“Help of the helpless, o abide with me…”

Stone’s voice, made harsh by the radio link, was clipped, brisk, almost efficient. Next came the heavily accented tones of Solovyov, high and nervous.

“Swift to its close ebbs out life’s little day,

“Earth’s joys grow dim, its glories pass away;

“Change and decay in all around I see,

“O thou who changest not, abide with me…”

What in hell is Muldoon doing? When the Apollo 8 astronauts had done a Bible reading from lunar orbit, NASA had actually been sued by an atheist, for violating constitutional prohibitions against the establishment of religion. The Soviets have banned religion altogether! — and now here’s a cosmonaut reading out some old hymn from an American space station. My God. What a mess.

And yet — and yet…

Adam Bleeker read, simply and confidently.

“I need thy presence every passing hour;

“What but thy grace can foil the tempter’s power?

“Who like thyself my guide and stay can be?

“Through cloud and sunshine, o abide with me…”

And yet there was something beyond Josephson’s calculation. The old, simple words seemed electric, alive with meaning; it was impossible to forget who these men were, what they had achieved, where they were.

Vladimir Viktorenko’s gruff, heavy English took over.

“I fear no foe with thee at hand to bless;

“Ills have no weight, and tears no bitterness.

“Where is death’s sting? where, grave, thy victory?

“I triumph still, if thou abide with me…

Joe Muldoon read the last verse.

“Hold thou thy Cross before my closing eyes;

“Shine through the gloom, and point me to the skies;

“Heaven’s morning breaks, and Earth’s vain shadows flee;

“In life, in death, o Lord, abide with me.”

And from the crews of Apollo and Soyuz, we close with good night, good luck, and God bless all of you.

The image of Earth faded out.

Tim Josephson found his eyes welling over with tears. He bent over his paperwork, embarrassed, glad he was alone.

Monday, December 15, 1980

CAPE CANAVERAL

Bert Seger set up camp at Hangar “O” at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

The hangar had been loaned to NASA by the USAF as a site to run the checking-out of the Apollo-N Command Module, since it had been recovered and brought to the Cape.

The Command Module itself was a victim, rather than a cause, of the accident, of course. But nevertheless the CM was the only portion of the Apollo-N stack that the investigators were going to be able to get their hands on, and it was expected that it would contain a lot of clues about how the accident had come about. So the spacecraft was going to have to be disassembled piece by piece.