ABIS - The Story So Far Today sees the start of the next segment of my on-going ABIS – America Back Into Space story. Just over six months have passed since the loss of the first flight of a Hercules Super Booster with an ML-1 Test Article payload when the flight had to be dramatically aborted over the Atlantic Ocean in a huge explosion which turned a Friday early evening twilight into the brightness of a Summer’s mid-day. It is now the 1st of January 2035. The Meeting – Part 1 Robert Carter crossed to the double doors which gave access to the meeting room and went through. Entering the room the first thing Carter noted was that everyone was seated and it was obvious from the fact that every chair was filled except his own that everyone who should be attendance, was in attendance. Sitting Carter brought the meeting to order and began. “We all know why we are here and what we’re here to discuss - that”. As he spoke Carter looked toward the neatly bound series of folders which stood nearly a foot tall on a small rectangular table to one side of the conference room. The “that” in question was the final report on the failure of the Hercules flight and the outcome reached by the various investigation panels and review boards which had looked into the fateful flight. Thousands upon thousands of words in length, with hundreds of pictures and diagrams within, the report was summarised at the very end in one short four word sentence “Loss of structural integrity”. Carter continued “gentlemen in all my years at NASA we have never, ever been short of an answer to a problem we have faced, and I hope that this is not the case today”. “We now know why the booster failed so dramatically, we also know what should be done to correct this problem – nothing”. “The answer to the problem is that there isn’t a problem”. “The booster is as strong as we can make it and has been tested and proved to be able to handle the load we placed upon it”. “The weight of the ML Test Article is well within the tolerance band to allow it to be lifted by the booster”, “so why did it fail”? For hours the debate raged back and forth. Ideas were put forward only to be shot down by counter arguments from others within the room. Lunch was ordered, devoured and by 3.30 pm the meeting had got a grand total of nowhere. The problem was the booster should not have failed, but it did. Why had it failed when it should have not? No electrical or mechanical error could be found in either the booster’s construction or that of the ML test article it was carrying. By 4.00 pm, seven hours after the meeting had started it became obvious, things were going nowhere. Looking round the conference room Carter noted the frustration that was on the faces of these pillars on NASA’s central community. These men and women and the hundreds if not thousands behind them were the people that made NASA work, the people who made it what it was, the organisation which had risen from the ashes of its former self so long ago and put America back into space after the end of the space shuttle programme. It was then that Carter noticed something odd in the room. Whilst everyone else had removed jackets and any ties they were wearing, one person, a solitary individual seated alone at the very end of the table appeared to be sitting quite calmly drinking occasionally from his glass and taking the occasional bite from a sandwich but saying nothing. As their eyes meet for the first time along the long length of the conference table the figure raised a hand and announced in a voice which drew everyone’s attention “I think I know why the booster failed”, “and I think I know what has to be done to fix it”. To be continued. Footnote:- When I started writing this next section of the story it seemed to take on a life of its own so even though its mainly one narrative it has had to be split up over five day period due to the limitations Renderosity places on write-up’s.