Now, he had been selected to captain the first Apollo voyage. He had been born for that purpose, he said.
But while he was still in the general pool of astronauts he had opened his campaign to get Jim into the space program. "They need the best brains they can get," Allan said. "You haven't got any right to sit in a musty old plastics lab while guys with half your ability try to get us into space. NASA will take you tomorrow!"
Jim didn't try to tell him that his plastics lab wasn't exactly musty, or that he didn't think of himself as one of the best brains in the country. But Mary sided with Allan; she was almost as excited about space as he was. In the end, Jim went to NASA. Within days, he had been assigned to head the development of the Prospector chemical mechanization.
It had been something of a jolt to pull up all the roots he had so carefully put down for him and his family, and move to the hectic, bustling, space-frontier community of the Center. But he wasn't sorry. It put something new in the blood, something men had never known before.
Space!
The great Saturn lifted slowly, on a vast blossom of fire, with snowy lox streaming down its sides. Then it was gone, a twinkle of fire high above, among the stars. That was all.
Mary and Jim Cochran continued to stare at the fading twinkle, and finally they turned away. Allan had obtained permission to be in the blockhouse during the firing. It hadn't been necessary for Jim to be there. He didn't want to know the instant-by-instant telemetry reports which told whether or not the flight was successful. Sam or Allan would call him when they knew. That would be soon enough for him.
"Let's drive down to the beach and watch the moon from there," said Mary. "We can't just turn around and go home, like—like nothing had happened."
Jim smiled in the darkness. Mary was as eager as he was for the success of the flight. And she didn't have his fear of failure, that kept him from wanting to know the maybe-yes, maybe-no indications that the telemetry would first show.
"Sure," he said, "that's a good place to watch it."