Johnson Space Center, Houston Rolf Donnelly swung his car into his space outside Building 30, the Mission Control Center. He got out, whistling. There was a new sign up, in a car park space close to the building: MCC M&O EMPLOYEE OF THE MONTH. Donnelly laughed. Welcome to government work! You’re in Mission Control, and your prize for a good job well done is a loan of a parking space! He took a breath of the muggy autumn air. It would be his last fresh air for a while; one of the few things he didn’t like about working in Building 30 was that it was completely enclosed. He walked slowly by the big air-conditioning grilles on the outside of the building; in the spring, birds nested in there, but he couldn’t see any activity now. Donnelly was still whistling as he turned into the building. He was a Flight Director, and now he was going to be lead Flight for the Apollo-N mission. The big display screens at the front of the room bore spectacular images from Kennedy, of climbing metal, billowing smoke, flames as bright as the sun.
