Home Again

Gentlemen, I hope I'm not intruding.

Oh, lookie here, boys.

Gene Kranz, the new director of Johnson Space Center,

deigns to visit us common working stiffs.

I thought what the hell, I'll drop by and say farewell.

Plus, I wanted to personally congratulate you

on finally getting a command of your own, Mike. You earned it.

I appreciate that, Gene.

Hey, listen, you tell Neil that I guarantee

we'll do a better job of landing than he and Buzz.

I think everyone did a better job of landing than he and Buzz.

Gentlemen, Godspeed.

Houston, this is Cape Kennedy Launch Control.

We are approaching T minus one hour ten minutes and that's a hold.

Scheduled hold for flight handoff.

Copy that, Kennedy. Holding at one hour and ten minutes for flight handoff.

CAPCOM, do you have our settlers on the line?

I do indeed, Deke.

Jamestown Base, this is Houston. Patching you into the big board.

Do you read? Over.

Houston, this is Jamestown Base. We read you.

You better not start the festivities without us.

Wouldn't dream of it, Ed.

Administrator Weisner is just getting his speech out now.

Harry's doing the speech? This is gonna take hours.

I'll keep it brief, Gordo. I know you have a short attention span.

This is a big day.

An important day for our country.

A day a lot of people said would never come.

But it's also a big day here at NASA.

And it is only proper that we should recognize it as an important one

in the annals of our program.

Because today

a woman becomes one of our flight directors for the very first time.

She earned her place at this desk

through her dedication and commitment to the highest standards of this program.

By the depth of her technical and professional knowledge.

But most of all, by the leadership she demonstrated

during the establishment of Jamestown Base.

Her ability is unquestioned.

Her character and integrity are of the highest order.

And so, ladies and gentlemen, on behalf of President Kennedy,

it is my honor and privilege to present to you

our new White Team flight director for the launch of Apollo 23,

Irene Hendricks.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, all.

I can only say that I stand on the shoulders of giants.

And I'm proud to lead this group of exceptional professionals.

Now, let's get back to work. We've got a mission to launch.

I want those ascent trajectory updates, please.

Let's go.

And Irene, now that you're in charge,

we've got a few bones we'd like to pick with you.

Like the shower.

And the food.

And the defective thermal ice drill bits.

And the food.

And about 5,000 other things we'd love to hand over to Apollo 23

when they get here next week.

Okay, guys. Message received.

And I'll be happy to take all your complaints

as soon as we get this bird up and on its way to the moon.

That bird was supposed to get here two weeks ago.

Day one, already behind, Irene.

I'm gonna file your complaint in the appropriate receptacle, Gordo.

-Charlie, let's cut that video feed, okay? -Yes, ma'am.

But now we leave our coverage of Apollo 23 at the hold point

to return to our special report.

We are down to the final minutes

in the vote to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment in the Illinois State Senate,

and the tally is very close.

Passage of the ERA was declared a top priority of President Ted Kennedy

in his inaugural speech,

and the last two years have seen a flurry of activity

as his administration put on a full-court press

in statehouses around the country.

As of today, 36 states have ratified the amendment,

leaving it only one state shy.

Supporters had actually written off the state of Illinois

until Republican Governor Ogilvie, in a surprising turn,

threw his support behind the amendment early last year...

Yes, I knew it!

...which has created something of a political...

Just a moment.

And I'm getting word that the final vote is being cast now.

And the vote...

is yea.

I think we're looking at a bad actuator.

Should only be a few minutes before we swap it out,

and then we'll clear the tower.

I got nowhere to be.

It's a beautiful machine.

I hold in my hand the prime crew of Apollo 24.

Why do I get the feeling there's a reason you're keeping me in suspense?

Don't know what you're talking about.

The astronauts are, in ranking of seniority...

Ellen Waverly, mission commander,

Harrison Liu, and...

Deke Slayton.

What?

Come on, Deke. What are you doing?

My medical clearance for flight status, signed, sealed and delivered.

You've had a heart condition since Mercury. Everyone knows that.

Which has officially been noted as no longer a flight risk by the medical staff.

As attested to in the document in your hand.

The president isn't gonna like this.

He's gonna think it's some kinda publicity stunt.

He can argue with the flight surgeon if he doesn't like it.

And as chief of the astronaut office,

I'm assigning Deke Slayton to prime crew on Apollo 24.

Far as I'm concerned, that's the final word.

Jesus.

I know this must be very disturbing to hear.

Well, I mean this is completely unacceptable behavior.

I can assure you they both will be severely punished for it.

I think I'm not that concerned with their punishment per se.

I'm more interested in getting to the emotional roots

of this kind of antisocial behavior.

Antisocial? Well...

They're not psychopaths.

They blew up some toilets with cherry bombs.

It's a prank, and they'll be punished for it.

I think we need to explore

whether there are issues at home that might be underlying this.

And I would really like to include Mrs. Stevens in these discussions,

since her son is one of the boys involved.

Well, Mrs. Stevens is unable to attend, due to the demands of her job.

Yes, she's an astronaut. I'm aware of that.

As is her husband,

and my husband, both of whom are on the moon at this moment.

I'm aware of that too, Mrs. Baldwin.

And I can only imagine the stresses and strains that must put on both families.

Oh, we manage.

Thank you for bringing this to my attention.

I can assure you, I will handle it from here.

-Well... -Thank you.

Thank you for your time, Mrs. Baldwin.

Not a word out of either one of you until we are home.

And then we will discuss the appropriate consequences

for the vandalization of school property.

Let's go.

-Yes, ma'am. -Yes, ma'am.

I wish I could see my dad's face today.

Last Thanksgiving, we had a huge fight

about whether ERA meant we'd all have to use the same bathrooms.

Well, it'd be a lot cleaner.

John Stennis is gonna fight the whole "women in combat" thing

on the Armed Forces Committee, just you watch.

He may be a Democrat, but he's still from Mississippi.

Well, Mississippi, California, whatever.

No way Americans are gonna watch their daughters march off to war, believe me.

Used to say that about women in space too.

It's all just a matter of time.

It's the Equal Rights Amendment, Pam, not the Gay Rights Amendment.

You can both be as cynical as you like, but the winds of change are blowing.

Actuator swap-out and test is complete.

We're closing up and exiting the tower.

I'll check in when we reach the LCC.

I'm hungry.

Do they still have those double-decker cheeseburgers...

FIDO, do we have updates on launch winds yet?

Yes, Flight. Just got the balloon data from the Cape.

-We're within launch parameters. -Keep an eye on the data.

Last flight we came close to exceeding angle of attack limits.

Oh, my God.

-Oh, no. -I'm not sure. I'm just seeing it now too.

Lock the doors.

Sixty days have now passed

since the shocking explosion of Apollo 23

on the launchpad at Cape Kennedy.

The tragic deaths of 12 members of the ground crew

caught in the tower during the explosion,

including Gene Kranz, the newly appointed director of Johnson Space Center,

continue to cast a pall over the entire program and the nation.

The three astronauts who were pulled away from the exploding vehicle

by the emergency launch escape tower

are still recovering from injuries sustained

when their damaged command module landed on the beach instead of the ocean.

Meanwhile, the three astronauts stranded in the Jamestown Base

continue to do experiments and do maintenance work

on America's first manned habitat on the moon.

Astronauts Baldwin, Stevens and Poole have been receiving resupply provisions

via unmanned Titan rockets while they wait for NASA's board of inquiry

to identify the cause of the Saturn V explosion.

But there can be no relief crew for the astronauts

until the board certifies the fleet of Saturn rockets ready to fly once again.

The FBI continues to be concerned at the possibility

that KGB operatives might have sabotaged Apollo 23

as a way of delaying work on the Jamestown Base.

To that end, we would like to begin interviews

with some of your support personnel here at JSC

and at NASA facilities at Cape Kennedy, JPL, and around the country.

-I understand. -I don't.

All due respect, but why is the FBI still going down this rabbit hole?

We know the cause. And it wasn't some Russian secret agent.

You think you know the cause.

And our investigation's already turned up

numerous instances of breaches of security protocol at NASA facilities,

any one of which could have allowed Soviet agents

access to highly classified information