465 – Moonbase 3 – Castor and Pollux

Space is dangerous, and expensive. Will that get Tom Hill killed? John and Eugene discuss Castor and Pollux. Episode Synopsis: A satellite in Earth orbit fails and must be repaired by the Moonbase 3 team. At the same time, Caulder is hosting the Russian General in command of Moonbase 2. Russia is about to launch an ambitious Mars probe commanded by Dimitri, a young hot shot astronaut who grew up idolizing the famous Tom Hill. He jokingly asks Tom to come to Mars with him and you can tell, Tom would really love to go, but he has duties to Moonbase 3. One of those duties is to pilot the repair ship and fix the broken satellite, but a freak accident locks the ship and satellite together in spinning death flight into deep space. Tom Hill will die, as Michel points out, because there is no practical hope to mount a successful rescue. Caulder refuses to give up and has the rescue mission prepared anyway. Unfortunately, the only pilot on Moonbase 3 good enough to carry off the tricky mission is Tom Hill himself. But on Moonbase 2, Dimitri is just the kind of astronaut who could get the job done. Moonbase 2’s commander refuses. Dimitri is too valuable to risk only a week before launch of the Mars mission. Nonetheless, Dimitri shows up at Moonbase 3 ready to fly the mission to rescue his hero. Between Tom and Dimitri, they hatch a daring, but highly risky plan to rescue Tom. Michel is completely against the plan as it will almost certainly result in the loss of both astronauts and their ships. Apparently, Dimitri has done this against orders and when the Kremlin and the European Space Commission find out, the moon dust hits the fan. Caulder is relieved of command and Michel is put in charge. While the rescue mission cannot be stopped, the risky maneuver can, and the Russians demand that it not be attempted. Michel is capable of stopping it, but a key portion of it must be executed from Moonbase 3 and he can prevent that. But he doesn’t, and the plan works, and everyone is safe, and the Russians score a huge PR win back hope and are ecstatic about the successful rescue. Caulder is back in charge.