Chapter 12
Thursday, November 14
NASA Control Center, Johnson Space Center
The voice of Mission Control spoke over the loudspeakers and into hundreds of headsets.
The Ground Launch Sequencer Has Been Initiated. We’re at T-Minus 120 Seconds and Counting
The Space Shuttle Columbia was on Launch Pad 3, in its final preparation for another secret mission. As was expected, the Department of Defense issued a terse non-statement on its pur-pose: “The Columbia is carrying a classified payload will be used for a series of experiments. The flight is scheduled to last three days.”
In reality, and most everyone knew it, the Columbia was going to release another KH-5 spy satellite. The KH-5 series was able, from an altitude of 110 miles, to discern and transmit to Earth photos so crisp, it could resolve the numbers on an automobile license plate. The photographic resolution of KH-5’s was the envy of every government on the planet, and was one of the most closely guarded secrets that everyone knew about.