Chapter 1 (partial)

On Monday, January 6th, 1964, I received notification that our moon station had successfully achieved lunar orbit. Our original launch calculations had been almost exact. It had only taken a few minor burns to put it in a polar orbit around the moon.

I had a congratulatory message sent to the crew on board. Both Empress Ping and Queen Elizabeth sent theirs. President Kennedy also sent one, but it was much shorter as we had once more upstaged NASA.

Television pictures of the moon's surface were sent back continuously. The landing was shown in classrooms all over the world. It was, at the time, the most viewed broadcast in history.

Besieged with interview requests, I finally decided that I had to give in. It wasn't going to be a Rick Jackson victory, though. It was going to be a team victory.

To emphasize that, I flew back to our launch site in China and gave my interview from there. Unlike the first interviews with the international press, they had representatives on-site. We were generating enough news that they now stationed people there.

The reporters were all young people who were in line for better positions. For some reason, the edge of the Mongolian desert was considered a hardship duty station.

The questions all rotated around, "When are you going to land on the moon?"

"The moon landers are in transit right now. Upon arrival, a thorough inspection will occur. If both of them are in good condition, then we will make a landing.""Why two?"

"Safety, we don't want to send people down and have a vehicle fail. Can you imagine what the deathwatch would be like?"

From the looks on some of the reporter's faces, they imagined it and saw themselves as the center of a painful long-drawn-out process. The ratings would be sky-high!

At times I hate reporters.

While awaiting the arrival of the lunar lander module, Jerri Cobb and the crew were surveying the moon's surface for a landing spot.

Our criteria were different from NASA's, or I should say stricter. They wanted a flat, stable surface with no small craters filled deep with dust.

We looked for that, but we added that it also had to be a place to start tunneling down for a permanent base.

We hadn't scheduled the base to start on this mission. But we were trying to find an initial starting point. If we didn't find it the first time, we would keep trying until we had one. We were landing on the moon to stay, not to say we had done it and go home.

My sister Mary had asked if she could send some clothes to the moon and ship them back. She wanted to sell T-Shirts that said, "The Space Ladies went to the moon, and all I got was this lousy T-Shirt."

Cast in Time Book 6 Available in June 2024!

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More details coming soon.

Earl E. (Ed) Nelson

I have always wanted to be an author. I had my first rejection slip in about 1965. Wish I had saved it. For many years the only writing I did was technical as pesky things like three children, nine grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren came along.

My technical writing was in the field of quality in several different journals. I worked in the field of quality for over fifty years, starting as a line inspector and ending up as a Vice-President of Quality and elected a Fellow of the American Society for Quality.

Then a wonderful thing happened. I lost my job and was out of work for almost eight months. To keep from going crazy I wrote. I posted my stories on an online site, and lo and behold people read them and said nice things. Fast forward about eight years and I am retired and writing for the fun of it.

A lot of what is in my stories is based on my life experiences, gasp! Give or take a lie or two that is. The one fortunate thing in my career is that I got to travel worldwide and have been to most of the locations I write about.

In my younger days, I tried hot air ballooning, sky diving, white water rafting, spelunking, and target shooting. I have collected stamps, drove in road rallies, lowly rated by the US Chess federation. I built a Kentucky long rifle and a dueling pistol. I am a licensed HAM radio operator. My hobby is having hobbies.

My true passion is reading. Trapped in a hotel room I would read the telephone book. The TV would not be turned on. I have averaged 200 books a year for the last sixty years. I knew those long flights were good for something.

BTW I was born in the middle of an air raid in England during World War II, the house next door was destroyed and our windows were blown out. That is probably the most interesting thing I have been involved with. Mum never forgave me. Happily married for 56 years I hope my wife doesn’t catch on to what a goof I am.