Semper Mars
Chapter One
2040
Wednesday, 9 May
Cycler Spacecraft Polyakov,
three days from Mars Transfer
1517 hours GMT (shipboard time)
This wasn't the first time the Marines had ventured into space, not by a long shot. On February 20, 1962, Colonel John Glenn, United States Marine Corps, had become the first American in orbit, thundering into space atop a primitive Atlas-D booster. Of course, Navy astronauts were quick to point out that Alan Shepard, a former US Navy aviator and test pilot, had been the first American in space nine months earlier, even if his suborbital flight -- with a full five minutes in zero G -- had also been the shortest spaceflight in history.
Major Mark Alan Garroway did not think of himself as an astronaut, even though he'd been in space for seven months, was drawing astronaut's flight pay, and was watching now as Mars drifted past the command center's main viewport. He was a passenger -- in effect, he was extremely expensive cargo -- aboard the Polyakov, one of four cycler spacecraft set to shuttling between Earth a ... read full excerpt from: Semper Mars ebook
