After they had eaten, the three of them went down for an examination at the training center. Satsuki took their temperatures, blood pressure, heart rate, and urine samples. She was moving fast, recording everything methodically in her notebooks.
“That’s a clean bill of health for all three of you. You can go down to the control center now, Matsuri. You other two stay.”
Satsuki made a phone call to the director’s office. “Yukari and Akane are both good to go.”
The next part was the worst. Satsuki had to give both girls an enema, injecting cold water from below to clean out their large intestines. This saved them from having to do a “number two” anytime soon.
Then they put on the space suits and did their hair.
“You and Matsuri have such long hair—doesn’t it get in the way?” Akane asked.
“Actually,” Yukari told her, “it makes it easier to wrap up that way.”
Yukari split her hair into two braids, fixed them with hairbands, and applied a little hairspray. “Not that short hair is bad, either. As long as it doesn’t get tangled in the adapter ring, it’s fine.”
“I see.”
“Let’s take a look at you!” Yukari turned to the other girl, helped her straighten her hair, and cut a few stray strands. “I love your hair, Akane. It’s so light. Not heavy and matted like mine.”
“I usually don’t put anything in it at all.”
“Well, if you don’t now, you’ll look like the Bride of Frankenstein when we get up there. Close your eyes.” Yukari carefully applied hairspray to Akane’s hair.
Then both of the girls put on their helmets, checked the seals, and they were ready. They were just about to walk out of the room when Akane stopped. “Um, actually, can you wait just one moment?”
“Sure.”
Akane quickly called home. Her parents already knew about the flight, but she hadn’t been able to talk to them herself, she’d been so busy since the night before.
“Miura speaking.”
It was her brother, four years younger than she.
“Hideto? It’s me.”
“Akane! Your timing sucks.”
“Huh?”
“Mom and Dad just went to the shrine. They’re going to pray for you.”
“Oh…right.”
“Are you going to be on TV? It’s your first flight, right?”
“No. The press won’t make it here in time.”
“Well, I’m pretty sure Mom and Dad’ll be back soon. Can you call again?”
“I don’t think so. I’m heading out to the launch pad right now. Can you just tell them that I’ll call when I’m back?”
“Sure thing.”
“All right, thanks, Hideto. School going okay?”
“You know me. I got the right stuff. Oh wait, no, that was you.”
Akane laughed. “Okay, well I’m going.”
“Yup! Catch you la—”
She set down the receiver and quickly left the room.
✦ ✦ ✦
Satsuki led the two astronauts down to the front of the training center, where both a cameraman from public relations and Nasuda waited. Nasuda squinted at them, sizing them up.
“Yukari, you’re in charge of taking stock of the situation and making the calls up there. I want you to show them how we work.”
“I’m on it.”
“Akane. I know this is sudden, and you probably have some reservations, but I wouldn’t ask you to do this if I didn’t think you could handle it. This is your first flight. Have fun.”
“Will do!”
“Right.” Nasuda’s eyes twinkled behind his glasses. “Now go show NASA what we’re made of.”
Yukari smiled, getting into the spirit of things for the first time.
Satsuki, Yukari, and Akane piled into the security vehicle and took off for the launch pad. They could see their destination for the entire journey down the two-kilometer stretch of road. The pad stood forty meters high, including the weather observatory station on top. The rocket, primed with liquid oxygen, was giving off white steam.
It was twenty-seven meters from the base to the tip of the rocket. Twenty meters of that was the LS-6 main booster. Two smaller solid-fuel boosters, used to get the rocket off the ground, were attached to either side of the main. If a rocket applied only as much force as it weighed, then it would just spend fuel without going anywhere. The solid boosters were there to push the rocket quickly up to the point where the atmosphere thinned out. Once the solid boosters separated, the main booster took over. The main booster burn was long and controlled, aiming more for conservation of velocity than brute thrust.
At that point, the crew would already be sixty kilometers up and flying nearly parallel to the ground, with very little air resistance, meaning they required little thrust to keep going. The most important thing was to use a minimum amount of fuel in the most efficient way possible to continue climbing.
The booster was aided in this by the fact that as it used fuel, the booster got lighter, adding to its acceleration. By the time they were out of fuel, they would be pushing back into their seats under 8 G of pressure—the fastest point in the launch sequence. That moment would be Akane’s first real test.