[PART 21-(B)]
New London Advertiser – 5 July 1910
ASTRONOMER GIOVANNI SCHIAPARELLI DEAD
Famous Mars Expert Killed in Traffic Accident.
MILAN, ITALY: While on a visit to Milan, Italy to deliver an address on the latest discoveries from Mars world renowned Martian expert Dr. Giovanni Schiaparelli was struck and killed as he crossed a busy intersection in the heart of the city. Dr. Schiaparelli was scheduled to address a group at the University of Milan later that day on new enhanced information specifically to do with the size of and movements of the two moons of Mars. An investigation conducted by local and international teams has concluded that the death of Dr. Schiaparelli was an accident and unrelated to his well-known work on Mars. Due to the critical nature of Dr. Schiaparelli’s work his paper is to be presented at the Milan University on July 8.
THE SOMALILAND LAWLESS ZONE
Adding to the general problems we were facing around the world just to keep pace with the requirements of massive recovery came a series of pirate attacks off the coast of Somaliland, now an expanded area from what had been Italian East Africa before the First Martian War. Since the end of the First Martian War the area had been in a state of semi-lawlessness with many cross border problems coming from Somaliland. However, when the Somaliland problem began to play itself out into international shipping lanes it was time for Committee forces to display its strength and crush the lawless pirates of Somaliland. Eventually these efforts would seal off the area as it became the first international Lawless Zone on Earth.
The attack that became the “straw that broke the camel’s back” came on 18 September 1910. For months Somaliland pirates had engaged several private trading ships unlucky enough to be sailing the Gulf of Aden. They had also murdered hundreds of sailors from those ships. Many of these traders had come from southern Europe through the Mediterranean Sea, through the Suez Canal south by the Red Sea and then into the Gulf of Aden. This route had become an important life-line for Europe and Africa as well as the Arabian Peninsula and needed to be protected at all costs. When the pirates attacked a passenger liner, the RMS Saxonia in route to western Africa and the port city of Dar Es Salaam taking the entire ship hostage, it was time to end the terror of the Somaliland pirates and quarantine Somaliland. British Marines based in Alexandria, Egypt, got the call. They were soon being re-enforced by French Commandoes and Team Two from Command Post Tango out of Lower-London.
It would take weeks for the assault teams to assemble and by that time the Saxonia was docked at Mogadishu and guarded by over 100 pirates. Anyway you looked at it the rescue was going to be a difficult and deadly one.
On 28 October the rescue and assault teams gathered on Pate Island to make their final assault plans. Operation ‘Gold Coin’ was underway. The latest intelligence reports spotty as they were, indicated the 1400 passengers and crew were still being held onboard the ship. We had earlier landed two two-man teams of agents well north of the city to gather what information they could. Information was then sent by wireless to a ship off shore to be relayed to Lower-London. We were informed by the pirates that if the required ten million dollars in gold was not delivered in six days the pirates would begin executing the passengers at a rate of ten per day. It was time to act as time was running out.
The plan was deceptively simple. A wireless call had gone out to the pirates indicating the willingness to pay the ransom in gold. The Committee would send in a small vessel holding the gold launched from the CS Valiant that would standby offshore. Over the horizon would stand four battleships ready to fire cover for the assault teams if needed. At the same time Marines would land north-east and south-west of Mogadishu prepared to launch an assault on the main pirate encampment in the mostly destroyed city. They were to land before the morning sun in covered positions as near as they could to make an assault with as much speed as possible and when the time came. As the Marines were landing on the beaches of east Africa Tango Team Two were heading for the Saxonia by small black-painted boats. Their job was to board the ship unseen in the darkness and position their entire team inside life rafts ready to emerge and engage the pirates if and when the time came.
On 29 October the pirates agreed to accept the ransom in gold bars and coins and the time for the exchange was set at 8 a.m. 1 November on the beach next to the docked ship. The night, before the exchange all operational units were in route to their standby positions, and by 5 a.m. 1000 Marines were in covered positions near the beach at both sides of Mogadishu camp. On board the RMS Saxonia the captured ship now held host to 68 members of the elite Tango force holding silent watch inside 21 canvas-covered life-boats on the starboard side of the ship. They would not have long to wait for action.
At 7:45 a.m. the small ‘gold-laden’ boat approached the roughly made dock on the port side of the Saxonia. Unknown to the pirates waiting on shore the four crew members were members of Tango and under their feet below the floor boards were hidden rifles and grenades ready for instant use should the need arise. As they approached the beach occupied by twelve very well armed pirates and an individual who was obviously in command, the leader of the small boat crew halted and called to the pirates. He made it clear they had the gold, but would approach no further until they were able to speak directly to the captain of the ship. The pirates were informed the gold was in a small dingy being towed 100 feet behind their small craft. He also made it clear the dingy was booby-trapped and would explode sending the gold to the bottom if any attack occurred. It did not take long for the pirates to bring out the captain. He was able to confirm, albeit under stress, that no one had been seriously injured on the Saxonia and he was in generally good health.
With that the Tango Commandos began to pull the small dingy towards their small boat. He continued to warn the pirates to stay clear as to allow him to disarm the bomb. After the bomb had been ‘disarmed’ the dingy was pushed towards the beach and the waiting pirates. By now some twenty pirates had left their posts on the Saxonia to get a look at what was going on at the beach. None of them were on the starboard side of the ship that allowed the Tango team in the life boats to climb out and take covered positions at several areas of the ship. They had command of the deck and yet none of them had been spotted. The pirates had other things on their minds than guard duty.
As the transaction was being completed six Tango members on board the Saxonia had opened small holes in the tarp covering on three life boats on the port side. During the night they had moved from the starboard to the port side in order to be in position to support the boat team who were to meet the pirates on the beach. All six now had the pirates on the beach in the scopes of their sniper rifles “just in case.” That’s when all hell broke loose!
As soon as the dingy touched the beach it was taken hold of by three of the pirates. After the leader looked inside to confirm the ‘gold’ was indeed onboard he signaled his men. All of pirates on the beach began firing at the boat team as the pirate chief put his pistol to the head of the captain and pulled the trigger. Diving for what cover they could the boat team was soon armed and returning fire. The pirates on the beach never knew what hit them. Five of them were “taken out by Tango snipers” from the Saxonia, including the pirate chief. Within seconds the battle was over as a Tesla remote control device hidden within the ‘gold’ was set off. The blast killed six pirates and wounded one other. The Tango boat team suffered two wounded, but so far no one had been killed on the assault teams. At the same time pirates, who had been viewing the beach from the port side of the ship, began firing on the boat crew. Before any of them realized it they were caught in the open and surrounded by Tango commandos who cut down all twenty pirates with a withering cross fire. As for the gold it had never been on the dingy. It was only lead covered with gold plate. The only real gold was a few coins on top of the pile.
As the firefight on the beach ended the commander of Tango forces on the ship led his teams to a sweep of the open decks after the pirates on deck had been ‘removed’. By now the Tango wireless operator had sent a Morse code message to the ships off shore and to the Marines now very close to the ship on both sides. “WEAPONS FIRE ON THE BEACH AND SHIP – CLOSE IN FOR SUPPORT” Reinforcements were on the way.
With information that the passengers and crew were being held in three separate dining areas the Tango teams divided up into three assault teams of 18 fighters each. Most of the remaining members took up over watch positions on the ship where they could engage the enemy with supporting fires. Four Tango snipers took up positions overlooking the ramp that had been set up by the pirates so they could come and go on the Saxonia. We would later count 82 pirates on board the ship, which were fewer than we had expected. With Tango snipers guarding the ‘entrance’ any pirate still onboard would not be getting any reinforcements.
As the Tango assault teams made their way to the three dining areas Marine forces were engaging groups of pirates both north-east and south-west of the ship. Within 15 minutes the Marines were calling in fire from the four battleships that were just now making their way within range of the beach and pirate camp. It did not take long for the pirates to pull out of the fight and flee into the jungle. As they did the CS Valiant, which had been steaming towards the Saxonia, was pulling alongside the ship with crew members pouring machinegun and small cannon fire into pirate positions as they fled. Snipers on board the Valiant were also picking off pirates who were foolish enough have made their way topside. The British Marines and French commandos were soon poring on board from the beach and the Valiant in support of Tango.
Below deck the Tango teams divided themselves into six man squads. With silenced weapons the squads prepared to rush the dining areas. On D deck the squads made quick work of the pirates holding a large number of passengers inside the D deck dining room. That engagement lasted two minutes ending with 22 dead pirates, 4 dead passengers, all executed before the assault teams could make their way to the holding areas, and the wounding of three Tango members. By now the Marine commandos had ringed the two ships with sufficient forces to defend against any potential additional attacks that might have come. They also had complete control of all open decks.
On C deck the situation was more complicated. Upon hearing the attack on the ship the pirates, numbering 15 and tasked with guarding the crew in the C deck dining room, had fled their posts taking with them four hostages. When the assault team burst into the C deck dining room they found no pirates, but they did find over 485 crew members hiding, having been abandoned by the pirates, but not before several of the fleeing pirates fired several rounds into the groups of crewmen killing 18 and wounding another 12. Coming in right behind the Tango squads were 20 French commandos now tasked to escort the surviving crew members to safety. Tango was now on the hunt for the pirates.
On A deck the Tango squads divided into six three-man sections and at the same time burst into the dining area from six different directions. Within seconds 17 pirates were dead with an additional 5 wounded and taken prisoner. Minutes later the five wounded pirates were taken to the port side of the Saxonia and, much to the surprise of the British Marines, immediately executed by a Tango firing squad. Tango does not play games with murderous pirates. The Marines were then directed to secure the freed passengers and the Tango team reentered the ship to track down and kill each and every pirate still on board the Saxonia.
Twenty-five minutes later the fifteen remaining pirates were trapped near the engine room after a brief exchange of gunfire and surrendered, but not before killing all four of their hostages. The pirates were then disarmed, put up against a bulkhead, and shot!
The operation was now over as the crew and passengers of the RMS Saxonia began to make their way to the Valiant. A small crew from the Saxonia was left on board assisted by another team which had been standing by on the Valiant and the ship was readied to pull out of the harbor to make its way south. On board in case any further problems developed were 200 well-equipped Marines. None was to be expected however, as the ship was being escorted by two front line battleships!
Within weeks the Magic Twelve met in executive session to discuss the continuous attacks by individuals and groups within the Somaliland area. With a vote of 10 to 2 the group decided to designate the area as the Somaliland Lawless Zone (SLZ) and effectively isolate the entire region from the rest of the recovering world. From this point on the borders of Somaliland were patrolled on sea and land by military forces under Committee command tasked to keep the people of the SLZ inside the zone. We would soon add aerial patrols and deep penetration reconnaissance efforts to the mix. Whatever level of military action was required to keep the area isolated was fully authorized by the Committee.
Problems were also occurring south of the United States border in the Mexican territory. Mexican revolutionary Francisco Medaro was gathering his forces against Regional President Porphelo Diaz. Whatever the eventual outcome of this regional conflict at the time, events did not bode well for any long lasting peace in the area. United States and Committee teams were soon on their way to Mexico City in an attempt to calm the tensions amongst the factions vying for power. History would record that their efforts were not very successful. There were already calls within the Committee to create another Lawless Zone in the area, but the violence had yet to reach that level of concern. Nevertheless, with the creation of the Lawless Zone Research Group (LZRG) out of Lower-London, areas of special interest would be monitored for activities that could lead to such designations if they should prove to truly be lawless. Of the twelve areas of special interest only three would eventually reach the level of violence and uncivilized behavior required for their becoming designated Lawless Zones.
In special Committee, American President Wilson would remind those in attendance, “We hold that just government rests always upon the consent of the governed, and there can be no freedom without order based upon law and upon public conscience and approval.”
At 3 a.m. on 13 December 1910, members of Magic Twelve along with their Committee executive staffs gathered in Upper-New York City to personally view the above ground rebuilding efforts and to be briefed in Lower-New York City on all aspects of the recovery fully underway at the time. By now there were literally tens of thousands of buildings of nearly every shape and size being constructed in nearly every large population center on Earth. From small single room “temporary living areas” to modern multi-story office buildings the work of rebuilding was generating jobs and incomes to fuel new economic growth. Real life was returning to the cities of Earth.
The Twelve were also briefed on efforts by the various Directorates to develop a world-wide network of defensive and communication measures in the event of interplanetary war. It would be my task to put together the executive summary, which included all aspects of back-engineering projects, building programs, scientific programs, and of course what new information we had gathered about our enemies on Mars. Even though each and every subject on the agenda had been discussed during numerous meetings this would be the first time the entire Magic Twelve group would meet in one place at the same time with full staff. Security, to say the least in light of the recent death of Director K, was phenomenal. None of the briefers knew the full group would be there.
MOST-SECRET CoT
MEETING NOTES: THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE OF TWELVE
PROJECTS: After the three a.m. tour of the above ground work on Upper-New York City hosted by Director B the Committee members retired underground to their new offices in Lower-New York for their briefing held in the new “Mars War Room”. (Sydney and London have identical “Mars War Rooms,” all three linked by radio and eventually plans show them to be linked by direct cable and phones.) Charted on a back wall are the many projects being worked to include schedules, many of which are behind projected time frames. One chart showed all of the “blue projects” which were basically those above ground recovery programs in work or projected. The “red projects” board detailed below ground and anti-Martian projects. Naturally it was the red projects board, which generated the greatest interest amongst Committee members. Most of the red projects were on schedule and the Committee was going to make certain that they remained that way.
UNDERGROUND: One rather pleasant surprise came when it was reported for the first time that temperatures in the underground cities were naturally maintained at a regular 62 to 67 degrees F. year round. There would be no need to heat or cool these facilities. It was estimated that with proper ventilation temperatures would go no higher than 75 degrees F. when fully occupied. The Committee was informed that this would not only lower the costs to maintain the facilities it would greatly simplify construction. The only concern the Committee members really had when it came to underground construction was the schedule and whether or not the facilities would be strong enough to withstand expected punishing attacks from the Martians. Committee engineers were able to show that at the very least all of the facilities had been built to take much more punishment than was thought to be even possible. Extreme reinforcement had been the watchwords since 1906 and the events in San Francisco. The Martians had taught us a big lesson with that attack. Nevertheless, along certain main avenues an additional “steel girders wrap” is to be applied to further enhance the strength of these areas.
BLACK SMOKE: One major advance in defense of the cities was then announced. The team working on the Martian Black Smoke had run several tests on the methods developed to defeat this deadly weapon. Two methods had proven quite successful. The original method of burning the smoke tested on South Georgia Island in 1907 had been perfected. The displacement of heated CO2 gas into the Black Smoke before burning had successfully prevented explosive flash-over to the point where they were now able to burn better than 99% of the deadly smoke and contain the burn within the smoke field. Anti-Black Smoke defensive strips are now being built along natural approaches to several cities in the United States as well as the above ground approaches to New York, London and Sydney below ground facilities. Adding to this work is what is referred to as “cross-road strips.” These “burn-fields” are being built into road intersections as international city defense points. Mind fields if you will for Martian Black Smoke. We would eventually be placing these defensive strips around other facilities around the world. They are cheap, easy to deploy and if they came in contact with any Martian walkers deploying Black Smoke, would be effective.
SCHIAPARELLI: At this meeting the death of Director K, Professor Giovanni Virginio Schiaparelli was once again discussed. His assassination by the Martian Brotherhood had been successfully covered up by the Committee. The assassins are being tracked down at this time and progress is being made. He has been immediately replaced by German engineer Dr. Walter Hohmann.
HOHMANN: At the time of his selection by the surviving eleven members of Magic (he had recently become ‘Prince’ for Directorate K), Dr. Hohmann had been working on the mathematical problems related to orbits around planets and how to efficiently move from one orbit to another. Such a movement is referred to as a “Hohmann Transfer Orbit.” He presented his work at the meeting, which also featured the work of the rocket propulsion team. To complete his work on orbits however, will take a few more years estimated around 1916 when he will present his final study on his “investigation of the orbits that would be traveled by spaceships.”
It was a simple process, which made him the new Director K. One of the Magic Twelve simply walked up to Dr. Hohmann and said, “Prince, the king is dead. Do you accept or decline the honor as Director?” To which Dr. Hohmann simply said, “I do” adding “and may the gods have mercy upon my soul.” From that point on the new Director K had two armed guards with him at all times, and as one would expect a great deal more responsibility.
CABINET: During discussions many of the Committee members sought to expand the influence of lower level executives in regards to their relationships with the Magic Twelve. Surprisingly the Magic Twelve had already been discussing the possibilities of creating an officially recognized cabinet of advisors in order to not only cut down on their extensive personal workloads, but to, as Director G put it, “put as many eyes and brains on our work as we can in order to miss as few opportunities as possible.” In point of fact, the Magic Twelve had already put together an informal cabinet years earlier under each Directorate over seen by the “Princes” of their individual Directorates. They realized that snap decisions were now a rare event, which allowed these leaders the opportunity at this time to consult with many others before making any decisions. It would seem that the Magic Twelve had not missed a beat, in fact they had already prepared a document outlining exactly how the new “Magic Cabinet” would be formed and operated. They had seen the need for more outside input and with that a vote was taken (12-0) creating the Magic Cabinet (informally referred to as the “Magic Board of Directors”). Many sub-Directorates would now be under their direct authority.
This new group will meet for three weeks formally twice each year and any time the need arises. It will consist of four individuals representing each of the twelve Directorates for a total of 48 cabinet members. What had pleased the members of the Committee most was the requirement that at least one of the four members of each Directorate team be a national leader of one of the newly reconstructed nations. This is the first expansion of the power base of the first organization on Earth to truly be a worldwide organization of men from many nations in seats of power.
EGYPT: Efforts to uncover as much Martian ‘history’ in Egypt is focusing at the Giza complex and continues. Anomalies in the surveys have been discussed and the program was given the go ahead to continue.
ORGANIZATION: The Magic Twelve had their thoughts on forming a new ‘open’ world organization (to a point), but did not include those plans in their new structure as it was too soon for that. Pre-planning however is underway for a future world organization of nations. For the new cabinet they have designated “selection areas as to give the cabinet the widest world experience possible”. Four each are to be selected from North America, South America, Africa, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, North Asia, South Asia, South Pacific, Northern Europe, Middle-East, Caribbean area, and the World at large. Members of the Cabinet will serve for ten years, but they could be re-elected for a second term by the Committee.
CSS: With the Magic Cabinet in place the Magic Twelve have their worldwide advisors and a cabinet coordinating office ready to bring any cabinet level items to the attention of the Magic Twelve. Both Lower-London and Lower-Sydney are expected to have cabinet offices and meeting rooms constructed within a year. The first additional office to the Magic Cabinet came when the group recommended the Committee create an internal security force under Directorate C detailed only to protect the membership. Under advisement the suggestion was approved and put into operation. Thus the “Cabinet Security Service (CSS)” is born. They will soon be expected to move well beyond simple guard duty.
UFOS: A report was also delivered detailing several alarming reports of increased UFO activity in North and South America, Great Britain, France, Italy, Southern Africa and Australia. Included in these reports were incidents of individuals said to have been attacked by “humanoids exiting from spacecraft.” Many of these humanoids were described as Grays and fit the general description of Martian Bs well known since the Martian War. Another group of reports stated that some of these ‘aliens’ were seen to wear helmets that project some type of air breathing tube to canisters as well as antennae projecting from the top. Finally, there were a few reports of men (human or hybrid) wearing all black suits and dark lens glasses warning individuals to not report anything they may have seen when it comes to strange aerial phenomena. Many of these incidents will be studied by the Committee (CAIG teams and CSS) to see if there are any discernable patterns as well as any security concerns.
CSS MANDATE: Working with intelligence members of Tango, CAIG and national security forces this investigation would be the first official investigation developed by the new Cabinet Security Service, who will already be stepping outside of their original mandate. In most matters of security the CSS will continue to use a broad brush in their security operations. It was not lost on some of the Committee members when one of them stated an old Roman adage. “Who guards the guards?” We will soon write a new series of regulations under which the CSS could operate and the penalties if they strayed too far from their mandate.
MILITARY: Prepared in time for the report to the Committee session we produced an Executive Briefing Paper on ‘World Military Preparedness’ EBP 1910-17 (see Appendix B). A review of documents was discussed about general military training of ground and air forces which were ruled to be generally well suited for local operations (national), but were woefully lacking in any kind of coordinated structure well enough for world-wide defense. With this in mind a review board was established to investigate what steps could be taken to better organize, train and deploy world military forces.
LIE DETECTOR: As a final agenda item, before the meeting was called to a close, the Committee was given a rather interesting demonstration of a new device developed by Scottish cardiologist Dr. James Mackenzie. He called his new device a polygraph machine and he stated that with this new instrument he could detect when a person was lying. He was immediately challenged by several members, but it did not take long for the good doctor to prove his point. His machine performed flawlessly much to the embarrassment of a certain Director [A] who shall remain nameless, as his now ‘former girlfriend’ seems to have come to light due to the new machine. To say the very least we were all quite impressed, other than the one Director of course. Before the meeting was adjourned the doctor had a contract to build eight more machines, which would be used by the Committee and a new name to go along with his device. He was now the inventor of the Lie Detector! Naturally both Tango and members of the CSS would put these new machines to very good use.
MOST-SECRET CoT
After the meeting the general staff of the Committee prepared an Executive Briefing Paper EBP 1910-17 on 17 December 1910, “World Military Preparedness” (Appendix B). There was much work to be done.
WORLD MILITARY PREPAREDNESS
(MS) Efforts to rebuild world military forces continue albeit on a much slower level than desirable. Naturally, renewed national interests come to the forefront when defensive measures are discussed; however it is our job to blend these national interests into a seamless world defensive program. That goal has yet to be obtained. It is necessary to continue building a Committee based military organization alongside national military efforts in order to command sufficient forces to defend this planet. Command and control of national military forces must also become part of the Committee operational structure. This goal can be accomplished by placing high ranking Committee military officers into national military command positions. GD
By the end of 1910 there were at least 10,000 Nickelodeons in operation around the United States and as many in Europe and Asia. Pathe’s Animated Gazette began their weekly short films ‘magazine’ format with a series of newsworthy films. We counted these ‘picture shows’ as an indication of just how far we had come in the nine years since the end of the war. In other words we were spending time and money on things other than simple recovery. We were also well on our way to developing a viable phone system. As an example in 1900 the United States had around 1.5 million phones, mostly used by businessmen and government or organizational offices. (My number at the time was CF 421.) By 1910 there were 7 million phones in America and about twice that number in the rest of the world. These advances were some of the factors indicating America’s rapid advances in industrial strength and wealth. This included a report which passed by my desk that by the end of this year the Americans could boost completion of sewage disposal systems in almost all of their major new population centers to protect the drinking water for their citizens. Even at great cost the work had been done. The next step would be to move the next work underground to protect these systems from Martian attack.
It was also in 1910 we read about a new land speed record when Barney Oldfield pushed his automobile to an incredible speed of 130 miles per hour! Now that was speed, and he did not need a rocket or any Martian technology to reach that speed. I wondered what Mr. Ford would say about the engine he had used. I also wondered how long it would be before I could get one!
At the end of 1910 the Committee also authorized Dr. Lowell’s latest book for the general public, “Mars as the Abode of Life.” Lowell was able to describe in some detail what Martian society was like in broad terms. Much had come from Martian Electric Documents but some of the more defined passages had come from ‘interviews’ of hybrids and others conducted by our Committee forces.
As for my friend Winston, he had become British Home Secretary during that year adding an additional workload to his already full schedule working for the Committee. Over the next few years I would see less and less of Winston as our paths now seemed to cross only at high-level Committee meetings and fewer and fewer late night dinners. At one such dinner late in December we both expressed the thought that we were very lucky to have a world generally at peace. Sadly it was a feeling that both of us knew would be short lived.
“The fire being very great, did by all accounts look like a great burning staff or torch…and raced overhead very fast like an arrow with a great roaring and crackling thunderous din.”
Michael de Nostre Dame, 19 March 1554
[END PART 21(B)]
Copyright © R. Michael Gordon, 2020
If you are enjoying this R. Michael Gordon fictional story you may be interesting in reading his non-fiction work on the American Space Shuttle titled The Space Shuttle Program: How NASA Lost its Way.
This critical study of NASA’s space shuttle program provides an in-depth examination of the events, decisions, and policies that may have contributed to the horrific destruction of the shuttles Challenger and Columbia. It first traces the early development of NASA’s shuttle program, specifically examining the problems associated with the designs of shuttles OV-099 Challenger and OV-102 Columbia. The reader is then taken through a detailed look at the first successful flights made by Challenger and Columbia and the postponement of top-secret Shuttle flight 51-C Discovery, which did not launch under milder weather conditions as the ill-fated Challenger because the weather was too cold! An in-depth assessment of the shuttles’ disastrous final launches follows, including detailed accounts of the post-flight search and rescue operations, the official investigations into each accident, and the impact of each disaster on the future of NASA’s manned space program. This is a critical investigation into the history and loss of Space Shuttles’ Challenger and Columbia and their crews, revealing the men, in and out of government, ultimately responsible for its destruction.
Review: “Though this is a factual text, working around an event which is familiar to present generations, the prose unfolds with some of the dramatic immediacy of fiction. Whilst it is a piece of reportage, it has an urgency and momentum not often found in the non-fiction mode. [Gordon] writes to identify and expose the origins and consequences of a catastrophic event, approaching it from an analytical rather than a sensationalist angle. Certainly there is an authorial will to uncover the facts and to allocate responsibility, but it is articulated in a voice which is both fair and balanced.” Minerva Press reader report.
