Orphans of Apollo - S2 E5
July 2024
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From the ashes of forgotten space dreams, a new era of exploration begins.
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Previously: the dreams of the small team at Astronautix are shattered when the make or break final test flight of the White Arrow ends in a spectacular loss of the vehicle.
Keep left, keep left. Sara Jensen reminded herself. How many times had she said that to herself today? She’d lost count. Why do the Brits drive on the left anyway? Apparently, it was something to do with keeping your sword hand free. Back in the middle ages, you wanted to keep other travellers on your right so you were free to use your sword, should you meet a less than friendly soul coming the other way. That was hardly likely now. In fact, if she met a local coming the other way it might not matter what side of the road she was on. They always seemed to come round blind corners halfway across the centreline anyway. Not much further now.
Sara had landed in Glasgow two days earlier. From there she had flown to the Shetland Islands, landing at Sumburgh Airport right on the southern tip of the main island. To Sara, the airport terminal looked like some sort of fortified military establishment. No big glass façade and covered entranceway. She was learning as she drove the length of the islands this was pretty typical. Buildings were usually of stone, and built to survive the elements. Many of them seeming to revel in a quiet satisfaction of prevailing over their environment for many years. After picking up her hire car she was now making her way to the very top of the Shetlands, to the Island of Unst and the Shetland Space Centre.
With the failure yesterday of Astronautix’s latest launch attempt, the trip probably could not have been better timed. She had seen the message from Christian Larsson about the failure just after she landed. I wonder what this Everett Winter guy is like? Right now, he probably feels like his world just came crashing down around him. According to what Larsson had told her before she left California, this was their last launch attempt. If it failed, there was no more funding. Well Mr Winter, today might just be your lucky day.
She slowed and made the right turn onto an even narrower road, not much further now. The same rolling green hills topped with the light brown of heather surrounded her. Off to her right over a few fields was the sea, which on islands this small was never far from view. After a minute or so, she could see the village of Saxa Vord up ahead. The launch control centre was right at the entrance to the village. Astronautix was leasing part of it while they conducted their test launches. It was midafternoon. Hopefully, Everett should still be around, thought Sara. It’s unlikely he would have left already.
Sara pulled straight into the car park of the launch complex. She was tired from travelling but she came here for one specific reason - to find Everett Winter - so she may as well start now. She examined her face in the rear-view mirror and re-tied her hair. As soon as she opened the car door, she wondered why she had bothered. The wind here was incessant.
Inside the building was a small reception area. It was empty. A desk with a chair and computer were in one corner. The chair was tucked right in under the desk and the screen was off. It didn’t look like they got many visitors. The door through to the rest of the building looked fairly secure. There was a card reader and keypad on the wall next to it. On the desk, a button with a peeling laminated sign invited visitors to push it if the desk was unattended. Sara pushed the button and lamented the fact that, as is so often the case, there was no way to know if it was actually connected to anything. She looked around and found a security camera in the corner of the room. She smiled politely.
A minute later, the door opened and a lady, probably in her late fifties, came from within the building.
“Can I help you?” she said curtly.
“Yes, I’m here to see Everett Winter.”
“I’m sorry, but I don’t think Mr Winter has any more appointments today.”
“I’m afraid I don’t have an appointment. It’s a spur-of-the-moment visit.”
“Young lady, this is not the sort of place where you can just show up unannounced and demand to see people. Besides, Mr Winter finished his interviews with the press this morning.”
“Oh, I’m not from the media.”
A well-practised expression of superiority formed on the lady’s face. “Then can I ask why you wish to see Mr Winter?”
“I’m afraid I can only discuss that directly with Mr Winter.”
She huffed. “I’m sorry I don’t have time for games and neither does Mr Winter. I’m going to have to ask you to leave.”
“Please, it’s taken me days to get here from California. I only need a few minutes of his time.”
The lady silently held her ground.
“At least could you give him this?” said Sara, handing her a business card.
The lady examined it and looked at Sara, then she turned, held up her ID card to the reader and let herself back into the building without saying anything.
Everett Winter sat with Gwen Becker in the conference room where, little more than a day ago, they had held their optimism filled pre-flight briefing. Everett was deep in discussion with his chief financial officer via video call.
“I think we are out of options, if the UK Space Agency will not agree to any more funding. I’m not sure who else you could approach in the private sector,” the chief financial officer was saying.
“They wouldn’t budge. The next tranche of funding was dependent on a successful flight. I’ve tried to explain that from the initial data it looks like the failure was probably due to a manufacturing fault, but they are taking a pretty hard line. They only have so much funding and the condition was a successful flight. They are sticking to it.”
“I see.”
“I want you to draw up a plan for putting the company into hibernation. Figure out the bare minimum of what we need to retain and how long we could keep going on our current cash reserves.”
“I can tell you the answer to the second part right now…not very long.”
Gwen smiled resignedly but didn’t look up from the pattern she was scribbling on the notepad in front of her.
There was a knock at the door and the middle-aged lady poked her head in apologetically. Gwen got out of her chair and went over to see her as Everett continued his discussion.
The lady handed the card to Gwen. “She’s here now in reception, asking to speak with Mr Winter,” she whispered irritatedly.
Gwen looked at the card and back towards Everett. “Tell her he’s in a meeting, but he’ll be down as soon as he’s finished.”
“Oh. I see,” she said, and left.
Gwen took the card over to Everett. “We could have a possible solution, but you’re not going to like it,” she said, handing him the card.
He looked at it. “Is she here now?”
“Down in reception. I know you think Christian Larsson’s ideas are a bit out of left field, but it’s worth talking to her. Besides, she’s gone to the effort of coming all the way out here. He wouldn’t send his executive assistant halfway around the world and out to the middle of nowhere if he didn’t have a serious proposition.”
“I’ll call you back. Start on what we discussed,” he said to the screen on the wall. The call ended.
“You know the guy’s a fantasist,” said Everett.
“He’s a fantasist with a lot of money.”
Everett sighed. “Send her up.”
Gwen came back a few minutes later. “Everett, can you come down? She wants to meet in the privacy of her vehicle.”
“You can’t be serious. This isn’t some kind of spy B movie.”
“I’m afraid she is.”
Everett dragged himself up from where he was sitting behind the conference table and followed Gwen down to reception. When they walked in, Sara was just coming in from outside.
“Mr Winter, nice to meet you,” she said with a smile and outstretched hand. “Please, if you don’t mind coming out to the car with me.”
“You’re not going to kidnap me, are you?”
Sara smiled. “I’m happy to hand over my keys, or you could ask one of your staff to park a vehicle in front of mine if you would like.”
“I don’t think that will be necessary,” said Gwen.
As Everett walked out to the car, he noticed a small satellite dish had been placed on the roof. A cable was running in through the driver’s window, which was cracked open. Sara held the back door open for him and then went round to sit in the passenger seat.
“I’m sorry for making you come out here, but for conversations of this nature, Christian does not trust public communication networks.”
She opened a laptop, and Everett could hear a faint ringing noise as the call was put through.
“Morning Christian. I finally made it. If you are ready, I’ll pass you over?”
“Go ahead.”
Sara folded the screen down enough so it would fit between the seats and passed it back to Everett. He took it, sat it on his lap and opened it back up.
“Good morning, Everett, or sorry should I say good afternoon. It’s a pleasure to finally talk to you, I’ve been a big admirer of your work for a while now.”
“Well, judging by yesterday’s performance, I don’t know why you would be.”
“Successes are invariably built on many previous failures. But you know that already, and it’s probably not what you want to hear right now.” Everett sat impassively. “I’m sorry I couldn’t come out there to talk to you in person but the last time I was in Britain I left rather abruptly,” Sara smiled to herself “although they have not said as much I’m sure the authorities there could make things a little difficult for me if they wished and I have far too much going on to be bothered with any bureaucratic entanglements. So in my absence I have sent my long-suffering but very loyal, and extremely capable executive assistant. She tells me it is a very beautiful part of the world.”
“Mr Larsson—,”
“Please, call me Christian.”
“Christian. It probably doesn’t look like it right now as we just blew up our last rocket, but I’m still a very busy man. I’m trying everything I can to save my company. This is not the end for us, so if you could just cut to the chase.”
“And just how is that working out for you?”
“I’m sorry?”
“You are, I presume, approaching various investors to fund another launch attempt and continue with development. So how is that working out?”
“If I am here for a lecture, then please spare me.”
“Ok, we seem to have gotten off on the wrong foot. This is a very difficult time for you and I apologise for being so direct. If you would be so kind as to hear me out, I have a proposal for you.”
“I’m listening,” sighed Everett.
“Now, I don’t want you to think I am trying to take advantage of you and your company while you are in a difficult position. Sara was on the way to meet you and I would have made the same proposal, whether yesterday’s flight had been successful or not.”
“Ok.”
“I have watched you build up your company over the last few years. You have impressed me. You have had probably more than your fair share of failures recently, but I think your designs are fundamentally sound. They could just benefit from some extra cash to allow for more testing and refinement. I also believe we share a common goal of humanity one day colonising the solar system and beyond.”
“I don’t share your views on making genetically modified humans. I design rockets, but I don’t wish to play God.”
“I’ll admit I was perhaps a little forthright with my opinions on this and getting a little ahead of myself. Let’s just park that and talk about rockets and spacecraft.”
“Go on.”
“I’m proposing to give you sufficient funds to keep your company running, finish the development of the White Arrow and start work on some of the ideas I know you have for Lunar and space habitats. In return, my organisation will use the technology you help develop to eventually establish a colony on the Moon or out in space.”
“So what’s the catch?”
“There is no catch, Mr Winter. But I do have several requirements.”
“Requirement and catch seem like the same thing to me. There is never a free lunch, is there?”
“I would say this is about as close to a free lunch as you can get. In return though, I ask that from time to time I have some input into your design and development. Don’t get me wrong you, will lead this and be responsible for it but I will from time to time if required nudge it in the right direction. Secondly, I would like you to relocate your operation out to California. Thirdly and finally, the issue of genetic engineering remains on the table as something to look at in the future.”
Everett looked at Sara and back to the screen. After a moment, he folded his arms, then reached up and rested his chin on a clenched fist.
“Please take some time to think it through if you like. Sara has had a long trip, so she will be getting some rest before she heads home. Sleep on it. We can talk again tomorrow.”
Everett paused for another moment. “No, I can’t accept.”
“I’m sorry to hear that,” said Larsson, deadpan.
“I made a commitment to myself when I formed my company. I would do things my way. After all, that’s the reason I formed Astronautix. If I wanted to be told what to do, I could quite easily have gone and got a job with one of the large aerospace companies. I have my own ideas and I want the freedom to develop them as I wish.”
“That’s a laudable goal Everett, but perhaps somewhat unrealistic. We have similar visions. I’m sure there would be more we agree on than disagree.”
“I’m sorry, you may not agree, but this is not the end for us. Thank you kindly for your offer.”
“Good luck for the future, Everett,” said Larsson and terminated the connection.
Everett passed the laptop back to Sara, “Can I get back to work now?” He left without giving her a chance to reply.
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.
It’s a bit of a longer episode this week. I hope you enjoyed it. I’m behind on the audio at the minute, so no voiceover. It would be interesting to know how many people actually listen to this as opposed to reading the post. Unfortunately, Substack does not provide any statistics on this to creators, which I find a little strange given all the other metrics available.
It’s probably obvious that this part of the story was somewhat inspired by the early days of Space X. Back in 2008, Elon Musk and his fledging company had the money for one more launch attempt of their Falcon 1 rocket. This succeeded on 28th September 2008 and the rest is history. I wonder what would have happened if it had failed. Would Elon have been able to scrounge together enough money for another attempt? If he had, would he have had the control he has over Space X or would he have been beholden to his backers?
No matter what you think of him, it is undeniable that this second space race or space renaissance, whatever you want to call it we are now living through would not have heated up so fast. On balance, for space enthusiasts, that can only be a good thing.
Thanks for reading,
Alex