any rank. I'm a civilian. They need technical degrees and volunteers willing to dedicate themselves to the program. Back in the seventies and eighties they wanted experienced flyers and senior officers. Now, they need crewmembers for a whole range of jobs. . . . "
Ann realized she sounded like a NASA recruiter. Was she really as enthusiastic as she sounded? Was it really so simple? Right now she needed to believe that this flight into space was at once routine and a chance of a lifetime. That's the only way she'd get through this thing.
As the jeep pulled up in front of a low steel-and-concrete building, the Vandenburg Shuttle Flight Center, she took a final look overhead. The ebony sky was brightening to azure blue, closing off the vastness that would soon enclose her.
SPACE SHUTTLE ENTERPRISE
Three hours later the crew of the Space Shuttle Enterprise stepped into the elevator in the service tower and rode it to the orbiter entry level. They walked across the service arm and into the "white room," where white-suited, surgical-
masked technicians used vacuum cleaners to remove any bits of dirt and gravel off their boots and uniforms that could accumulate in the crew compartment during microgravity flight. Then, one at a time, they walked toward the circular side
hatch into the shuttle.
When it was her turn, Ann stopped and shook hands with one of the techs. "Thanks," she said quietly. They barely knew each other, but the emotions were the same. No more words were necessary.
originally, Enterprise had been built for landing tests. In
1977 it had been released off the back of a modified Boeing
747 carrier plane to test its ability to glide to a landing with no power. it was never intended that Enterprise ever be launched into space.
The Challenger accident in 1986 had changed that. It had been far less expensive to refit Enterprise for space flight than to build a new orbiter, so the refitting process began late in
1987. Enterprise inherited much of the new 1980s technology in space shuttle design. The first difference was obvious as Ann stepped towards the entrance hatc"e absence of the thermal protection system's insulation tiles. Instead, the shutde used a smooth fabric blanket made of carbon-carbonlighter, stronger and less expensive than the silica tiles on Columbia and Atlantis. Earlier, only the shuttle's nosecap and wing leading edges had the extreme high-heat protection of carbon-carbon alloys--now the entire surface had it. Whereas the old exterior had looked rough and scaly, like a lizard's skin, the new exterior was pure white, smooth and glassy.
Ann was helpedthrough the entry hatch and into the middeck area of Enterprise's crew compartment, where she looked down at the storage compartments, personal hygiene station, and airlock hatch. "Weird," she said, "I'm standing on the wall, like Spider Woman. "
Captain Marty Schultz, the Enterprise's payload specialist, was just stepping up the ladder to the upper flight deck. "Wait till you get into orbit on Silver Tower," he said. "Walls, ceiling, up, down-all gone. Silver Tower is another world. "
She crawled up the ladder behind Schultz, who was now
standing beside three seats on the flight deck, and looking high "above" herself, saw Air Force Colonel Jerrod Will, the mission commander, and Marine
Colonel Richard Sontag, the Enterprise's pilot, in their seats. They looked "down" as she crawled into the flight deck and pulled herself up. "Crawl across the seats and take the right side," Schultz said. She maneuvered herself across the flight deck and onto the right-hand mission-specialist seat. A technician walking on marked areas on the payload control panel in the back of the flight deck helped her strap in and handed her a "Snoopy's hat" communications headset, which looked like an old college football helmet with wide ear cups. "Your portable oxygen system is on your right here," the tech told her as Ann strapped herself in. He talked her through a preflight of the portable oxygen system, POS, and her comm panel while Schultz and Kevin Baker, the grayhaired designer of the Silver Tower Thor interceptor missile system, crawled into'their seats. Ann felt more normal after she was strapped in, but the sight of technicians standing sideways on the walls while she was seated facing up was still disorienting. "I can see why some people get airsick on the ground," Baker said.
Ann could feel her toes grip the front of her seat as Schultz went on. "But you get over it. Now I look forward to the switch. Everything's a lot freer in microgravity, including your imagination. "
Colonel Sontag glanced over his shoulder at the three mission specialists. "All strapped in back here?" he asked over interphone. All three said they were.
Sontag gave them a thumbs-up. A moment latw. "Enterprise, this is Vandenburg Launch Control, radio check on a/g channel two. Over."
Colonel Will: "Good morning, Control. Loud and clear,
channel two." The radio check was repeated several times on
a variety of frequencies. "Enterprise, we are T-minus eight-zero minutes, mark. Launch advisory check."
Over Will's right shoulder Ann could see a large red light marked "ABORT" snap on, grow dim, blink, off. "Abort check OK, out."
Minutes later a white-clad technician flashed one last thumps-up through the entryway access, then ducked below, and the heavy main entrance hatch closed with a thump. "Enterprise, side hatch secure." "Roger, copy," Sontag said. "Crew, cabin pressurization coming up. Pressure on your ears." Commander Will flipped switches, and Ann could feel her ears pop as the cabin pressure was increased to check for leaks or an unsecured hatch. "Control, this is Enterprise. Cabin pressure normal, one-
six point seven p.s.i. Over." "Roger, Enterprise. Out." "Ann, you're cleared for power on your payload monitoring panel," the pilot, Sontag, said. "Check out your baby back there and report any problems when your check is completed. " "Roger." Ann flipped a guarded switch marked "PL MON ONE" and watched as the instrument panel to her right came to life. Except for a few miscellaneous supplies, the Skybolt laser she had developed was Enterprise's only cargo on this trip, and it was her job to check the systems on the fortythousand-pound laser module to be sure there was no damage that might cause contamination or a hazard during launch.
The exhaustive check of the laser module's five separate sections took longer than she had expected. Finally she reported back. "Payload monitor power off, Colonel. Check complete. Everything's in the green. Ready for launch." "Control, this is Enterprise. Ready to resume countdown. Over," Sontag reported.
Colonel Will, with six years flying space shuttles, turned to the computer keyboard, punched in "SPEC 99 PRO" and the computer monitor on Sontag's side changed from a blank screen to a pictorial representation of the Enterprise's launch
trajectory. Will checked the display. In case of a malfunction of all three of the general navigation computers, the GNCs, he would fly the Enterprise manually into orbit using the computer display as a road map. He keyed his microphone ' "Control, this is Enterprise. Flight plan loaded and checked. Over. "
The checklists ran faster and faster. From T-minus twenty minutes to T-minus
five minutes, Will and Sontag worked furiously. Their main job was to start the three auxiliary power units, the APUs, which supplied hydraulic power to Enterprise. During launch the APUs would make sure the Enterprise"s aerodynamic surfaces were in their streamlined launch position; during landing or during an emergency the APUs would supply hydraulic power to the surfaces to allow the shuttle to be flown like a conventional airplane.
After T-minus five minutes Will and Sontag could do little but watch the computers on Enterprise and acknowledge status checks from Vandenburg Launch Control. "T-minus two minutes," Launch Control reported. "H-two and 0-two tanks pressurized, Enterprise. You are go for launch. Over. " "Copy, Control. We're go for launch. " Sontag looked over his shoulder once more at Page, Schultz and Baker. "Here we go. . . . " "Put the pedal to the metal, Colonel," Schultz said and immediately regretted it. Pretty callow staff, he told himself. The others indulged him by ignoring it. Ann settled herself as far as possible in her seat and pulled her seat straps tight as she could stand it. The air felt electric-not stuffy or humid but super-charged with power. Far below she could feel the rumble of another piece of equipment--4he solid rocket booster's ignition APUs. The thought of six million pounds of thrust about to be let loose made her eyes shut tight. "T-minus ten seconds . . . nine ... eight. . . . "
She nearly jumped out of her seat as she felt a gentle touch on her left hand. "Relax. ' I
It'was Marty Schultz, nodding. "It'll be fine, relax." She took a deep breath, feeling as if it was the first she'd taken in hours.
... Six ... five ... four .... ignition sequence start ... main engine one ignition ... two ignition . . . three ignition. . . ." Sontag wasn't talking over the interphone--he was screaming out loud cross cockpit: ". . . Manifold pressure good all three engines . . . three in the green . . . ...
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