Sky Masters

Jon swung his headset microphone to his lips: “Crew, Roosevelt-1 is moving stage center. Stand by.”

The interior of Masters’ converted DC-10 was arranged much like the firing mechanism of a rifle. Like a cartridge magazine, the two boosters were stored side by side in the forward section of the one-hundred-twenty-feet-long, thirty- foot-wide cargo bay, which afforded plenty of room to move around the fifty-feet-long, four-foot-diameter rockets and their stabilizers. Forward of the storage area was the control center, with all of the booster monitoring and control systems, and forward of the control room was a pressure hatch which led to the flight deck — for safety’s sake, the flight deck was sealed from the cargo section so any pressurization malfunctions in the cargo end would not prevent the flight crew from safely recovering the plane.

The back fifty feet of the cargo hold was occupied by a large cylindrical chamber resembling the breech end of a shotgun, composed of heavy steel and aluminum with numerous thick Plexiglas viewports all around it. The boosters would roll down a track in the center of the cargo hold into the chamber, and the chamber would be sealed from the rest of the aircraft. Just prior to launch, the chamber would be depressurized before opening the “bomb-bay” doors. With this system, the entire cargo section of the aircraft did not have to be depressurized before launch. Floodlights and high-speed video cameras inside the launch chamber and outside the DC-10 launch plane were ready to photograph the entire launch sequence.

With two of Kaddiri’s assistants with flashlights watching on either side, the first forty-three-thousand-pound space booster began rolling on its tracks toward the center of the cabin. The crew, especially the cockpit crew of two pilots and engineer, had to be notified whenever one of these behemoth rockets was being moved. Whenever they moved a rocket, the flight engineer had to begin transferring fuel to the side where the booster was moved to keep the launch aircraft stable. The booster moved about ten feet per minute, which was the same speed that a similar weight in jet fuel could be transferred from body tanks to the corresponding wing tanks.

In two minutes the booster was in position in the center of the launch cabin, and it began its slow journey aft into the launch chamber. This time, to ensure longitudinal stability as the twenty-one-ton rocket moved aft, a large steel drum filled with eight thousand gallons of jet fuel in the belowdeck cargo section would slowly move forward as the booster moved aft, which would help to keep the aircraft stable; after the booster was launched, the drum would quickly move aft to balance the plane.

It took much longer for the booster to make its way aft, but it was finally wheeled into position in the chamber and the heavy steel hatch closed. Once in place, retractable clamps held the booster in place over the bomb-bay doors. “Roosevelt-One in position,” Kaddiri called out as she peered through the observation ports in the chamber. “Flight deck, confirm lateral and longitudinal trim.” “Aircraft trim nominal,” the flight engineer reported a few seconds later. “Standing by.”

“Roger. Confirm hatch closed and locked.”

Masters checked the console readouts. “Launch-chamber hatch closed, locked, green lights on.”

“Engineer cross-check good, green lights on,” the flight engineer reported after checking his readouts from the flight deck.

Kaddiri reached into a green canvas bag slung over her shoulder into a portable oxygen pack and withdrew an oxygen mask, checked the hose and regulator, and then clicked the mask’s built-in wireless microphone on. Her assistants in the aft end of the DC-10 did the same; Masters and Foch had already donned their masks. “Oxygen On and Normal,” she said. She got thumbs-up from her assistants after they checked their masks, then said, “Ready to depressurize launch chamber.”

Masters got a thumbs-up from Foch, then replied, “Oxygen On and Normal at the control console.” He called up the cargo-section pressurization readout and displayed it in big numerals on a monitor screen so both he and Foch could read them easily — two sets of eyes were always better than one. “Launch chamber depressurizing — now.”

For all that cross-checking and preparation, it was quite unspectacular. In two minutes the launch chamber was depressurized and the cargo-bay pressure was stable. After monitoring it for another minute to check for slow leaks, Masters removed his mask and radioed, “Cargo-section pressure checks good, launch chamber fully depressurized, no leaks.” The computer would continue to monitor the cabin pressure and warn the crew of any changes. Masters and everyone else kept their masks dangling from their necks… just in case.