FIRE FROM THE SKY: Battle of Harvest Moon & True Story of Space Shuttles by "One Who Knows" PART 2: NASA wanted everyone to forget about that mysterious headline-making fireball, so they pretended that *Skylab* was still in orbit but sinking unexpectedly. NASA used stories about the Space Shuttle as part of their *Skylab* cover-up. They pretended that perhaps the Shuttle would come along in time to save *Skylab.* This was simply a double lie by NASA. First, *Skylab* could never be saved because it had already been destroyed. Secondly, the United States was in no position at that time to launch the Shuttle or anything else of a military nature into space. Russia was deploying her secret new Space Triad of advanced manned space weapons. Russian Cosmos Interceptors had starting sweeping the skies clear of American Spy Satellites, and Russian hovering electrogravitic weapons platforms, the Cosmospheres, were making headlines by creating enormous air booms along the coasts of America, and still do so. All of these things took place just as America's Space Shuttle Program was getting off the ground. AMERICAN BOLSHEVIKS - MASTERS OF DECEPTION The result was a complete reorganization of the Shuttle Program. The old plans to bathe it in continuous publicity were tossed. The "Bolsheviks" in our government, who had replaced the Rockefeller cartel in many areas of power, cast a net of secrecy over all the new military plans. We were never told about the capabilities of the training Shuttle *Enterprise,* and we were never told about the many things which were going on at White Sands in the military Shuttle Program. By keeping these things secret, the Bolsheviks placed themselves in a powerful position to deceive us and the deceit has continued non-stop. We were never told about the modified NASA 747 which carried a complete replica of the crew quarters and cargo bay of a Shuttle - and still does. We were unaware that that airplane, originally intended for training, was to become a Bolshevik tool of deception against us. When we saw video tapes of astronauts in the simulated Shuttle cockpit, we naturally thought it was the real thing. Seeing a notebook float in mid-air for a few seconds next to the astronauts, we were supposed to think they were weightless because they were in orbit. We were given no clue that those moments of weightlessness had taken place months earlier in a mock-up. Further, what would you do if you were an astronaut faced with the fact that Russia has just turned the corner and can destroy your nation with one blast? Do you not think that a good patriot would go along with the game? However, that brings us to a serious problem - perhaps the pictures fooled a lot of Americans and the world - they did not fool the new rulers of Russia. They had learned the previous fall what the flight of the *Columbia* was really all about and, when the *Columbia* was launched on April 12, the Russians were ready and waiting! LAUNCH OF THE COLUMBIA INTO ODD ORBIT The real mission plan was for a short mission. The astronauts were supposed to get into orbit and deploy the military satellite from the *Columbia's* cargo bay very quickly; then they were to return to Earth - not aboard the Shuttle but in a very special re-entry capsule. Two days later they were supposed to land the disguised Shuttle *Enterprise* at Edwards Air Force Base as the final act in the falsified drama staged for our benefit. For the first time in three years the Pentagon was hoping to get a Spy Satellite into orbit that could not be shot down immediately by Russia. This attempt was destined to continue by our nerdniks into disaster after disaster. You must know what happened in the front end to have any idea what continues. If you can think back to American space launches of the past, some may have noticed something very unusual about the launch of the *Columbia.* In the past, manned space launches from Cape Canaveral were always made toward the southeast, toward the equator, but not so with the *Columbia.* It was launched to the northeast, away from the equator. The reason for this was the secret space reconnaissance mission of the *Columbia.* In its public news releases, NASA told everyone that *Columbia* was launching into a 44-degree orbit - that is, it would never go farther north or south than 44 degrees above and below the equator. But the actual orbit chosen for the *Columbia* was a 69-degree orbit. A 69-degree orbit was chosen because it would take the *Columbia, and the Spy Satellite inside it, all the way north to the Arctic Circle and beyond. That is the kind of orbit that is necessary if a spy satellite is to fly reconnaissance over Russia. The northeast launch of the *Columbia* was done in order to enable the Spy Satellite to start gathering data over Russia only minutes after the *Columbia* reached orbit. Time was of the essence in any attempt to spy on Russia. Every American spy satellite launched at Russia during the prior three years had been blinded or shot down before gathering much data. The secret flight plan for the *Columbia* was completely different from what NASA claimed in public. The plan called for *Columbia* to be launched on an initial northeast course in the general direction of Bermuda, then roughly 2-1/2 minutes after launch, *Columbia* was to begin an unorthodox course change - a wide sweeping turn into the north. This unprecedented curving launch was intended as an evasive sneak past any Russian Cosmospheres that might be waiting overhead. Still accelerating on its curving course, the *Columbia* was supposed to pass about 100 miles east of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. Roughly 200 miles east of Washington, D.C., the Shuttle's main engines were to cut off. After coasting in silence for a few seconds, the fuel tank was scheduled to cut loose as the *Columbia passed 100 miles east of New Jersey. For the next two minutes the Shuttle and its fuel tank were to be coasting onward past the east tip of Long Island, over Boston, and onward toward Maine. During that time the Shuttle was supposed to maneuver away from the fuel tank, using small maneuvering jets. Finally, just as the *Columbia* passed over New Brunswick, Canada, the flight plan called for the orbital maneuvering engines to be fired. Somewhere over the Labrador Sea, flying upside-down, the *Columbia* was scheduled to reach Earth orbit. As soon as it did so, the flight plan called for astronauts Young and Crippen to go to work fast. COLUMBIA'S SPY MISSION In less than ten minutes time they were supposed to open up the cargo bay doors and turn on the sensors of the Spy Satellite resting inside. As they did these things, the *Columbia* was to be racing over the south tip of Greenland, out over the middle of the Denmark Strait between Greenland and Iceland, above the Arctic Circle, and then dipping back southward toward northern Norway, Finland, and Russia. According to the flight plan, the *Columbia* was scheduled to cross the Russian border just south of the strategic Kola Peninsula. This would be only some less than 23 minutes after lift-off. At that instant initial reconnaissance over Russia was to be under way. The Spy Satellite inside the cargo bay, even though not yet deployed, would have had a perfect view downward through the open doors of the upside-down shuttle. The *Columbia* was intended to fly over a course across Russia that began just west of the strategic White Sea in extreme Northwestern Russia. From there the planned course of the *Columbia* was to take it southeastward over some 2500 miles of strategic Russian territory. During the first minute alone, the satellite was expected to see parts of the highly sensitive Kola Peninsula, the White Sea, including the super secret submarine yards near Kazan, one of the bases of Russia's flying ABM system. This system uses charged particle beams carried by supersonic TU-144 Transports. Toward the end of the first pass over Russia the Spy Satellite was expected to gather data on two more of Russia's four Cosmodromes - those of Baiokonur and Tyuratam. In between, numerous other war targets were also to come under scrutiny. The spy satellite in the *Columbia's* cargo bay was expected to see all that during its very first pass over Russian territory. It would all take only 8-1/2 minutes. Then the *Columbia* would have crossed the border with Afghanistan, heading toward India. Barely 10 minutes later, the Spy Satellite was to be radioing its data down to the American receivers at Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean. Now, that WAS the plan. The military planners were confident that their Spy Satellite would get at least this planned first look at Russia. They were sure that *Columbia's* curving launch and the short time involved would prevent Russia from thwarting the mission. *Columbia* took off from Cape Canaveral at 7:00 A.M. Eastern Time, that Sunday morning. By 7:23 *Columbia* was expected to be over Russia already. By 7:31 *Columbia* was expected to be leaving Russian skies, and by 7:45 that same Sunday morning the military planners expected to have their first reconnaissance data from Russia. RUSSIANS FOIL PLAN The plan sounded plausible but the 'planners' were falling victim to the very intelligence gap which they themselves created in America years before. Russian Intelligence agents were able to learn the general outlines of the *Columbia* mission plan some six months prior to launch. It is worse today, for there are more KGB agents in the CIA than there are "loyal" Americans. Fully a month before the public roll-out of the *Columbia* at the Cape in November of 1980, the Russian Space Command was studying the problem. There was no question about one thing: The *Columbia's* mission could not be allowed to succeed. Given even a shred of up-to-date reconnaissance data, the Bolsheviks in America were determined to set off a nuclear war. Even so, there was a question about the best way to spoil the mission. Several possibilities were considered, including sabotage or simply blasting the *Columbia* out of the sky. All were rejected because they shared one weakness. Each alternative would halt one Shuttle mission, but it would not stop the Shuttle Program as a whole, and Russia's goal was to completely shut down the Space Shuttle Program. At last they hit upon the solution. What was needed was a Space Age version of the famous U-2 incident of two decades prior. In the waning days of the Eisenhower Administration, Russia had publicly accused the United States of invading its air space with spy flights. That was before the era of Spy Satellites, and invading other countries' air space was a serious charge in the eyes of the world. American spokesmen tried to diffuse the growing furor while carefully avoiding a definitive denial of the charges; but the Russians kept it up. Finally President Eisenhower became so exasperated that he flatly denied, in public, that America was flying spy planes over Russia. That was exactly what the Russians were waiting for. The Russians promptly did what American Intelligence specialists thought they could not do - they shot down a high-flying U-2 on a flight over Russia. The name of the CIA pilot, the late Francis Gary Powers, filled the headlines world-wide overnight. The Russians had made a liar of the President of the United States. A summit had been scheduled between President Eisenhower and Nikita Kruschev, but the Russians icily called it off. In studying the *Columbia* situation, the Russians decided to make the focus of similar nature. After all, all they would need would be to land that Shuttle intact. Russia protested continuously about the military nature of the Shuttle Program, and perceived they would be able to shock the world with the truth of it by simply proving it. They would put the crashed Shuttle on public display together with its nuclear-powered, laser-firing Spy Satellite. The Kremlin liked the plan, and agreed to it. To further emphasize the parallels with the 1960 U-2 incident, Russia had recently proposed a summit with the United States. The plan was to withdraw the summit proposal in protest after shooting down the *Columbia.* The Russian Space Command went to work several months earlier to get ready. They were faced with a big order: to bring down the *Columbia* on Russian Territory without totally destroying it. As recently as only a year prior it would have been totally impossible to even consider such a thing. However, the Russians now had a new space tool to do the job. It was the third version of the Russian levitating weapons platform, the Cosmosphere. They were and are called "Super Heavies" by the Russian Space Command. "SUPER HEAVIES" MAKE READY The Russian Super Heavy Cosmospheres were still considered experimental in nature but had vast improvements integrated since the early 1980s. Even so, by '80/81 the Russians had already built seven of them. In terms of volume, they are bigger than the Goodyear Blimp, they are even bigger than the biggest dirigibles ("zeppelins") of the '30s. They could carry a payload of more than 50 tons, far more than the Space Shuttle; and they were equipped with powerful electromagnetic propulsion which could take the Cosmosphere all the way to orbital speed. In short, the jumbo Cosmosphere was actually Russia's Space Shuttle. It was fully operational. In order to carry out their attack on the Space Shuttle *Columbia,* Russia's entire fleet of seven jumbo Cosmospheres were made ready. Five were outfitted with special grappling equipment to enable them to seize a very large object in space. The other two were outfitted with neutron particle beam weapons. These weapons were the same type as were used in the "Battle of the Harvest Moon" in September 1977. *COLUMBIA* BLASTS OFF At 7:00 A.M. Sunday morning, April 12, 1981, the rocket engines of the Space Shuttle *Columbia* roared to life. Moments later the giant solid boosters were fired, and the *Columbia* took off. As it climbed, it rolled around and started leaning into the flight path toward space. As we watched on television, it rapidly dwindled off into the northeast. The solid boosters separated and peeled away to each side. Moments later the *Columbia* vanished from the TV screen. The television scene then shifted to the alleged Mission Control in Houston - all of this had been set up well in advance. Yes, I know you will find this hard to believe! The NASA computer-controlled map started tracking the alleged course of the *Columbia.* According to the map, *Columbia* was heading out over the Atlantic toward Bermuda; but at that moment, free of the solid boosters, *Columbia* was already starting its long sweeping curve to the north. One hundred fifty miles east of Charleston, South Carolina, Russia's fleet of 7 jumbo Cosmospheres were hovering high over the ocean as the Space Shuttle approached on its elaborate curving path, upside-down with the huge fuel tank on top. COSMOSPHERES INTERCEPT SHUTTLE The two Cosmospheres armed with neutron beams closed in on the *Columbia* from below and a bit to the rear, where they could not be seen by Young or Crippen. The other five jumbo Cosmopheres with their grappling equipment, flew in formation above and well behind the fuel tank to be out of the line of fire. The Cosmopheres pace the Shuttle until it reached a predetermined altitude and speed. Then the armed Cosmospheres opened up with their neutron beams. Firing at point-blank range, each Cosmosphere fired just two bursts from its beam weapon, "WHOOMP! WHOOMP!" The first salvo flooded the cockpit area and an area near the engines in the rear. Young and Crippen died instantly, the neutron radiation having totally disrupted all activity of their nervous systems, brains, eyes, and hearts. At the same time the Shuttle's engines shut down. A fraction of a second later, the second salvo flooded neutron radiation into the nose and an area beneath the cargo bay. These shots were calculated to derange and shut down the *Columbia's* flight computers - that is, all the computers except one. The Russians wanted the backup computer to take over and do its job - that is, make an emergency automatic re-entry and crash landing in Russia. They anticipated that it would do so because the backup computer is heavily shielded against radiation. The shielding is a material more efficient than lead. It is GOLD! The Russians fully expected that "Gold Computer," as it is known in certain circles, would take over after the engines shut down. Within some 10 seconds after the engines shut down, the fuel tank, still a third full, was automatically cast loose. The Gold Computer was now flying the Shuttle. The five jumbo Cosmospheres with grappling equipment, fastened onto the fuel tank. Then using their powerful electromagnetic propulsion, they veered away with the tank. From its northeasterly course, the tank was swerved around over the North Atlantic in a great arc until it was heading southeast instead. The Cosmospheres then accelerated to orbital speed and cast the fuel tank loose. Three years prior to this the First Cosmospheres had sen a message by way of enormous air booms along America's East Coast. Do you remember hearing the discussion on the news about the mysterious "sonic booms" that were being heard along the coast? Now Russia's newest Cosmospheres were using the Shuttle fuel tank to send a chilling new message to America's Bolshevik war planners. Meanwhile the armed Cosmospheres followed the *Columbia* itself. Having had its engines shut down prematurely, the *Columbia* was well below orbital speed. It was following a ballistic path, just like an ICBM, into the heart of Russia. It looked as though the Russian plan was going to work to perfection - but then the unexpected happened. A NO-WIN SITUATION One of *Columbia's* deranged computers apparently began to function. The brief shut-down had thrown it out of synchronization with the Gold Computer, so the two computers apparently did not communicate with one another. As the *Columbia* passed over the border of Russia, it was flying right-side-up instead of upside-down under control of the Gold Computer. But the other computer opened up the cargo bay doors right on schedule. As the Shuttle began to re-enter over Russia, hot air flooded the cargo bay. Heat sensors in the Spy Satellite detected the heat build-up, which was programmed into the Satellite's computer as a sign of "attack damage." Finally, the temperature built up to a critical point, activating a self-destruct circuit in the Satellite. The Spy Satellite exploded, blowing the *Columbia* to bits. The Russians had hoped for a crash landing in recognizable form. Instead, the *Columbia* ended up in wreckage strewn along a line some 85 miles long in central Russia southeast of the City of Kazan and the citizens had to be told a research satellite had fallen out of orbit. As it turned out, neither the American Bolsheviks nor the Russians got what they wanted. But there were destined to be more attempts, each just as foolish as the one before it. END OF PART 2.