“Why are we doing this, Bert? It’s just a stunt. We’ll have to cut out so much to save weight, we’ll be compromising a lot of our science objectives for Skylab B.”

“I know about the science, Phil. But we can send all that stuff up on the second crew flight, can’t we? And your flight will simply turn into a more limited engineering trip, with less emphasis on the science.” Seger was a thin, intense man, with black, slicked-back hair and an Irish darkness; Stone found him unnerving. “If you’re in my chair, Phil, you have to look at the benefits for the program as a whole. Beyond your one mission alone. Yes, it will be a stunt. But a hell of a stunt. It will put us right back on top of everything…”

Jones talked about the training they’d already completed toward their Earth-orbital mission. “And what about the Russians?” The Soviets were proposing to dock a Soyuz ship with Skylab B in Earth orbit. “Changing that stunt around to a lunar-orbit rendezvous mission is a hell of a trick,” Jones said. “I mean, the Russkies haven’t lifted a single cosmonaut out of Earth orbit yet.”

“The Soviets still say they’ll have at least a circumlunar capability in a couple of years — within the life of the station,” Seger said. “So we can get around that. And even if we can’t, maybe we could downgrade the Russian thing into a simple dock with an Apollo in Earth orbit. Anyhow, never mind the damn Russians. Chuck, you’ll be hanging out over the edge. Fitting out a station in lunar orbit. Nobody’s done anything remotely like that before. I thought a challenge might appeal.”

Jones looked thoughtful.

Stone knew Seger was pressing the right buttons, as far as Jones was concerned. The thought depressed him.

Stone could see Seger’s point, to some extent. Morale in NASA had been low, paradoxically, since the Mars decision. A lot of staff had been geared up to the abandoned Space Shuttle program, which they’d seen as new and exciting, technically; by comparison, the Skylabs looked like an extension of 1963 state of the art. And the continuing budget cuts had put endless pressure on the Agency’s ambitions.

If you counted contract staff, only a hundred thousand people were still working on space programs, compared to a peak of half a million during Apollo. There had even been a program of terminations, at Houston, Marshall, and the other main centers.