Orphans of Apollo - S2 E4
July 2024
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Previously: a small team of engineers from space startup Astronautix run through a launch simulation on the eve of their next test launch. After the successful simulation, they receive the news from their founder and CEO Everett Winter that this will be a make or break test. If it fails, there will be no more funding.
“Does anyone have anything else?” Everett Winter said from the head of the conference table.
Around it, there were ten people, the sum total of the Astronautix staff at the Shetland Space Centre. On a big screen, several others were joining the meeting remotely from Astronautix’s headquarters in Surrey. Nobody said anything. The meeting had been very straightforward, no issues.
“Ok folks, good luck, let’s get to it,” and with that, the meeting dispersed into groups of two or three, chatting as they left the conference room. Over the last hour or so, they had been through a final launch day briefing. An overview of the weather conditions, the status of the vehicle, and a review of standard and emergency procedures. Nobody had mentioned the elephant in the room, as if a silent consensus not to talk about it had been reached.
After a minute or so everyone had left, leaving Everett and Gwen Becker, who would be flight director for this launch.
“Do you still want to go ahead with the livestream?” she asked.
“We have nothing to hide. We have given this our absolute best shot, so what will be, will be. Besides, this is not Soviet Russia.”
“I thought so, but just wanted to make sure.” She shuffled uncomfortably in her chair. “You know Everett, whatever happens, I just want to thank you for the opportunity you have given me to work for you.” He held up his hand, but she continued. “It hasn’t always been easy, and sometimes you can be a real pain in the ass, but that’s what you have to do sometimes. I know we haven’t got a rocket to orbit yet, but this small group of people has-”
“Come on Gwen, you’re talking like we’ve failed, we haven’t even launched yet. We all know we have addressed the issues on the previous flights. Let’s have a little positivity. How many issues came up in the briefing and the static fire tests?” She shrugged dismissively. “I have a good feeling about this. We are going to nail it this time. And besides, we got so close last time, I’m sure even if we have a failure this time we can convince someone to give us enough money for another shot.”
“You’re right, I’m sorry.” She looked at her watch. “Four hours to go. I’ll see you in the control room once you get back from the pad.”
The central wall screen in the control room showed the White Arrow on the pad. A steam-like vapour was just starting to be emitted from the top of the first stage. Fuelling was complete and the liquid oxygen tank was beginning to vent. The white gas was drifting slowly down and away from the rocket in the breeze. To the right of the live camera feed was a map showing the launch site and the immediate area. Heading north was a red fan which opened out to become a rectangle further from the launch site - the launch exclusion zone. To the left and right of these screens were various parameters which, for the most part, now remained constant. In the top centre, the red countdown clock read: L-0:13:10. All the positions in the control room were now occupied. Andrew Cunliffe and Joshua Walker occupied the centre two consoles, with support technicians at the stations next to them. Behind them sat Gwen Becker and Everett Winter.
The countdown clock continued its mesmeric progress for the next ten seconds until it reached L-0:13:00 where it stopped.
“T minus thirteen minutes and holding,” said Gwen. “Ok folks, you know the drill. This is our final planned hold. All stations go/no-go for terminal count, starting with flight dynamics.”
“FIDO - Go!” said Josh.
“Booster?”
“Booster - Go,” said Andrew.
“Telemetry and Comms?”
“TELCOMM - Go,” said the tech next to Josh.
“Range safety?”
“Range is Go,” came the response from the tech next to Andrew.
“Ok, all stations are go for terminal count,” said Gwen, looking across to Everett. He stood up at his desk, headset wire trailing down to the console, his finger on the push-to-talk button.
“Folks, I just want to let you know. All of you. Not just those of you in the room with me here now, but those back in the factory and everyone watching on the live stream. It has been an absolute pleasure to work with you. You have given this your all, going over and above what was asked of you and for that I am eternally grateful.” He paused. “Now let’s go to space!”
Gwen smiled at him. “Terminal count will commence on my mark. Three…two…one…mark. T minus thirteen minutes to launch.”
Over the next ten minutes the count continued to proceed smoothly, the tapping of feet and jiggling of legs intensifying. Gwen picked up a silver key from her desk and inserted it into a keyhole on the panel in front of her. It was one of the few panels in the control room with physical switches and buttons rather than soft keys. She turned the key ninety degrees and lifted the cover on a red guarded switch beside it. She flicked the switch. Next to the switch was a square button with a clear plastic cover. The button said ‘Destruct’. It lit up red.
“Flight termination armed,” she said.
At the pad, the last of the various arms pulled back from the rocket, leaving one umbilical line attached.
After what seemed like an age to those in the control room, the count was now almost complete.
“Ten…nine…eight…seven…six…five…four…ignition sequence commence,” a glow appeared at the bottom of the rocket and jets of white steam shot out sideways as the water injected by the sound suppression system vaporised. “Two…one…liftoff!”
The White Arrow rose slowly off the pad, then rapidly began to accelerate. Beneath his desk, Everett clenched a fist momentarily. A very faint rumbling could be heard from the control room. The camera cut to a wider shot, showing an expanding cloud of white steam enveloping the launch pad. White Arrow was now well clear of this and streaming skyward, a tongue of flame half its length trailing behind. The flame was rigid except for the very tip which flapped like the end of a streamer trailed from a car window.
“Vehicle is supersonic. Throttling down for Max Q,” came the call from the launch narrator. “Max Q, or maximum aerodynamic pressure. Is the point where the aerodynamic forces are strongest on the rocket,” he continued.
The rocket was getting higher now and the flame trailing behind was starting to expand as the surrounding air pressure dropped.
“Vehicle throttling up. Now that we have passed Max Q the rocket will begin to accelerate again.”
A red flash on the top right of Andrew’s screen caught his eye. One of the engine parameters was out of limits. The numerical readout now had a solid red background, which was flashing.
“Chamber pressure in number five is out of limits and rising,” he called.
“Recommended action?” came Gwen’s immediate response.
“Standby. It should auto shutdown if it keeps rising.”
Just then the number five chamber pressure readout fell rapidly and another red flash started on Andrew’s display, this time on the engine layout schematic.
“Five shut-down. We’ve lost number five engine. All others remain nominal.”
“FIDO?” said Gwen.
“Trajectory nominal.”
Gwen and Everett exchanged glances.
“It looks like the White Arrow has lost one of the five engines on its first stage. The four remaining engines are sufficient to continue to orbit,” explained the live-stream narrator.
“Flight, FIDO.”
“FIDO, go.”
“Gimbaling on number one is not responding. Trajectory it starting to drift east.”
The White Arrow continued to streak skyward. The only sign of an anomaly being the dark gap in the ring of engines at the bottom of the booster.
“We may have a situation here folks,” said the narrator, trying to sound upbeat. “Engine number one and five are next to each other. With number five shut-down and number one not able to gimbal, the rocket will have severely degraded control authority.”
“Trajectory divergence increasing.”
The rocket was now visibly drifting off course. Gwen reached up and lifted the flap on the red destruct button. She glanced across to Everett. He was watching the wall screen intently. The knuckles of his clenched fists were white. She looked back at the screen.
“Vehicle trajectory is becoming unstable.”
There was no hesitation. Gwen pressed the destruct button. For a second nothing happened. Then the rocket blew apart in a cloud of black smoke and flame. Pieces of rocket trailed smoke as they were ejected from the cloud.
“Flight termination activated,” said Gwen. As if it wasn’t obvious, she said to herself.
For a moment nobody moved. Everyone was transfixed, looking at the display showing the live feed. The flames quickly burned out, leaving a grey cloud. The heavy debris had fallen clear, and now a shower of small pieces rained slowly down out of the cloud.
Everett Winter stood up. He removed his headset and tossed it on the desk like a young child discarding a broken toy. Although they pretended they weren’t looking, everyone watched him walk out of the control room.
“Make sure your data is saved. Initiate your post-abort check-lists,” said Gwen unemotionally.
If you know someone you think would enjoy “Orphans of Apollo” or any of the other writing in “Explorations” please share this publication with them.
As ever, I hope you enjoyed the latest episode of Orphans of Apollo.
The kids are still on holiday here so time for writing is pretty limited. Since I have been recording the voiceovers for these posts I have been dipping into the audio world more. I came across a great fiction podcast called Outliers, it’s definitely worth a listen. Incidentally, it’s narrated by Rory Culkin, Macaulay Culkin’s brother. This is a something which I had not realised until my partner listened to it and pointed it out.
Speaking of audio, there is no voiceover for this episode yet. When I was editing the audio, I found a mistake which I need to go back and correct. I’ll hopefully have this out in a few days.
Thanks for reading,
Alex
Great buildup of tension in this episode! I was convinced the launch was going to succeed in the end. I wonder now if Everett is going to be recruited by the American guy...