THE SECOND TIME AROUND—IS HARDER....

Decades after the last footprints were left on the Moon, the US was preparing to return to the Lunar surface in a new class of rockets, when the mission suddenly became much more urgent. It would have to be a rescue mission.

Unbeknownst to the rest of the world China had sent its own Lunar expedition. A manned expedition. Until a distress call was received, no human outside of China even knew that the mission was manned—or that their ship had crash-landed and couldn't take off again.

Time was running out, and if the four Chinese astronauts were to be rescued, the American lunar mission would have to launch immediately, with only a skeleton crew. Once the heroic US astronauts were underway the army of engineers and scientists back home had the daunting task of deciding what equipment could be left on the Moon to permit the Lunar lander vehicle to lift safely from the Moon with the two US astronauts and the four stranded Chinese taikonauts! Could the US mount such a mission successfully—and would thousands of years of instilled honor "allow" the Chinese astronauts to accept a rescue?

Derek Shoales

Stemme