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.While the projectile was traveling at less than half the velocity of a spacecraft in low Earth orbit, it was moving eight times faster than a bullet, packing sixty-four times the destructive energy.The collision obliterated the little mapping spacecraft.Only after the data stopped did anyone look at the last few images sent back to the Earth from lunar orbit; it was then that the “glint” was observed and the idea put forward that the Lunar Mapper was victim to either a piece of space junk or an errant meteorite.Both were incredibly unlikely events, but the reality was something so unlikely that no one even considered it.The Lunar Mapper spacecraft, set to continue taking high-resolution images of the Moon for at least another half a year, was the victim of a piece of depleted uranium deliberately sent to collide with it.The uranium projectile that impacted the spacecraft had been launched several days before from China.The launch was hailed by China as a lunar flyby mission that would use the Moon to slingshot the spacecraft toward the sun for future solar-weather observations.But unbeknownst to the rest of the world, the real goal of the mission was stopping all high-resolution mapping of the Moon for at least the next two years.Building upon their demonstrated capability to destroy a satellite in Earth orbit, which they did in 2007, China had quietly developed a capability to intercept and destroy any spacecraft in the Earth-Moon system.Lunar Mapper was the first target; no one in China asserted responsibility for the attack or even acknowledged that an attack had taken place.And though analysts in the National Reconnaissance Office later suggested in appropriately classified memoranda that China was responsible, no one at NASA had a clue.Chapter 13Calvin Ross was alone in his top-floor office at NASA headquarters in Washington, D.C., when he received a text message from his friend and former Senate colleague, the Honorable Karen Anderson of Texas.It was just 7:30 a.m.and most NASA workers were still in the middle of their morning commutes.Ross had arrived in the District early and worked out at his favorite gym just down the street.He was in top physical and mental condition, working out each and every morning for at least forty-five minutes before reporting to work.First running his hands through his full, though now graying, hair, Ross picked up his BlackBerry from between the picture of his wife (whom some called a trophy wife because she was fifteen years his junior and looked great in a tennis outfit) and the digital frame scrolling through twenty years of family pictures.The message was blunt: newsome to request nasa cut to pay for education budget increase.first moon flight to be last?“Ha!” Ross laughed out loud.“So, Newsome is going to pay back the teachers unions by killing the one thing that might inspire some of America’s kids to become interested in science and technology.” NASA’s eighteen-billion-dollar budget was very visible, though very, very small compared to the overall government budget of just over three and a half trillion dollars.But it was considered “discretionary,” meaning that it wasn’t part of Social Security, Medicare, or National Health.As such, the politicians were free to grandstand and make claims of saving the taxpayers money by cutting it.The reality was stark.If all of NASA were canceled, the money saved wouldn’t even pay for the annual growth in spending of the Medicare program, and the unemployment that would follow would create extreme recessions in many states across the country—at least ten of them.Unfortunately, though it made little difference in the overall federal-budget situation, NASA’s visibility made it a ripe, juicy target.Ross shifted in his seat, pondering which hotline to activate and which political favors to call due.After, of course, he got the full story from the NASA Legislative Affairs Office.Though he had no technical background, and certainly no lifelong interest in space or space exploration, Calvin Ross was nonetheless going to protect his budgetary turf.NASA was his to manage, and he was going to manage it, and its full budget, using every skill he possessed and every political maneuver he could manage.For Ross, it was a matter of personal pride to keep the agency under his care from being cut.He was playing “the game,” and the rules said that he would be a winner if he kept others from eating his pie.He liked this game and was considered to be good at it, even if his former constituents didn’t recognize and reward him for it with reelection.He had lots of friends in the Senate, and he was about to enlist their support—and that of the legion of Washington lobbyists who had an interest in keeping lucrative government contracts funded and pumping money into their sponsors’ coffers.Ross looked at the message again before responding.ok.if it is a fight he wants, then we’ll give him waterloo.Satisfied with his somewhat dramatic response, Ross sat back in his chair to once again run his hands through his hair.“He won’t kill us without a fight!”That night, instead of being alone in his office, Ross was in the company of ten others.Five were aides to senators with NASA facilities in their districts.The other five were the dreaded aerospace lobbyists, present to help preserve the pieces of the budgetary pie that they thought were rightfully theirs.All were discussing the proposed NASA budget cut.Ross had laid out the scenario to the group shortly after they arrived, some still sporting the remains of a hastily eaten dinner on their carefully pressed Oxford cloth shirts.One of the staffers looked like he’d just been awakened from a night’s sleep.Or perhaps he looked like he hadn’t slept at all.Another, a vivacious and piranhalike aide to the Honorable Senator from Texas, looked like she was ready for a night on the town.Dressed totally in black to match her jet-black hair, the neckline on her blouse dipping into dangerous territory due to too many buttons not fastened, she was the kind of staffer Ross had successfully avoided throughout his tenure in the Senate—though it had taken every ounce of willpower he possessed.The meeting was a classic Washington business meeting with the usual cast of characters.Calvin Ross was in his element, and, of course, he had a plan.He always had a plan.Sometimes the trick was in the implementation part of the plan.“Ahem!” Ross cleared his throat and raised his voice.“Now that we know what the son of a bitch wants to do with the NASA budget, we can stop him.We all know that head-to-head we will lose in any public fight over spending between NASA and Education [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]