exactly what it had said it was going to do and orbited Sputnik One. Around and around it went for ninety-two days, beeping its triumph. Less than a month later, on November 3rd, an even larger Sputnik was launched, this one carrying the dog Laika, the first life form of Earth ever to fly in space.”
Simonov nodded and smiled. He was not an emotional man but he shared with his countryman the pride in the early days of the exploration of space.
“Triumph followed triumph,” the academician went on. “While the Yankees were frantically fumbling, attempting to regain some of their prestige, we made first after first. The first artificial satellite to orbit the sun, Lunik One. And on April 12, 1961, Vostok One, bearing Major Yuri A. Gagarin, the first man in space. The first satellite to reach the moon, the first satellite ever to carry two men at once, the first woman in space, the first flight to orbit the moon. And Lieutenant Colonel Leonov, the first space walk. And then the first landing on the moon of an unmanned satellite which sent back photos.”
The older man paused again and ran an aged, freckled hand over his thinning white hair. “By now the world realized that the USSR was no longer to be scorned and thought of as a second rate power. Overnight, with the launching of Sputnik One it had become obvious that we were a scientific nation second to none, that there were only two real first class powers in the world and that we were one of them.”
“We owe much to our science,” Ilya Simonov said. The old boy was proving himself quite a chauvinist. However, as head of Soviet Complex space research, he should be allowed his moments of pride in the accomplishments of his colleagues, and himself.
But Mendeleev sighed and said, “However, the wealth of the colossus of the West was comparatively boundless. Although in the early years they were behind, they announced their intention of putting a man on the moon before the year 1970 and they proceeded to do just that. The race to the moon was on.
Ilya Simonov raised his eyebrows at that.
But the academician shook his head. “Our propagandists denied that there ever was such a race, that we were not interested in such a race. That we were proceeding in more serious endeavor with a long view, rather than attempting spectaculars. But they lied, Comrade Colonel. There was such a race—and we lost it. It was possibly due to Khrushchev in 1964 when he caused an eighteen-month delay in our Soyuz program by ordering Sergei Korolyov, our chief space engineer at the time, to fly two Voskhod missions, using modified Vostok capsules. The only aim of this expensive and time-consuming operation was to claim some more firsts.
“As they had boasted, the Yankee Apollo-11 landed the first man on the moon. And our immediate plans there were postponed. We pretended scorn of the Apollo landings, contended that they were for show and that they accomplished practically nothing. We announced that we would, in due time, orbit the Salyut space station about the moon and embark upon a serious scientific exploration of Luna. We would plant a Lunar colony, equipped with unmanned Lunakhod moon rovers, and supplied with needed necessities by unmanned Luna-class probes, each capable of a payload of five thousand pounds of consumables, equipment and prefabricated shelters. In short, dozens of our already tested Luna-class spacecraft could be zeroed-in on the site chosen for Lunagrad, and the scientists and technicians from our orbiting Salyut space stations could then descend and assemble a base which would allow for permanent occupancy.”
“What happened to those plans?” Simonov said, becoming increasingly intrigued.
“The Lagrange Five Project happened,” the other growled. He took a deep breath and said, “After the success of the Apollo landings, the Yankees sat back for a moment and said to each other, What now? They had plowed almost forty billion of their dollars into landing a few men on the moon and their astronauts had come back with a few pounds of rocks. Their congressmen and other leaders began to ask if they had participated in a ‘moon-doggle’ that was essentially worthless. Funds for the NASA were cut back drastically—much to our satisfaction, of course. However, and this is the crucial fact, they did provide for the development of five space vehicles which they call space shuttles. In short, craft that can take off with a payload, go up into orbit, and then return.”
“This I knew, of course. But why would that be crucial?” the colonel said.
Anatole Mendeleev eyed him emptily and said, “Because, Comrade Colonel, the space shuttle is making practical, the current space colony project of the United States of the Americas. It has spawned other important projects such as the space tug and SPSs. The Yankees were slower than the originators of the idea of the Lagrange Five Project hoped for, but they are now in full swing. At the rate they are going, their Island One will be in operation within a comparatively few months.”
“And how does this apply to us?”
“We have made our second mistake in our battle for men’s minds, as some call it. For the first few years, we were far beyond the Americans and the other imperialist nations. But in 1965 that idiot Brezhnev ordered that our lunar landing program be stretched out because of the cost.”
Simonov knew of the argument as to Brezhnev’s place in Soviet history. He hoped his sigh would not place him in either camp.
Mendeleev grunted contempt. “Colonel, there are two hundred men and women in the Soviet Complex who need not worry about calling a member of the Central Committee an idiot. I am one of them. I am a member of the Academy of Sciences. At any rate, we pressed ahead with our plans for Lunagrad, a permanent moon base.” He shook his head, as though in despair. “But the Americans, with their newly developed space shuttles, went in to the L5 project, under the leadership of their brilliant Professor George R. Casey. They set up their temporary moon base with some two hundred men to operate it, assembled a mass-driver, and began to lob raw materials to Lagrange Five, where they are being processed there in space by another some 1,800 scientists, technicians and laborers, and now Island One, their first space colony, is practically finished.”
“While we are still largely devoting our efforts to a permanent, large sized moon settlement, eh?”
“Until now, yes.”
“As I say, I’m a layman. What is the advantage of this Island One over a permanent moon base? It would seem to me…”
Academician Mendeleev shook his head strongly, his second chin wobbling. “There are various advantages to the American space colonies. For one thing, the availability of energy. The moon has a 14-day night, therefore there is a serious problem of obtaining energy at our chosen sites. Convenient, low-cost solar power is curtailed because of the fact that energy storage over a 14-day period is extremely expensive. On the moon one is wiser to rely on nuclear power, so one loses one of the principal advantages of working in space. Second, the moon is a more expensive destination than Lagrange Five or Four. To reach the moon, you must first fight Earth’s gravity. You have to take it as it comes, and you can never cut it off. Even to get higher gravity than that is a lot more complicated and expensive on the surface of Luna than it is in free space where you can simply rotate a vessel to get any gravity you want.”
“So the Americans have stolen a march on us.”
“Yes. And this we cannot allow. We must be the first to begin beaming plentiful power from space to Earth. That nation that dominates space and begins to beam what amounts to nearly free power to Earth, will dominate the world. The battle of men’s minds will have been won, and he who is behind will never catch up. If we cannot be first to do so, we must at least be almost simultaneous. We might even accept being a few months behind the Yankees, but four years is out of the question. We have begun a crash program to build our own space shuttles and space tugs. We are devoting all efforts to it. We are driving ahead in all other fields involved. But we are desperate for time, Comrade Colonel.”
Ilya Simonov looked at the other warily. He said, “I fail to see my connection with this matter. I was ordered back from Greater Washington, where my duties are involved in… the usual matters of my ministry. But not even my ultimate superior could tell me why I was to report to you.”
The other cleared his throat unhappily and took up a paper from his desk and held it for a moment.
He said