Free Launch by Richard Perth Page A

comments,
observations, or complaints, I’m your guy. The same goes for any issues with
your quarters, and you will not be charged for them either.
    “Are there any questions?”
    Matt Taylor asked, “My family lives in
Anchorage. Is that too far for a weekend trip?”
    Jim said, “The rule against routine supersonic
flight over land is in effect, even for NASA. But flying just below the speed
of sound should do it.”
    There were no more questions and Jim said,
“Okay team, let’s dive into the nitty-gritty with your first Origin lunch.”
    ▼
     “This is terrible,” Paul said. “If this is
meatloaf, I’m a supersonic dodo bird.”
    “What kind of sound does an extinct supersonic
bird make?” Susan asked with a grin.
    Paul blushed. “This is a polite table.”
    “I have a recipe that has received good
reviews,” Leah told Jim. “I’ll email it to you.”
    After lunch, Jim drove the team van along the
back of the Team Thunder training complex. Six parking spaces were marked
“Reserved for Team Thunder Astronauts.” Three doors were in front of each pair
of parking spaces. The one on the left was marked Cougar Flight, the middle
door was marked Wolf Flight, and the door on the far right was marked Eagle
Flight. “Private, Do Not Disturb” was under each flight’s name.
    Jim parked in the last parking space and led
the team to Eagle Flight’s door.
    “This will be Eagle Flight’s living quarters
for the next 27 months or so. Quarters for Wolf Flight and Cougar Flight are identical.”
    He opened the door to a short passage that led
to a small round floor at the bottom of the ball shaped cabin. On it was a
laundry area, a compact gym, stairs to the floor above, and the bottom of a
fireman’s pole. Jim led the team up two stairways to the top floor, which was
the same small size as the bottom floor. It had two work stations and a large
video screen. He called it a study.
    Jim showed them how to use the fireman’s pole,
and the team followed him down to the middle floor. It was at the widest part
of the round cabin, and on it were the command center, kitchen, pantry, dining
area, and lounge.
    The command center extended from the cabin wall
to beyond the center of the cabin and occupied most of the space on the middle
deck. It contained seven compartments with four doors that opened to the cabin.
    The shirtsleeve control panel occupied the
space along the full width of the front of the command center. Video screens across
the front wall of the compartment above the panel would show space in all
directions around the starship.
    On each side of the shirtsleeve control
compartment was a door that opened to the cabin.
    As Jim led the team into the compartment, he
said, “The control console and video screens in this compartment are painted
plywood. The live shirtsleeve-control-console simulators I showed you this
morning are where you will learn every detail about the ship.”
    He then led them through doors at the back of
the shirtsleeve compartment into two compartments, which were connected by a
door between them. A reclining couch mounted in what looked like a gimbal
structure was in the center of each compartment. Screens and controls were
mounted surrounding the couch.
    “This is a maneuvering control simulator,” Jim
said. “The real starship will be flown from the real maneuvering controls for
launch and landing and during all critical maneuvers. And this is where the
beast meets the butt, where you will learn to fly Origin. The screens
and controls are live and will duplicate the performance of the starship.
    “The gimbal mounting here is bolted to the
floor, and it will not move. In the maneuvering controls in the real ship, and
in the advanced simulator we are having built at Vandenberg, the gimbals are
live. It will almost instantly spin you in any direction to offset g loads applied to the ship. It will be like riding all of the wildest roller
coasters in the world at once.
    “Be grateful