Eagle Station

For a brief second, a haze of pale, orange-tinted light surrounded the distant pinpoint of fire. It vanished as both side booster rockets shut down. Suddenly, two tiny lights sheered away from the speeding Delta IV. Each speck of light was a large 57,000-pound rocket engine and fuel tank now tumbling toward the ocean dozens of miles below. “We have jettison of both strap-on boosters. Core booster is throttling back up to full power.”

Locke heard herself muttering, “Go, baby, go,” under her breath. Embarrassed, she shot a quick glance at her second in command. His lips were moving too, in the same fervent prayer.

Five and a half minutes after launch, she heard, “MECO! Booster engine cutoff. Standing by stage separation.”

Seconds later, they got the confirmation. “We have a good indication of booster separation.” The Delta IV’s second stage and payload were now ninety miles high and nearly five hundred miles downrange from the launchpad. They were traveling at nearly fifteen thousand miles per hour. “Good ignition on the RL-10 engine!” a launch controller crowed. “Payload fairing jettison.”

A few minutes later, Locke and her team were able to confirm that the second-stage booster and its payload were in a stable orbit. While the civilian contractors and younger Space Force personnel exchanged jubilant high fives, she sat quietly, still feeling the tension in her shoulders. Her direct responsibility for the success of this mission might be over, but she knew there were more hurdles left to clear.

The next one came two orbits later.

She was listening in over the circuit to the Space Force Operations Center out at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado. Terse reports flowed through her headset as the Delta’s second-stage RL-10 engine began its next scheduled burn. Minutes ticked by while controllers evaluated their tracking telemetry. Finally, she heard them report: “That was a good burn, Command. And we show booster stage separation. Our Topaz radar reconnaissance satellite is on its way to the moon.”

Now Colonel Locke allowed herself to relax. Once that radar satellite was in lunar orbit, the United States would finally be able to learn just what the Russians and Chinese were doing.

Command Center, Central Military Commission of the People’s Republic of China, Beijing

That Same Time

President Li Jun waited impatiently for his secure connection to Moscow to stabilize. Routing an encrypted video signal through multiple satellites belonging to their two countries was a complicated task. They could have used a direct fiber-optic cable link, part of the ERMC network running from Hong Kong to London. But neither he nor Marshal Leonov was willing to trust their most prized secrets to a line that could be tapped anywhere along the six thousand kilometers between their two capitals.

At last, he saw Leonov’s image appear on his monitor. “You know about this most recent American rocket launch?” he asked.

The Russian nodded. “We’ve tracked it continuously from the moment it left the pad.” He frowned, reading a new report just flashed from his own Space Force. He looked up. “Apparently, it has just completed a successful translunar injection burn.”

“Do you know yet what its payload is?” Li asked pointedly.

“Not yet,” Leonov admitted. “And unfortunately, we won’t be able to acquire any imagery from either of our Okno space surveillance sites before the American spacecraft passes out of range.”

Russia’s two Okno (Window) complexes were networks of powerful telescopes and high-definition, low-light TV cameras. One was located high up in Tajikistan’s Sanglok Mountains. The other, Okno-S, was located on a mountain just north of Vladivostok in Russia’s Far East. At night, but only at night, their instruments were capable of detecting and photographing satellites and other spacecraft up to fifty thousand kilometers above the earth.

Li nodded. “That was undoubtedly deliberate, a major factor in Washington’s decision to conduct this launch from Cape Canaveral well past midnight, local time.” Tajikistan was nine hours ahead of Florida, so it was already daylight there by the time the American spacecraft’s initial orbit took it over the Russian surveillance site. The same applied to Okno-S, which was fourteen hours ahead. A thin, humorless smile crossed his narrow face. “Fortunately, we are not entirely dependent on technology for answers in this case.”

“You mean your spies penetrated U.S. security around this launch,” Leonov said bluntly.

“Correct,” Li agreed. “Which is how I know that the Americans just sent a modified Topaz radar satellite toward the moon.”

Leonov’s eyes narrowed. “Modified in what way?”

“Apparently, they’ve increased the power and fuel supply of its thrusters and engine, enabling them to place that satellite in lunar orbit.”

The Russian scowled. “How long have you known what the Americans were planning?”

Li shrugged. “For several days.”

“And you said nothing to us?”