Final Orbit

1) "General Tom Stafford was getting angry—it was almost launch date, and he needed the spaceship's primary systems to work. They didn't. Seated in Mission Control at the Johnson Space Center, near Houston, Kaz Zemeckis was equally frustrated. As military liaison CAPCOM for the first-ever American-Soviet spaceflight, he was supposed to be making everything smooth and efficient for the US crew, including General Stafford, the mission commander. This morning had been anything but."

2) "Svetlana was a military test pilot and, as she always did, once all her checklist items were complete before takeoff, she assessed how she was feeling. Calm, she decided. I feel calm, and ready. This was her second spaceflight, planned to be a much simpler venture than her first: launch into Earth orbit, dock with the American Apollo ship, spend two days together demonstrating cooperation in a Cold War world, undock, re-enter the atmosphere and land the Soyuz on the Kazakh Steppe under parachute. A highly symbolic six-day flight, but not a challenging one. On Svetlana's first space mission, things had gone terribly awry. She'd been part of a two-person Soviet crew on the USSR's secret spy space station Almaz, which had been clandestinely intercepted by an American Apollo spacecraft. There had been significant conflict—three crew-members had died—and she'd ended up aboard the Apollo capsule. But she'd also walked on the Moon. Though most of the details had been kept classified on both sides of the Atlantic, Svetlana had been publicly hailed as the first Soviet and the only woman to have walked on the Moon. In comparison, Soyuz-Apollo was going to be a piece of cake."

3) "His chief of staff, Dick Cheney, had written the script for him. The words felt stilted, but he was being broadcast live internationally and didn't want to make any gaffes. He continued reading, doing his best to look up occasionally. 'Your flight is a momentous event and a very great achievement, not only for the six of you but also for the thousands of American and Soviet scientists and technicians who have worked together for three years to ensure the success of this very historic and very successful experiment in international cooperation.' Ford winced. Did I really just say 'very' twice? I should have had my speechwriter do this, not Dick."

4) "Kaz's eyes opened wide, realizing what the general was saying. Somehow, the astronauts and necessary ground control personnel had kept this a secret. A secret with hardware too large to have been brought back to Earth in the last Apollo capsule that had undocked. Amazed, Kaz blurted out, 'There's an energy weapon on Skylab?' 'There is, and I was calling to ask you a question. It's an even longer shot now, given what's just happened. Still, I have to ask. You've worked directly with these folks, Kaz. Do you think, considering the health of the Apollo ship and its remaining fuel and oxygen reserves, that Deke and the two surviving cosmonauts could change orbit and dock with Skylab before the Chinese get there?'"

5) "Deke found the hatch closing tool nestled in a metal clip mounted on the curved wall of the orbital module. He'd trained on it in Star City, and its shape felt familiar in his hands as he turned the selector to the closed position and inserted the square metal tip of the tool into the matching recessed location on the hatch. He started to swing the hatch closed, but he caught sight of Alexei in his commander's seat and grabbed the camera for one last photo. Alexei had two daughters, and Deke figured they might appreciate the photo one day. Honoring his final orbit."