BI Valmontone
Postato il: 09/05/21
Tempo di lettura: 4 minuti, 58 secondi
The astronaut
Even though it was Thursday, Betty, his wife, had organized a barbecue in the garden with
friends and the day passed quietly with laughter, gleeful children, and her brother-in-law’s, Marc,
dirty jokes.
Around six o’clock in the afternoon, Gus and his wife say goodbye to everyone, greeting them
affectionately and saying they would see them the next weekend for Marc's big birthday
celebration.
After everyone left,
Gus took a shower and went to bed, where Betty soon joined him.
The two exchanged goodnight kisses and turned off the light.
But that night Gus couldn't sleep: he fidgeted in bed, laying on one side, laid
still for a while and then changed sides.
He didn't want to wake Betty who was sleeping soundly, but he just couldn't calm down.
Gus knew he was the best, he knew he was the best.
But he also knew that being the best, sometimes, wasn't enough to avoid getting into trouble.
"I don't want to repeat what happened six years ago" Gus repeated to himself.
The landing of the Liberty Bell 7 six years earlier had been a total disaster.
After reaching the height of 190 km and having been in the Space for five minutes, Gus had
manually activated the braking retractor and had begun the descent phase to the ground. He
had immediately noticed the cracks that had opened in the capsule parachute, but luckily they
had not widened during the landing phase and, after fifteen minutes of flight that had seemed
interminable, the capsule was about to land. Gus calmed down when he saw the sea from the
small window, one of the two new features of his capsule compared to the Freedom 7 used
during Shepard's previous mission.
As soon as the capsule touched the water, however, a deafening explosion almost stunned him:
opening the tailgate the capsule blew up and had quickly started to take on water.
Luckily he had already taken off his helmet and disconnected the oxygen supply lines, so he
was able to get out before the capsule sank. All the work, however, was lost, all the pictures and
the measurements he had taken sank together with the Liberty Bell 7.
NASA hadn't forgiven him for what they saw as a colossal mistake and he had been side-lined
for two years. They accused him of having manually opened the tailgate before landing and
therefore having compromised the entire mission for lightness.
«If I had opened it, I would have burned my hands as soon as I touched it» Gus kept repeating
to himself «but my hands weren’t at all burnt!»
But someone had to take the blame, and Gus was the easiest scapegoat.
«Those cursed people from North American Aviation made a mistake in calibrating the
explosive charge of the tailgate bolts and they blew up on impact with the water, I said it a
thousand times but they didn't want to listen to me» he kept saying over and over.
But Gus was the best and everyone knew it. When the Apollo Program began, NASA had
chosen him to be the first man to set foot on the Moon.
The incident was eventually forgotten and Gus regained the respect and consideration of
everyone, including the journalists.
But he kept raving in bed and his mind kept clinging to a single thought.
The next day was the first test of the Apollo module, a short flight in earth’s low orbit.
North American Aviation had designed the opening tailgate like that of the Liberty Bell 7, with a
mechanism with explosive bolts for an emergency opening in addition to opening from the
inside, but NASA didn’t want to install it. They did not want to repeat the Liberty Bell 7 disaster
with the Apollo Program.
Gus knew that this was dangerous and a single fixed thought kept pounding his head “How
could we open the tailgate from the inside if the capsule is pressurized?”
Gus kept tossing and turning. He would have liked to raise this issue a thousand times and, to
be honest, he had even tried once. But the message that had immediately returned to him, even
if not explicitly stated, was very clear “Gus, you have been chosen to be the first man to go to
the Moon. You want to go there, don't you?”.
Yes, he wanted to go there. More than anything else he wanted to go there.
And then, Edward and Roger, the other two astronauts who were to accompany him during the
test had never mentioned problems.
Maybe it was just him who worried too much: because there shouldn’t be any problems, after all
it was just a test flight.
As soon as Gus saw daylight filter through the window, he got up, ate his usual breakfast, and
got ready.
He greeted Betty who, from the bed, said “Gus, if you're not sure about something, please don't
leave! The mission can be postponed.”
Gus smiled at her and reassured her with a kiss.
The car and driver were already waiting for him in the driveway.
When he arrived at Cape Canaveral, the flight preparation procedures began immediately.
During their first space flight, Edward and Roger, were smiling like always. Everything was
quiet.
Gus and his companions entered the Apollo 1 module, closed the tailgate and began the
checklist in radio contact with the NASA Communication Room.
“Have a nice trip, guys!” said the CapCom.
“Roger, say hello from us too,” Gus replied “and tell him we're about to take our seats ... but ...
WHAT THE F.... IS GOING ON?”
“WE’RE BURNING!” instead were Roger's words.
It took only five minutes for the technicians to reach the capsule and open the tailgate, but it was
still too many.
The bodies of the three astronauts were charred: Gus and Edward were lying on the ground
while Roger was on the ladder with his arms outstretched towards the tailgate
that he had not been able to open because the capsule was pressurized.
Barabra Foschi B1
BI Valmontone
Chiudi