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Rescue
Shuttle
1044 EST
Connie and David's T-38 touched down at the
Kennedy Space Center and barely slowed down as it taxied to
a hangar. As they stepped down from their aircraft, a tall
man with salt and pepper hair met them. Keith Laud was the
Director of the Astronaut office, and in his imposing six
foot six frame, looked like he could also be an NBA basketball
player.
"What took you too so long?" Keith grumbled. "You
have Presidential approval to fly supersonic. You should have
been here a long time ago."
"The T-38 can't go supersonic unless in a dive,"
David said. We didn't have the fuel capacity to make the trip
at full throttle. We can't refuel in mid air, so we managed
our consumption and flew at top speed. We didn't want to lose
time having to land and get gas."
"How much time do they have?" Connie asked, as they
piled into a waiting van and drove toward the flight operations
office.
"About 16 hours."
"That's all?"
"We are thankful that we have that much time," Keith
replied. "It could have been worse if it wasn't for Bruce's
quick thinking. Putting on his space suit while everyone piled
into the CargoHab is what saved their bacon. If he weren't
free to patch the hole, they'd suffocate in the CargoHab before
Discovery got there,"
"What's the plan for the rescue mission?" Connie
asked.
"Everything will have to work like clockwork. Discovery
is on Pad 39A. It is being checked out and fueled as we speak.
You have less than two hours to get briefed, suited up, and
driven to the launch pad." He paused. "This is going
to be a tricky mission."
"What do you mean?" Connie asked.
"There's no other alternative but to launch Discovery
with the space station payload."
"Can't they take it out before launch?"
"We don't have the time to remove the payload."
"Can we do the rescue mission?"
"The problem is the payload weight is such that it will
need to have all three of the main engines run above full-power
during the launch in order to reach Atlantis's 330-mile high
orbit."
"Am I missing something? Did I hear you say we're overweight,
but we're launching anyway?"
"The Space station is at a 230-mile orbit, and Atlantis
is stranded another hundred miles higher. Discovery can lift
a 55,250-pound payload to a 126-mile orbit. If Discovery is
to orbit higher than that, we have to subtract 115 pounds
of payload for each additional mile of orbit."
"So, is the payload light enough to make it to Atlantis?"
Connie asked.
"Discovery's payload is the final piece of the Space
Station. It weighs 33,000 pounds, so that weight is well within
spec for Discovery to reach the 220-mile orbit of the space
station. However, Atlantis is in a 326-mile orbit, so Discovery's
payload must be reduced."
"By how much?"
"We're, uh, about 750 pounds over weight."
"Is that manageable?"
"To get below that Discovery will fly with a crew of
only three members, instead of the original six. We're even
limiting Discovery to barely enough lithium hydroxide canisters
for the mission, to save weight."
Connie bit her lip as they arrived at the Operations and Checkout
Building. He hasn't told me everything. They walked inside
to a briefing room. Tom Dudar, Discovery's commander and the
pilot, Michelle Hope greeted her, "It's good to see they
picked the best for the rescue team." Tom said as he
held out his hand to Connie.
"The good news is Bruce did a good job sealing the damaged
pipes," Keith said. "Atlantis will have electric
power until Discovery arrives." He paused, "The
bad news is Discovery will fly its engines at 109% thrust
for the entire mission, except for Max Q."
"We've never flown engines that hard," Tom said.
"What do you mean?" Connie asked.
Keith answered, "The maximum thrust for the main engines
on any shuttle flight has never been above 104%, but Discovery's
weight and Atlantis's high orbit require 109% thrust, or Discovery
will never reach Atlantis."
"I thought you got the weight down.
"To barely enough. There is no reserve. All we care about
is the eight-minute burn that gets us to Atlantis. Without
109%, we don't have a rescue."
"This is crazy." Tom added with a chuckle, "I
love it."
"Are you nuts?" Connie asked.
"I haven't had this much of an adrenaline rush since
flying a rescue mission in the Gulf War, I never lost one
in the Middle East, and I'm not going to lose one in outer
space."
Connie asked, "Keith, what is the plan in case we have
an Abort to Orbit or Abort Once Around?"
"If Discovery has an ATO, or an ATA, the rescue mission
will be over, and we are already examining other rescue options."
"Why the heck haven't they thought about Discovery getting
to a low orbit, releasing the payload, and then transitioning
to Atlantis's orbit? We could go get the space station module
later, on another mission." Tom asked.
"The engineers are running computer models on that, but
the results aren't in," Keith said. "We can't get
into paralysis by analysis. First, we have to get Discovery
in orbit. If there is a change, you'll get it once you are
in orbit."
"Cool!" Tom replied.
"Why am I here?" Connie asked. "Crews train
for a year before a flight. I wasn't originally scheduled
for Discovery's space station mission. I haven't been training
with the original crew, and they have been bumped."
"We hope to dock the shuttles, but if we can't,"
Keith replied, "We'll have to use the MMU flight packs
to get Atlantis' crew to Discovery. You have the most flight
pack experience in the astronaut corps. We are not taking
any chances with rookies. We're sending our first string players.
We won't have room for second chances with this rescue mission."
"Except for the engines." Connie snapped.
Keith looked at his watch, and back to the crew, "We're
out of time. You have to get suited. Any other mission plan
specifics will be sent to you after you are aboard Discovery."
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