by Ed Nelson
Chapter 46
It is wonderful to have people working for you that watch and plan ahead. I realized that it was as much to their benefit as mine, but it was still a good thing.
General Booth sent me a hand-carried message by military courier two days later. The Chinese had built three Proton rockets and space capsules already.
This seemed strange, they had only obtained the licenses from the Russians two months ago. They would barely have had time to translate all the plans and drawings, much less build anything.
It seems Chinese spies had been very efficient and stolen all the plans over a year ago. Something to remember about my intellectual property.
I placed a call to the Empress's Chief of Staff to get a status check on what was going on. He told me that they were preparing the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the Gobi desert to launch a person into Earth orbit.
The Empress had been told about the Mercury 13 lady astronauts being trained, then rejected by NASA. Offers of employment in the Chinese space program had been made. When the ladies arrive in China, they would find they were working for Jackson Enterprises Space Division Launch Group. Their pay would be almost ten times what NASA paid. That would be over seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars a year. [Too much. The US President was paid only $100,000 at that time.]
Within two days all had replied to the offer, nine of the thirteen had been accepted. I was glad to see that Jerrie Cobb was at the top of the list.
I had thought that someone mentioned that Lop Nor was to be the launch site. When I asked, I was politely told that it was being used for other purposes. With that level of secrecy, it must be their nuclear program.
The space ladies, as I thought of them, were to leave from Houston in the US three days from now. Since all the action was now moving to China I decided to go there also, via Houston. I would give my latest employees a lift.
That may have been a mistake.
After spending a day on the phone taking care of business and stopping by my London office to sign the paperwork, I boarded the 707 for Houston.
I had taken a load of technical material that General Booth had gathered on the rocket and capsule. I wanted to study it and also share it with the space ladies.
I got some studying done, a few hours of flight time, and a night's sleep and we were landing at Houston International Airport. It seemed like a quick trip. [It wasn’t named Hobby till 1967.]
Waiting at the private aviation terminal were nine ladies, all about five to ten years older than me. Word had got out that something was up because reporters were waiting.
Being the coward that I am, I stayed on board while the plane was serviced, and the ladies boarded.
They had been told a 707 would be picking them up, just not which one. As they came aboard, I quickly realized that I was facing nine females that wanted answers!
“Ladies if you bear with me for a minute, I will explain what is going on.”
I had the feeling if I waited longer than a minute there would be a lynching, mine.
“First of all, do you have your signed contracts?”
A chorus of yes followed.
“Okay, you realize that all of you are guaranteed the money for the next five years. Were you given evidence that the money has been put in escrow in your name?”
That one had a few of them talking to each other.
“Now I understand your desire to go into space and you are willing to work in the Chinese space program to do it, especially after getting screwed over by NASA.”
Lots of yes, mutterings, and downright swearing at that.
“Okay, some of you may know that I’m the Duke of Hong Kong and considered one of the richest people on the planet.”
According to Forbes, I was the richest now by far.
“My company, Jackson Enterprises, has a space division, which has a launch division run by the Chinese. There is a Science division run by the British and Administration is run directly by Jackson Enterprises Space Division in America.”
“The Chinese and British governments are active participants in this project. You may consider NASA a competitor to some degree. I say some degree because their announced plans are some missions to the moon and back and that’s it.”
“Our mission is to have a permanent space station in orbit and a base on the moon. The base on the moon will be a staging area to explore the rest of the solar system.”
“At this time, you ladies are the only ones trained to be astronauts that are available and will be performing the first flights. Others will be trained later but you will be the first. This is by the order of The Empress of China, Queen Elizabeth, and my Mother.”
If they thought I was kidding about Mum, they were wrong.
“Oh, by the way, we will be using the Russian Proton rocket and capsule under license. We will have several test launches. I understand the first one is being placed on the gantry as we speak.”
“Any questions?”
I thought that my little talk would take the wind out of their sails. Silly me, they had questions, hundreds of questions. They were still asking them while we refueled in Anchorage.
After that, they gave me a break while we ate dinner. I had stayed up front with them the entire flight. A question about the rest of the aircraft gave me a rest from answering questions.
I asked our stewardesses to give tours of the entire aircraft. While they were on their tours the Chief Pilot came back to see me. He had a newspaper in hand.
“Rick, I think you need to see this, the UP wire is prompt with their stories if nothing else.”
On the second page of the Anchorage Daily News was an article with pictures. It seems the Duke of Hong Kong now has a harem made up of rejected astronauts. Someone in Houston doesn’t like me.
I wonder if he is the Vice-President of the United States. If so, the feelings are mutual. After I had that thought I chastised myself. I didn’t know who it was, and I was letting my biases color my conclusions over what was a non-event.
The world would know the truth soon enough. I did tell the Pilot not to let the ladies see it. We would have a riot on our hands.
When the ladies all came back from their tours, they told me they were going to draw straws for my bed.
I didn’t touch that line. I went up front and got a few more flight hours in.
In Tokyo, the press was waiting but we didn’t get off the plane, so the ladies didn’t learn about what was being printed. By the time we got to Jiuquan, it would be old news, and if I was lucky there would be no English-speaking papers there.
We landed in Beijing to great fanfare. There was a parade to take us to the Forbidden City. There the ladies were taken to a set of suites where they could rest and clean up. It was a long trip, and they had only started in Houston. I started in London.
Unlike them, I was chivied along in cleaning up and getting dressed. At least Harold, the coward Harold who hid in his cubby hole the entire trip advised me to dress casually.
I was taken to the Empress's private apartment. It was different from her official apartment. That was for show, this was for living, I mean kick back and relax. I had to smile to see that she was a fan of those Scottish Highland romances. Poor girl, rich, handsome, powerful Scotsman. If he lived four hundred years ago even better.
The Empress and I talked a little about the Space program. She was concerned that while we competed with NASA that it wouldn’t be considered in competition with the United States.
I told her that unfortunately that the Press and some government officials would spin it as competition.
She thought that since Jackson Enterprises was the company that was paying for the bulk of the project and even having the Administration conducted in America that they wouldn’t take that attitude.
Why, even the Astronauts would be Americans.
I then reminded her that NASA had a vested interest in being the only group in orbit. Alan Shepard, John Glenn, and the rest con
sidered it their private domain. They felt threatened by the woman who qualified as pilots equal to them, and who scored better on the space requirements.
“What will they say about you?”
“I probably will end up being branded a traitor.”
Chapter 47
The Empress almost shrieked, “A traitor! You have done so much for your country how could they do that?”
“Easily. It’s not what I have done in the past it’s the fact that I’m not working for their special interest group.”
“What group is this?”
“It will all revolve around NASA. NASA isn’t the villain. It is those who live off NASA that will oppose me.”
“How does that work?”
“NASA has to let many contracts, and every part they buy is tracked by the new zip codes. To gain congressional support for their programs they let every congressman know how many jobs they are supporting in each congressional district.”
“If they purchase ten screws from a small supplier who has twenty employees, they will report twenty jobs were created in that district.”
“The congressman will turn around and tell the providing company they had put a good word in for them with NASA and please contribute to my re-election campaign. When you realize how many different purchases NASA has to make it adds up. They are a powerful lobby in Congress for their project funding.”
“They have got so large they could change their mission to something like controlling the weather and Congress would fund them.”
“Unlike private companies, the government can create a monopoly. No one else in America can build and launch rockets to explore space. Congress is all in favor of this because it keeps its election funds flowing. NASA can be a bureaucracy without the pressures of competition.”
“Private companies support NASA because they are getting business from them. It is a closed-loop system. Until the loop is broken, progress will be at a governmental pace rather than private industry.”
“Now all these bad things said, when a government puts its mind to it, it can accomplish things faster than private industry. A better way to say it is when government gets out of private industries’ way things can happen. You saw what American industry accomplished in World War II when the government got out of the way.”
This is what I told the Empress, an oversimplified view of how special interest groups in America can have disproportionate power.
There were no villains in the group, even Congress. There will always be a bad apple or two, but most of them were trying to take care of their constituents by directing where government funds are spent to provide jobs.
Since I was trying to do something outside of this system I would be branded as the bad guy. That was better than waiting around for fifty years or so watching NASA accomplish nothing until the public wakes up.
Even NASA accomplishing nothing wasn’t their fault, they would lose funding when it was realized there wouldn’t be an instant payback for going to the moon. They then would languish for years as Congress found other special interest groups to fund their reelection campaigns.
Maybe I am getting cynical.
The Emperess asked, “Is there any way we can counter this?”
I started to tell her no, then I remembered the many sessions I had spent with publicity people.
“We need to spin this. We can’t be perceived to compete with NASA. We need a different mission statement. Theirs is to be the first to land a man on the moon.”
“Ours will be something like, create a moon base for scientific exploration. That is a different project, and we won’t advertise. On second thought we shouldn’t use the word competition, at all.”
“Why don’t you turn it over to a publicity team and let them handle it?”
“Excellent thought, Your Imperial Majesty. I get too wrapped up in the details.”
The Empress later met with the Space Ladies, That seemed to be their title going forward. She was gracious with each of them, inquiring about where they were from and some of their background.
While she conversed with them, she had refreshments served so it was more like a lady's tea. May-ling was there, and she would occasionally smirk at me as I had to listen to this female talkfest. If they’d had quilts to work on my American grandmother would have been right at home.
A critical question came up, who would be the first woman to orbit the earth. A high dangerous honor. No pun intended on the high part. Whoever was first would always be remembered. It would be dangerous because the rocket system and capsule had never been used in real conditions.
The Soviets had sent test flights up using the rocket. They had even had a capsule on one that came down safely. Still, no human had ever been up in one.
The Emperess asked the question. The ladies looked at each other for a short time, then one said Jerri Cobb. The others agreed rapidly.
When asked why Jerri they replied that Jerri was the one that had held them together in the dark days of the Congressional hearings and their forced separation from NASA. She was the one that kept their hopes alive.
After a while, I managed to slip out the door. I suspect it was noticed, but that I wasn’t needed for all the girl talk. When I left, they were starting on the shortcomings of men, with the Empress leading the way.
The next day we flew to Jiuquan and its primitive barracks. After we toured them, I had to apologize to the women. They told me that they had been in worse, a lot worse.
Besides, the view offset everything. What view we were in the Gobi desert!
Jerri pointed behind me. When I turned, I understood. About five miles away there was a Proton rocket with the pod on top, standing tall at the gantry.
This wasn’t the one that Jerri was going to ride into orbit, but a test vehicle. We needed to know if we had built the rocket and pod correctly.
The Russians had provided technicians, drawings, and manuals. We still needed confirmation that it would work.
After a trip to the mess hall where we all decided we needed an American cook if we were going to survive this experience. The local Mongols hired as cooking staff had no idea of western cuisine. Rice was okay, but there are limits, and they thought they are doing us a favor with Yak milk for our coffee.
This had to be one of my highest priorities or I would have a strike on my hands. I knew I wasn’t in charge of this base. However, the people who were had set it up like this. Now I had to make changes without anyone losing face.
While the ladies went to a shed set up for orientation and training, I headed for the base's administration office.
The base commander graciously admitted me to his office. This welcome concerned me, he thought he was doing the foreign devil a great favor by speaking to him.
Now how could this go wrong?
I thanked him for seeing me, and that I would report to the Empress how cooperative he was being. Hey, if you have a big gun use it!
I noticed that his I love me wall was filled with some serious awards, so he was competent. He just didn’t realize my place in his scheme of things.
“I’m very satisfied with how my money is being spent here.”
“Your money?”
“You haven’t been informed where the funding is coming from? It is a consortium of Great Britain, China, and my company in the United States. Great Britain and China are contributing space, scientists, and general support, in-kind if you will. My company is supplying the funds.”
“I wasn’t made aware of this.”
My Mandarin was getting good enough that I could pick up on nuances. He hadn’t been told.
“This fault is mine; I will have to ensure that you and your people are given a complete briefing. This would best be done by you meeting with the Empress and her staff and then you brief your staff.”
“I realized this morning I have committed another error; I had not requested that American food prepared by American cooks be available for the Astronauts.”
&nb
sp; “They are used to an American diet, and it wouldn’t do to have one of them sick in space from strange foods.”
“Can you get us different foods and cooks?”
“Yes, I can arrange that if you approve.”
“Approve! Do you know those cooks who use Yak milk in their coffee? I wanted to fire them all, but a contract was let by higher-ups in Beijing. The rice is okay but would be better with fish heads. Then the Yak milk? Everyone knows goat milk is better.”
To each their own.
“I think we are going to need three menus, American, Chinese, and Mongolian Chinese.”
“I think you are right.”
I felt like I had done a good day's work, food problem straightened out with no loss of face.
Chapter 48
When you looked out over the Jiuquan launch site there were five gantries for rocket launches. Three of them were complete, two more finishing up. There were plans for another five.
Unlike the US rocket program which was scheduling specialized focused launches with plenty of time between them, we were looking at a commercial schedule. To implement a permanent base on the moon it was estimated that there would have to be at least two launches a week.
Many of these would be unmanned, sending building materials for a space station, and infrastructure on the moon.
The rockets themselves would be built on-site in the enormous factory that was being put up. It would rival anything Boeing or Lockheed Martin had.
To do this a city had to be built. Workers needed housing, groceries, doctors, a dentist, a hospital, a police station, a library, schools, pharmacies, dry cleaners, and many other businesses.
All this in the Gobi desert. The weakness would be water. An eight-hundred-mile-long pipeline was starting construction to bring water to the site. In the meantime, there was a fleet of trucks hauling water twenty-four hours a day.
Railroad tracks were being laid. Concrete poured for a superhighway.
The city alone would cost over five hundred million dollars. The person who said easy come, easy go didn’t know the half of it. If I hadn’t invested my business earnings, I couldn’t have supported this effort. As it was, we would have to start watching expenditures like never before.