INGRID DOWS - AN ALTERNATE STORY PART 3 - THE SPACE AGE by Michel Poulin - HTML preview

CHAPTER 25 – FIRST SPACE JAUNT

05:29 (California Time)

Friday, July 01, 1955 ‘C’

Air Force Flight Test Center, Muroc Air Force Base26

Rogers Dry Lake, Mohave Desert

California, U.S.A.

‘’Uh, do we know what this is all about, sir?’’ asked the young Air Force captain as he watched with other pilots of the Air Force Flight Test Center a big Fairchild C-152 cargo aircraft land on one of the runways of the base. His superior, Lieutenant-Colonel Charles Yeager, smiled to himself while answering the young pilot.

‘’It is a highly secret aircraft project developed by

General Ingrid Dows, who has asked our help in order to discretely conduct a series of test flights. That is why this cargo plane is landing here at such an early hour. I could tell you more but then I would have to kill you. Jokes aside, nobody here is to blab about this project outside of this base, even to his wife. Got it, Milner?’’

‘’Uh, yes sir!’’

The young captain, properly chastised, then returned his full attention to the C-152, which veered on a taxiway after landing and started rolling towards one of the hangars of the base, in front of which Yeager and his group of test pilots stood. As it did, Milner noticed a few minor details about the approaching cargo aircraft.

‘’Hey, this C-152 is not a standard model, sir: its belly is slightly different and I can see what looks like the belly doors of a large bomb bay.’’

‘’Well, I will have to give you points for observation, Milner: this C-152 is a specially modified one used by General Dows for her project. However, keep your questions to yourself for the moment. General Dows will brief us all soon about her project.’’

26 Muroc Air Force Base: Edwards Air Force Base was initially known as Muroc Airfield before changing names in the 1950s.

When it arrived on the tarmac portion in front of the hangar, the C-152 pivoted on the spot, then stopped, with its engines then shutting down one by one. Next, its aft cargo ramp started opening slowly, watched by Yeager and his pilots. Yeager noticed at once that the centerline cargo ramp, out of the three aft ramps normally found on a C-152, was noticeably wider than in the standard model of the GLOBEMASTER II. Once the ramp was fully down, a woman standing in the cargo hold started walking down, heading towards Yeager. The latter smiled as he instantly recognized her and stepped forward to meet her at the foot of the ramp with a solid handshake and a salute.

‘’Ingrid, it’s nice to see you again. I must say that you have been pretty discrete since your participation in the last Le Bourget air salon. In fact, shouldn’t you be at this year’s salon, which just started a few days ago?’’

‘’I decided not to go this year and to let Katharine Hepburn head our delegation there. I have been very busy during the last two years, working on my latest project. Now, I came here to perform the first flight of the prototype of my STARBLAZER away from public eyes. Glendale is too near Downtown Los Angeles and its runway is way too short for my prototype, so I asked Washington permission to come here to conduct my test flights. By the way, a convoy of trucks, including bowser trucks carrying liquid rocket propellants, is due to arrive soon at this base.’’

‘’Rocket fuel? You want to test a rocket?’’

‘’My prototype is much more than just a rocket, Chuck: it is a spaceplane propelled by both rocket engines and atmospheric air-breathing engines. It was designed to conduct sub-orbital reconnaissance flights at hypersonic speeds and, hopefully, will prove able to go up to Earth orbit. Its intended missions are why I want to keep its existence secret from the public for the moment.’’

‘’A spaceplane? Hell, you will always keep surprising me, Ingrid. However, this project sounds like it is quite a risky one, no?’’

Ingrid’s expression became somber at those words and she noticeably lowered the volume of her voice as she answered Yeager.

‘’It is a risky venture, Chuck. That is why I didn’t bring Hien with me to Muroc. I in fact have roughly a fifty/fifty chance of getting killed during those flight tests of the STARBLAZER.’’

Ingrid’s answer instantly cooled down the enthusiasm Yeager had shown initially and he stared gravely at her as emotions rose in him. He however understood fully why she would be ready to run such risks in order to test her spaceplane. He had taken similar risks years ago as he tested the Bell X-1, the first plane to break through the sound barrier after being released at altitude from a converted bomber. He had been and still was living for flying, whatever the risk, and Ingrid had proved a long time ago that she was built out of the same mold as him. If he had not married his wife Glennis in 1942, chances were that he would have proposed to Ingrid after he had first met her after the war.

‘’Ingrid, I am sure that you will come out of those test flights in one piece: you are that good as a pilot.’’

‘’Thanks, Chuck! Well, time to unload my spaceplane from this C-152 and to hide it from indiscrete eyes inside your hangar. By the way, this C-152 has been specially modified by Fairchild for my STARBLAZER. On top of being able to carry it whole inside its enlarged centerline cargo hold, it can also carry it under its belly, so that it can act as a first stage launcher for my spaceplane, the same way that your X-1 was carried aloft by a modified B-29.’’

With that said, Ingrid turned around and waved her right hand up while shouting to another woman standing at the top of the cargo ramp.

‘’YOU CAN TAKE THE STARBLAZER OUT OF THE HOLD, CAROL!’’ The woman acknowledged her order with a wave of the hand, then disappeared inside the huge cargo hold. A few seconds later, an overhead crane beam started extending out of the hold, an aircraft suspended from it. Yeager and his pilots were soon able to see in its entirely one of the strangest planes they had ever seen. However, while its shape was most unusual, with no wings visible at first, it was well streamlined and actually looked quite racy, making Yeager nod his head in appreciation.

‘’Your STARBLAZER does have a fine look to it, Ingrid.’’

‘’And a pretty airplane normally flies well, as the saying goes. Hopefully, that will prove to be correct again. Once it will be inside the hangar, I will be able to describe it in detail to you and your people.’’

Once totally out of the hold, suspended under the traveling crane of the C-152, the spaceplane was slowly and gently lowered to the ground, to rest on its tricycle landing gear atop the tarmac. An aircraft tractor was then brought forward by Yeager, to tow the spaceplane inside the nearby hangar as the C-152 pilot retracted the traveling crane and closed up its aft centerline cargo ramp. Yeager soon stood next to Ingrid under the nose of the STARBLAZER as she started describing her spaceplane to him and his pilots in a strong voice.

‘’First off, my STARBLAZER is best described as a hypersonic, orbit-capable aircraft, so is unlike anything you may have seen before. Its two main missions will be strategic reconnaissance at very high altitude and hypersonic speeds and orbital missions meant to either take reconnaissance photos from orbit or the placing in orbit of artificial satellites. Those satellites could vary from communication relay satellites, near-Earth Space studies and meteorological studies satellites. I in fact intend those future satellites, which are presently being designed at my Missile and Space Division, to be primarily serving the civilian market in the United States. I expect them to soon revolutionize our lives as we know them, by providing coast-to-coast instant communications, television rebroadcasting and meteorological watch from orbit, detecting and tracking in advance tropical storms and tornados before they could hit our coasts.’’

‘’Wow! That would be great, Ingrid! Tropical storms and tornadoes cause each year millions in damages and hundreds of deaths in the United States. Just that would more than justify your project.’’

‘’Indeed! On the military side, my STARBLAZER would give the United States a mean to conduct strategic reconnaissance missions at speeds and altitudes which would make it impossible to intercept by our adversaries.’’

‘’What about as a carrier of nuclear missiles, General?’’ asked one of Yeager’s pilots, a major. Ingrid vehemently shook her head at that.

‘’I don’t plan to add that role to my STARBLAZER, Major. We already have ground-based missile systems able to fill that role, systems which are more survivable, faster to launch and less costly than what a fleet of my spaceplanes could be. Now, about the technical characteristics of my spaceplane. Its shape is specially designed for hypersonic speeds at high altitudes and for orbital flight and atmospheric reentry. Know that, in order to satellise an object in low Earth orbit, you need to attain a minimum terminal speed of Mach 27 or more, depending on the altitude you are aiming to get at. Once ready to return to Earth, my spaceplane then will face reentry temperatures of up to 2,300 degrees Fahrenheit, due to friction with the air of the stratosphere. I thus had to use non-standard materials and construction methods for it.’’

‘’Ouch! That sounds hot as Hell, Ingrid.’’

‘’It is, Chuck. If I would end up burning up on reentry, you would basically find next to nothing left of me. However, I don’t intend to die up there, so let’s forget that small detail.’’

Yeager couldn’t help then look at her with concern, shaken by the thought that such an exceptional woman could end up being basically vaporized at high altitude. He however let her continue to describe her spaceplane to him and to his pilots.

‘’Now, for the engines used by my STARBLAZER. They are a combination of rocket engines, ramjet engine and turbofan engines meant to be used during different phases of its flight. If launched from the ground, the main rocket engine, burning a mix of liquid oxygen and liquid methane, will literally rocket me up to high altitude and push me to a speed of at least Mach 3, at which time I will shut it down and switch to my ramjet engine, which burns liquid methane and uses the oxygen found at high altitude to attain hypersonic cruise speeds of over Mach 5. That’s for a high-altitude reconnaissance mission profile. If I am aiming to attain orbit, in order to launch a satellite, then I would keep my main rocket engine on until I enter Space and attain an altitude of about a hundred miles and an orbital speed of around 4.75 miles per second. Once in Space, I would then use a different set of rocket engines burning a mix of storable bipropellants, which are nitrogen tetroxide and aerozine 50, the latter being a mixture of hydrazine and of unsymmetrical dimethylhydrazine, or UDMH in short. Those two bipropellants are extremely toxic and need special precautions and procedures when time comes to fuel up my spaceplane. When time comes to effect reentry, I will then fire up retro-rockets using my storable bipropellants and slow down enough to reenter the Earth’s atmosphere, where atmospheric friction will slow me down further to hypersonic speed. Once there, I will then be able to use again my ramjet engine to continue flying and get back to my base, where I will land with the help of my turbofan engines, which were modified to burn either liquid methane or refined kerosene.’’

‘’Christ! You make my own test flight in the X-1 sound like a walk in the park compared to that envisioned Space mission.’’

‘’It will indeed be a very dangerous first flight into Space, Chuck.’’ said Ingrid in a most sober tone. ‘’However, the United States will soon have to go into Space, unless it wants the Soviets to be first in Space. The future of our national security may well depend on the success of my STARBLAZER. I already spoke to Vice-President Eisenhower about my project and he understood the full implications of it and its possible consequences. If my STARBLAZER proves able to attain orbit and to return safely to Earth, then my project will become a top priority secret national project, with discrete government backing and financing. The stakes are this high at the moment, Chuck.’’

Yeager stared at her in silence for a moment before speaking in a subdued tone.

‘’The way I know you, Ingrid, I can guess that this would be only a first step in Space for you, right?’’

‘’Correct, Chuck. If my STARBLAZER proves to be a success, then I have ideas for even more ambitious ventures into Space.’’

‘’Like what, Ingrid?’’

‘’Like putting a manned Space station in orbit. Like eventually going to the Moon and land there, to walk on it. But I first need to make my first flight in my STARBLAZER a success. I intend to take off for a test flight this morning, once my spaceplane will have been fueled up.’’

10:05 (California Time)

Hangar of the Air Force Flight Test Center

Muroc Air Force Base, California

Charles Yeager held up his breath for a moment when he saw Ingrid come out of the locker room of the hangar, wearing her spacesuit with its helmet visor opened.

‘’Wow! You look like a Martian girl, Ingrid. You would be perfect in a science-fiction movie.’’

‘’Well, like they say, reality often surpasses fiction.’’

‘’How flexible and comfortable is your spacesuit?’’

‘’Comfortable enough, Chuck. I studied the design of the spacesuits used in Nancy Laplante’s timeline before having this suit produced. It should be more than adequate for short stays in orbit.’’

‘’So, what will be your flight profile for this first test flight, Ingrid?’’

‘’I will take off on main rocket engine power, climb to the stratosphere and then switch to ramjet power, so that I could accelerate further before switching back to main rocket power and climb to orbit. Once there, I will use my orbital engines to regulate and circularize my orbit. I intend to complete at least one full orbit before reentering the atmosphere, where I will switch again to ramjet power and fly back to base. However, due to the many uncertainties concerning how my STARBLAZER will react on reentering the atmosphere, saying where I will eventually land would be a wild ass guess on my part. Hopefully, I will be able to get to and land at one of our airbases in the United States. At worst, I will land at a base or airfield inside a friendly country in Europe or Asia. I sure don’t want to have to land in the Soviet Union or China if things do go really wrong.’’

‘’I’d say!’’

Yeager accompanied Ingrid as she walked to her spaceplane, where she stepped on a small platform telescoped down from the belly of her cockpit section. She shared an ultimate handshake with him before making her platform go up to enter her spaceplane. Yeager walked to a safe distance from the STARBLAZER before watching it as an aircraft tractor started pulling it out of the hangar. However, that tractor kept towing the spaceplane after exiting the hangar and rolled down a taxiway with its load, to finally disconnect with it once the STARBLAZER was lined up at one extremity of the longest runway of the base, which was made even longer by the flat, hard surface of the huge Rogers Dry Lake. Chuck, along with his pilots and with an Air Force camera crew filming the scene, then watched on as Ingrid made her last pre-flight checks. Then, the main rocket engine of the STARBLAZER erupted into a huge trail of flames, while an ear-busting roar made the whole base shake with its vibrations. The spaceplane then accelerated down the runway at a rate Charles estimated to be at least three Gs. With the help of its small pair of wings, telescoped out for takeoff, the spaceplane then lifted from the runway, climbing at a near vertical into the sky in a spectacle worthy of a science-fiction movie scene. It was out of sight in seconds, leaving Charles and his pilots overwhelmed.

‘’Damn, what a takeoff! Be safe, Ingrid, and return to us in one piece.’’ He then ran to his jeep, parked next to the hangar, intent on going to the flight operations center, where he would be abl e to follow Ingrid’s flight on the radars of the base and of the American continental air defense network.

Inside the cockpit of her spaceplane, Ingrid was crushed in her seat as she was pushed by a 3.4 G acceleration during her zoom climb towards the stratosphere. She very progressively started a wide turn eastward as she climbed, intent on using the Earth’s rotation to help gain orbital speed, while periodically speaking on her radio with some difficulty due to the Gs crushing her.

‘’STARBLAZER to Muroc Control... Am now at 24,000 feet and a speed of Mach 1.7... Am now turning to Heading 085. Everything nominal up here.’’

‘’Muroc Control, acknowledged. We have you on our radar and are receiving you loud and clear, over.’’

Ingrid, having discussed this with Yeager this morning, didn’t reply to that, in order to save her breath while enduring her hard acceleration. That acceleration in fact kept increasing, as she burned rocket fuel, making her spaceplane lighter. She waited until she had passed an altitude of 100,000 feet and was starting to level off, before speaking again on her radio.

‘’Muroc Control, I am now at 105,000 feet and Mach 3.1. Switching to ramjet power.’’

Opening the intake shroud of her ramjet engine, which was positioned on top of the back of her spaceplane and which surrounded her main rocket engine, she lit up her ramjet engine just before shutting off her main rocket engine. With her spaceplane now in level flight at supersonic speed, she pushed the throttle of her ramjet engine all the way forward, continuing to accelerate and soon passing Mach 4. With her flight parameters being recorded in continuous mode, Ingrid smiled to herself: she was now unofficially the fastest person ever...again. As her spaceplane vibrated and shook while accelerating, she checked her temperature sensors distributed around the body of her craft. The liquid methane fueling her ramjet engine, kept at minus 175 in a heavily insulated tank which was itself wrapped around the big tank containing the liquid oxygen used by her main rocket engine, circulated first in a network of small diameter tubes meant to cool down the hot parts of her spaceplane before going to fuel her ramjet engine. Ingrid soon arrived at the go/no go point of her test flight and, seeing that all seemed to be going well, took a decision and spoke again on her radio, this time calling the National Strategic Air Defense Center in Colorado Springs.

‘’STARBLAZER to Colorado Springs, do you receive me, over?’’

‘’Affirmative, STARBLAZER, send, over.’’ answered a male voice after a couple of seconds.

‘’Colorado Springs, am now at 120,000 feet and Mach 5.5. Am going to switch back to main rocket power in order to climb to orbit. Will call you back once safely in orbit.’’

When the officer down in Colorado Springs answered her, she was able to detect some emotion in his voice.

‘’Acknowledge, STARBLAZER. Good luck, Lady Hawk.’’

‘’Thank you, Colorado Springs. STARBLAZER out.’’

Ingrid then concentrated on her controls and switched back on her main rocket engine after shutting down her ramjet engine and closing its air intake. This time, the acceleration she felt proved even higher than at takeoff, since her spaceplane had by now burned a significant portion of her bipropellant fuel. Crushed in her seat with a 4.6 G acceleration, she concentrated on keeping her spaceplane stable and in a moderate climb as her speed grew closer to the minimum satellisation speed of 17,718 miles per hour, or 28,350 kilometers per hour.

Her main rocket engine was still roaring when she attained satellisation speed. She waited a few seconds more, to ensure that her speed was truly sufficient to stay in orbit, then shut down her rocket engine. She was elated to see that she still had some Methalox bipropellant, the term for a mix of liquid oxygen and liquid methane, in her tanks: she would thus be able to use that remaining propellant to help her spaceplane to slow down and return into the atmosphere when the time came for that. Grabbing her personal 35mm still camera, contained in a bag next to her seat, she temporarily removed the gloves of her spacesuit in order to be able to better adjust her camera settings, then took multiple shots of Earth’s blue orb and of the surrounding blackness of Space. She also looked through the ocular piece of the targeting optical scope meant to align the four high-resolution reconnaissance cameras of her spaceplane on chosen ground locations. Seeing that she was about to fly past the eastern coast of the United States and the Boston area, she activated her reconnaissance cameras and took some pictures then, in order to be able to prove that she was in orbit while passing by Boston. With all that done, she put back on her gloves, then activated her radio.

‘’Colorado Springs, this is STARBLAZER: I have attained a stable orbit and am now flying eastward at an altitude of 94 miles and a speed of 4.77 miles per second. All systems are nominal and I still have some Methalox fuel left in my tanks, which I intend to use during my reentry. I am now sixty miles east of Boston and on a heading of 085. I will now coast in orbit while using my orbital engines to circularize my orbit , over.’’ Ingrid was able to hear wild cheers in the background when the officer in Colorado Springs answered her.

‘’I acknowledge, STARBLAZER. Congratulations on your success, Lady Hawk. We will follow you on our radars for as long as we can and will direct our stations in Europe to track you, over.’’

‘’Understood and thank you, Colorado Springs. STARBLAZER out!’’

Next, Ingrid consulted her flight map and calculated where her present trajectory would bring her. Looking at her speed and altitude, she then made some quick calculations to see if it would be worthwhile for her to use her orbital engines, which had a limited quantity of bipropellant fuel available to them, to either circularize her orbit or effect a slight course correction. She however knew that changing orbit inclination in Space necessitated the burning of a lot of fuel. She finally decided to leave good enough alone: this was after all her first test flight of her STARBLAZER and she would be able to aim for a specific orbital trajectory and ground reconnaissance targets during her next flights. Seeing that she would pass very close to Paris, she smiled to herself in amusement: she was going to be able to photograph Le Bourget Airport from orbit in less than thirteen minutes. Remotely opening the protective covers of her reconnaissance camera lenses, situated on the surface of her spaceplane’s belly, she adjusted the focus of her cameras and waited. When she started crossing the French coast, she took a few pictures in order to define her position, then took a few more pictures seconds later, as she was passing over the Paris’ northern districts and Le Bourget.

‘’I got you on my little birdie, Kate!’’

For good measure, she used again her personal still camera to photograph the view of Europe she had ahead and below her craft: those pictures were going to make Hien particularly happy.

The next half hour passed quickly for her, as she kept a tight watch of her instruments while occasionally taking a few pictures of the outside. She also had fun experiencing zero gravity, leaving her seat and going down to the small crew compartment of her spaceplane, situated behind and below her cockpit, where she did a few rolls while floating in the middle of the small compartment while being filmed by a fixed camera installed just for that purpose. After all, this was the first Human flight in Space in her timeline and she wished to get the maximum out of it.

When her STARBLAZER passed the Pacific coast of China, Ingrid returned to her seat and strapped herself in, knowing too well that she was now going to face the toughest part of her test flight: the atmospheric reentry. Just before she reached the point she had calculated where she should start her reentry maneuver, she called up Muroc AFB on the radio.

‘’Muroc Control, this is STARBLAZER, over.’’

She had to repeat her call before she got an answer that was both weak and slightly garbled.

‘’This is Muroc Control. Go ahead, STARBLAZER.’’

‘’From STARBLAZER, I just crossed the eastern coast of China at Latitude 36 North, flying on Heading 085, and am about to start my reentry maneuver. Due to atmosphere ionization, you may lose radio contact with me for a few minutes. I will call you back once I will be in atmospheric flight mode, over.’’

‘’Understood, STARBLAZER! We will be waiting for your next call, out.’’ With that done, Ingrid checked that her safety harness was tight, then closed and sealed her helmet visor.

‘’Time to see what Hell looks like, I believe.’’

First turning her spaceplane around a full 180 degrees, she then fired up her main rocket engine, using its remaining Methalox bipropellant fuel to start decelerating her spaceplane and initiate her reentry descent. As soon as that fuel was all burned, she did a second 180-degree turn and carefully aligned her spaceplane, then fired her orbital retro-rocket in order to lose more speed and start reentering the upper layers of the atmosphere. All went according to plan...at first. As she reached denser layers during her descent, she was surprised to feel her spaceplane bounce back up to a notable degree.

‘’What the...?’’

Using again her orbital retro-rocket, she saw her STARBLAZER dip a bit lower in the atmosphere before bouncing up for a second time, albeit not as high as the first time. Frustrated by this, she suddenly remembered something that she had read months ago during a visit to the Pentagon, in the HOURGLASS files on Space exploration.

‘’Atmospheric bouncing! Of course! However, this means that I will have to adopt more of a nose down attitude in order to avoid more bounces. Alright, let’s see what I can do about this.’’

Carefully using her attitude thrusters, she adopted a nose-first angle rather than presenting her belly at an angle, as she had planned to do in order to present the best protected parts of her spaceplane to the intense thermal heating caused on reentry by friction with the atmosphere. She also partially opened her airbrake panels at the back of her spaceplane, in order to both slow down further and to make her craft more stable. To her relief, that prevented her spaceplane from bouncing up again and she was able to lose altitude at a steady pace. However, that also meant that her craft nose and cockpit area was now being directly heated by the friction of air against her hull. Terrifying sheets of flames soon enveloped the nose of her spaceplane, flowing around it before passing over her cockpit, while her craft shook violently and while she heard the equivalent of a hurricane while being subjected to powerful deceleration forces. The next couple of minutes were some of the most terrifying of her life and she let out a breath of relief when things started calming down. Soon, she was able to establish again her position, only to be hit by a shocking surprise.

‘’What? I am already over the coast of California? But I am still going at over Mach eighteen at an altitude of 170,000 feet: there is no way I will be able to perform a ‘U’ turn at such a speed without breaking up in pieces. Those bounces carried me way further than I expected. Shit! I better advise Muroc of this.’’ Her first attempts at calling Muroc AFB were drowned in radio static. By the time she got an answer, she was already overflying the Midwest region of the United States.

‘’...roc Control. State your situation and position, STARBLAZER.’’

‘’Muroc Control, from STARBLAZER. My spaceplane bounced up twice when I tried to reenter the stratosphere. However, I managed to stop bouncing up and am now safely within the atmosphere, at an altitude of 170,000 feet and a speed of Mach eighteen. I am now flying over Salt Lake City on a heading of 081. Be advised that I am still flying too fast and too high to be able to safely turn around and head back West. Right now, I am not sure where I will end up by the time I will have slowed down enough to be able to significantly ma neuver around and land, over.’’ A new male voice then came on the air in reply.

‘’STARBLAZER, this is Lieutenant-General MacMahon, Commander of Air Defense Command. Do you think that you could reach Europe and land there, over?’’

‘’I believe so, Colorado Springs. However, this craft is supposed to stay secret from the rest of the World. Landing in Europe would blow open the existence of my STARBLAZER, over.’’

‘’Could you possibly fly further and pass over Europe and Asia in order to approach again the California coast from the West, over?’’

‘’Negative on that, Colorado Springs. I might reach as far as the Chinese Pacific coast but I would by then be out of fuel and out of velocity, over. I believe that I will have no other acceptable option but to land in a friendly country in Europe, over.’’ There was again a delay before MacMahon came back on the radio.

‘’Then, do that, Lady Hawk. Better blow that secret than to lose you and your craft, over. I will now call Washington and pass that info to the Pentagon while you fly to Europe. I will also advise all our air bases there to be ready to receive you, over.’’

‘’Thank you, Colorado Springs. STARBLAZER out!’’

Switching off her microphone, Ingrid slowly shook her head in frustration: this atmospheric bounce phenomenon had taken her by complete surprise and was now going to cause her secret project to be revealed to the whole World. However, there was nothing she could do about that now but to keep flying and land, hopefully in a safe manner and in a friendly territory.

14:10 (Paris Time)

Le Bourget Airport, northeastern suburbs of Paris

France

Katharine didn’t like the expression on the face of the French senior custom and immigration officer at Le Bourget, who was also in charge of the security at the airport, as he approached the Hughes Aircraft information stand.

‘’Is something wrong, Commandant Aubut?’’

‘’It could well be, Miss Hepburn. We were just warned that an American experimental aircraft ran into some kind of problem and is now about to land here. It is called the STARBLAZER.’’

‘’Oh my God! That’s Ingrid! She was due to make the first test flight of a revolutionary spaceplane this morning. Has she sustained some kind of damage or breakdown?’’

‘’I don’t know, miss. I was only told that she was unable to land in the United States and that she overshot it, then had to fly across the Atlantic in order to land here. A spaceplane, you said?’’

‘’Yes: a craft able to reach Space and then return to Earth. Once out of fuel, it basically becomes a very fast glider...a heavy glider. Advise your fire department that the STARBLAZER uses a combination of highly toxic and corrosive liquid rocket bipropellant fuels: they should wear protective gear and masks while approaching the spaceplane, especially if it lands hard.’’

‘’I will advise our firefighters, miss. Thanks for your warning.’’ Aubut then ran back to his car and drove away, leaving Katharine apprehensive about what could happen to Ingrid. Not a woman to panic or freeze in difficult situations, she then started shouting orders to her ground technicians.

‘’INGRID’S SPACEPLANE EXPERIENCED SOME KIND OF TROUBLE AND IS GOING TO LAND HERE AFTER COMING BACK FROM ORBIT. I WANT OUR PICKUP TRUCK TO BE READY TO GO, WITH FOUR TECHNICIANS WEARING PROTECTIVE HAZMAT SUITS AND MASKS AND WITH EXTINGUISHERS. WE WILL THEN DRIVE TO CLOSE TO THE MAIN RUNWAY.’’

Katharine then ran to go put a protective suit and an oxygen mask herself, grabbing as well a portable VHF radio. As the exposition team’s pickup truck was starting to roll, with Katharine and five other women aboard, a tiny dot in the sky became visible, approaching at high speed while losing altitude fast.

‘’Shit! She’s coming way too fast for the kind of runway length Le Bourget has. She’s going to overrun it and crash at the end of it. Step on it, Maggy!’’ Her driver obeyed her and accelerated to her top possible speed but their pickup truck was still a good 150 meters from the main runway, driving down one of its parallel taxiways, when the STARBLAZER touched down at the start of the runway, still doing a good 300 kilometers per hour. Then, a long flame came out of its nose, while a powerful roar vibrated across the whole airport. Katharine pumped up a fist in the air in triumph.

‘’YES! INGRID MANAGED TO SAVE SOME FUEL FOR HER RETRO-ROCKET: SHE WILL BE ABLE TO MAKE IT!’’

Katharine was soon proved correct, with the STARBLAZER coming to a stop at the end of the runway after veering off on a connecting taxiway. Katharine’s pickup truck arrived near the now immobile spaceplane many seconds before the first airport firetruck arrived, quickly joined by another three firetrucks and by one ambulance. Not waiting for the firemen to come down from their trucks, Katharine ran towards the nose section of the craft, where the cockpit was, a fire extinguisher in her hands. Before she could get to the craft, she saw the belly access platform of the STARBLAZER starting to come down, with Ingrid standing on it. She was still wearing her spacesuit but she was now in the process of removing her big helmet. When Ingrid reached the ground, Katharine couldn’t help hug her and kiss her repeatedly. Ingrid eagerly returned her hug and kisses before looking her in the eyes.

‘’Talk about an eventful flight, Kate. It was also quite a scary one, even for me.’’

‘’What happened? Why couldn’t you land in Muroc?’’

‘’Because I encountered an unexpected problem as I was attempting to reenter the atmosphere, Kate.’’

Ingrid then took a moment to tell Katharine about how her flight had gone and the problems she had encountered. By the time she was finished, Commandant Aubut arrived near her at a run, accompanied by two medics.

‘’Are you alright, Miss Dows?

‘’Yes, I am, Commandant Aubut. I will not need the attention of your medics.’’

‘’Thank God for that, miss.’’ said Aubut before looking her up and down, detailing her spacesuit. ‘’You sure could add to our air salon with your suit, miss: you look just fantastic.’’

Ingrid smiled at that, then looked at Katharine.

‘’Do you have enough tarmac space besides our PEGASUS for my STARBLAZER, Kate?’’

‘’We do! Since you will need to wait for your C-152 transporter aircraft before you could bring your spaceplane back to the United States, we might as well park it besides our other Hughes aircraft. I will thus call for an aircraft tractor right away. Uh, how much will you be ready to tell us about your spaceplane to the public? The medias here are going to go bonkers about this story.’’

‘’I will say that my STARBLAZER is meant for Space exploration and for orbiting artificial satellites, while keeping its strategic reconnaissance role secret. I will take care myself of answering the questions of reporters on my STARBLAZER.’’

‘’While still wearing your spacesuit?’’

‘’Why not?’’ replied Ingrid, a big grin on her face. ‘’If my STARBLAZER has to end up at the top of the World news, then I might make it as spectacular as possible. This will be the biggest publicity coup that Hughes Aircraft could hope for now.’’