These Brave Few

These Brave Few

“Houston,We have a problem.” Commander Jack Stafford says calmly with sweat glistening from his face. 

1 Year Before…

In a home on the west coast, Jack Stafford as well friends and family sit and watch as the CALLISTO V rocket catches fire in the command module then spreads to the whole rocket;creating a giant Fireball on the launchpad.A collective gasp fills the home. Stafford just stares at the tv without saying a word. Later that night, his family went to bed without saying a word. The next week he gets a call from mission control supervisor, Don Swaggert. Janey Stafford,Jack’s wife lingers nervously from the kitchen doorway. While she was too far away to hear every detail of the conversation; jack sounded normal at first and then he apparently got news that made him instantly much quieter. He thanked Don for calling and hung up.”What’d Don say?” Janey asked. “He asked me to lead the next launch.” he said in an almost somber tone. “Isn't that a good thing?” She asked, puzzled. “ There's going to be a lot of pressure to get up fast after that last fiasco and someone or something is going to go very wrong” , replying with a tone of frustration and sadness.   

In the coming months, He and his crew began the grueling cycles of training; Mission control finding ever creative ways to kill them in simulations. The repetitive failures without any sense of knowledge gained even began to wear on the nerves of his other more “gung-ho” crew member Steve Austin.Through trial,”death” and error, they managed to come up with workable solutions for what seemed like the most insane scenarios.

 It was now time for them to make their mark on the world. They file into the command module. The families of the crew hold their breaths in terror and anticipation remembering all those months ago how those other men died.The dramatic countdown begins,the crew begins their corresponding checks with mission control and the crowd and families among the crowd ache in the eternity of the clock.That is until the wrathful thunder of the thrusters eject the craft into the atmosphere within the blink of an eye. It was a successful launch! Piercing the veil of earth’s gravity the craft dubbed CALLISTO V begins with the mission to set up a geosynchronous space lab. Actually in space, they could finally breathe a sigh of relief. It would not last for long. During the docking procedure a switch would be unknowingly left in the wrong position causing a deadly form of nitrogen gas to fill the module, choking everyone inside. Jack Stafford quickly grabs the emergency gas mask. Now with the mask crewman Jim Buckley, begins a “plug out” procedure to restore oxygen levels. Unfortunately,there was not enough nitrogen to suppress the spark that caused a flash fire burning a third of the equipment in the module. After surveying the damage and now beaming with sweat,Jack Stafford then radioed mission control the following words: “Houston,We have a problem.”  Gus Beasely answers “what is it jack, talk to me.” “Houston, while returning the module to a safe atmosphere,a spark ignited a small pocket of oxygen burning a whole panel of instrumentation. “Which side did it happen on?” Gus says as he contemplates solutions. The crew and mission control now face a grim reality. They could be marooned in orbit unless they find a solution. With damaged oxygen scrubbers their oxygen supply would be limited to a few hours between the four of them;to make matters worse,Gus advised them to power down as much unnecessary equipment as possible which caused the temperature to begin to plummet. If they didn't freeze to death they would surely choke. As they begin to freeze Steve Austin looks out his six port hole and sees the sun glimmering on the “ rescue” Command Module for the space station that now can’t be accessed unless he went and got them.”Houston this is Austin I want to do a spacewalk to the other module to get the scrubbers we need and attach them. Beasley approves of the idea and Austin straps on the spacewalk gear and begins to disappear into the starry void. While detaching the other scrubber a piece of debris penetrates Austin’s glove temporarily causing an oxygen sensor to go off as luck would have it his hand sealed the hole. During Austin’s scavenging the crew get told that their main mission now is to bring them home and to do so they will attempt to “slingshot” around the moon. It’s at this point Steve is making his way to the ship and making repairs. Coming back inside, they slowly turn on the instruments using the blanket to catch moisture. They undock without incident then begin the process of the slingshot. Buckley hits the thrusters in ten second intervals as Austin gives him pitch directions. It is a slow agonizing process for hours Houston watches a tin can seemingly drift aimlessly. They make a circle around the moon and now a blue marble is sitting in their window. They continue ebb and flow in the starry sea, everyone patiently waiting on these brave few.Then all of sudden with a great lurch; everything changes. The gentle lifeboat against timeless infinity has now become a comet and pressure cooker; falling to earth in brilliant hot light like Lucifer himself. For 15 hours, A nation that had hung on baited breath waiting to see what would become of these men;could now find peace as it safely lands in the Atlantic Ocean.Jack Stafford never did another spaceflight,he would later retire and later successfully win the mayoral campaign for his hometown. Steve Austin went on two other spaceflights CALLISTO VIII and CALLISTO XI which would kill him due to a suit puncture during a spacewalk. Jim Buckley would take a job at mission control starting with the CALLISTO VIII launch. Donald Banks would go to teach engineering in Maine. 

While these men never accomplished the mission they set out to.It would be this moment that would define them.