“What’s with the ratty head gear?” Mark asked to pass the time. Alfred stared straight ahead as he answered, “It was a gift from my late wife. It’s always brought me good luck.” Mark found it rather ironic the flight director’s lucky cap supported a professional baseball team that had never won a World Series. “It’s show time people,” Alfred boomed. “Julie’s team has put the reactor’s slingshot and subsequent break from orbit maneuver into the guidance system. We’re going to have a seven minute full throttle burn around the moon that will use all but the last few drops of fuel. This will fling the reactor section out of orbit to chase down the errant probe. If we miss the entry or exit angle by so much as one degree coming around the moon we’re all out of a job. Now let’s get it right.” On the view screen Mark watched a computer generated diagram of the earth and moon with the reactor section traveling in between. A solid blue line showed the craft’s current path, and a dotted red line showed the project path resulting from the engine burn. In the upper right was a number counting down from ten. The maneuver needed to be so precise in its execution that the computer was given full control of the process. For the next seven minutes, everyone in the flight control room was just an observer. All they could do was hope they got the calculations right.
