Anything else?
You're having a bit of an acid thing.
- No, no, no. - It's a flashback.
No, no. Seriously.
Avionics on this thing, some of them are quite old. B-52-type stuff.
My next guests are the most famous men in America. There they are on "People".
"USA Today" calls them "The Ripe Stuff".
Please welcome Team Daedalus.
- How are you? - Nice to see you.
Have a seat, guys.
Thank you, gentlemen.
It's an honor to meet you all. This is a very exciting story.
You all come from varied backgrounds.
One of you is a Baptist minister.
Is that Tank? Can I call you Tank? Tank Sullivan.
You may call me Tank.
What is that? That's a cross with a rocket on it.
What faith is that? I'm not familiar with it.
- It's mine. - Lutheran?
- What is it? What is it? - It's Baptist.
Which guy is the babe magnet? That would be Jerry.
- That's Jerry. - Are you?
I keep telling these guys it's got nothing to do with me.
It depends entirely on the woman...
... and how willing she is to discover her infinite supply of orgasms.
- Really? - Yeah, it's true.
- It's the truth. - You know, I think...
... women watching are going, "No matter their age, men never change."
- You all have a military background? - That's true. That's true.
North or South? Which side? I'm teasing.
- You see... I'm sorry. - Low.
I know, I know. You can't help it.
What did he do?
So the relay patch is the key?
Plain as the nose on your face.
- How'd you bypass the heat exchanger? - I didn't bypass anything.
You're not being very forthcoming on the guidance system.
Kid, I've done everything short of...
...calculus instructions to bring you up to speed.
What do you want, a picture? Connect the dots?
Excuse me. I hold two master's degrees from MIT, Dr. Corvin.
Maybe you ought to get your money back.
You were just brought up on a different set of technologies.
You're compromising this mission. I'm your backup on a need-to-know basis.
You don't need to know dick. I don't need a backup.
Yes, you do.
More than you know.
What's that supposed to mean?
What don't I know?
You son of a bitch. You're setting me up again.
Here's one of our astronauts now. What a semi-pleasant surprise.
- You had no intention of sending me up. - I'm in the middle of something.
Well, now, that's great.
You hung up on the head of our program: The U.S. Vice president.
- What can I do for you? - You had no intention of sending me up.
You screwed me over in 1958 and you're screwing me over now!
I screwed you over?
What did I do, make a deal with you anyway? A chronic liar!
What deal? I didn't make any deal with you. You blackmailed me.
If you want to stick by your so-called deal, then you lost.
I don't have to send you up.
What's all this?
It means someone on your team didn't pass his physical.
One of you has cancer.
It's in his pancreas.
And it's inoperable.
Does he know about it?
Dr. Caruthers talked to him this morning.
Jesus.
No.
No. We're gonna get another doctor and get another opinion.
Not one that's on your payroll. This is even low by your standards.
You'll do anything to keep me from going up.
Oh, really?
So that's what this drama's all about.
This whole time I thought it was about your friend Hawk!
But it's really about your seat on the space shuttle.
You can just back off, because NASA will send you up in the space shuttle.
You, Jerry and Tank, regardless of whatever deal you had with me!
- I don't understand. - Come on. You're front-page news now.
A genuine all-American hero. You've made NASA popular all over again.
Thanks to you, they'll get their juicy budget infusion...
...they've been drooling over.
You're going up, all right. The vice president insists.
I have to call the head of the space program back.
You've got a lot of work to do before we leave.
And you shut the door!
This is my Blackbird.
I retired this very airplane in 1990.
And now...
...here we sit.
I've never actually seen one before.
SR-71. This is what a plane's supposed to be.
This is ugly on the ground, leaks like a sieve, but up around Mach one...
...the seals all expand, she dries up, flies like a bat out of hell.
I took her right to the limit.
128,000 feet.
She's only happy...
...going fast. It's not meant to sit.
That's a lousy way to die, just sitting around waiting...
- Is eight months the best I can do? - They don't know.
- There's chemo, radiation. - Shit.
I watched my wife go out that way. I ain't doing it.
The love of your life.
What is a pancreas anyhow?
I mean, I don't know what the damn thing does for you...
...besides give you cancer.
What kind of odds would you have give you and me?
Better than 40.
I know how much this flight meant to you.
Looks like I crashed another one. I'm sorry.
They want to take Jerry and Tank and me.
That's great. You played them fellas just right. That's good.
- You said yes, didn't you? - I didn't say anything.
You don't want to blow it again. This is your last shot.
This isn't easy.
Easy, hell. Don't whine to me about easy.
Put yourself in my shoes.
You've been blaming me for 40 years.
You're not laying this on me. You choke this one, it's on you.
- All on you. - What would you do?
I'd leave your ass on the ground.
I'll bet you would.
To go into space? You bet your ass.
In a heartbeat.
Know what the worst day in my life was?
The day you put the idea in my head I could pilot a ship in space.
I don't care what happens. If this gets out to the press...
It's not about the press right now.
But whether Roger or Ethan...
I'm not going up. Not without Hawk.
- You're gonna blackmail me again? - No, no.
I'll teach Ethan what he needs to know. I don't go if Hawk doesn't.
- Any ideas, Miss Holland? - Yes.
Even with the cancer, he still passed his physical...
...so there's no reason he can't fly the mission. Especially with backup.
You and Frank will put me in the loony bin.
Colonel Corvin? Miss Holland would like you to wait here, sir.
Team Daedalus, all of Team Daedalus...
...has a launch in 92 hours.
So let's get rested and prepped.
Okay. Yes.
What's this?
Have a look.
UTMC-coated, 1.66, super high index lenses on a Flexon alloy frame.
- Your prescription. - My prescription?
Holy cow.
I had them made for you.
- You owe me dinner now. - You'd go out with Spider-Man?
- If he'll buy me oysters. - I'll buy you pearls.
I feel like dancing.
Bring that man back alive!
That's against my better judgement, Barb.
I won't let him die.
General Corvin, General Hawkins, welcome to "Daedalus".
- We're not generals, son. - Just saying it like it ought to be.
You're good to go, men.
See you back on the ground, Team Daedalus.
Good luck.
Well, we've only waited 40 years.
What do you say, Reverend Tank? Is a prayer in order?
I was just reciting the Shepard's prayer.
Alan Shepard's prayer.
"Oh, Lord, please don't let us screw up."
- Amen. - Amen.
Amen, Reverend.
Let's have a comm check.
- PLT. - MS One.
- MS Two. - MS Three.
MS Four.
Fido, go. Guidance, go.
EECOM, go.
INCO, go.
T-minus 15 seconds.
T-minus ten, nine, eight, seven.
We have a go for main engine start.
Three, two, one. Ignition.
Lift off of space shuttle "Daedalus" and STS-200.
How's it going?
Space will never be the same.
Houston, this is "Daedalus".
Roll program.
Roger roll, "Daedalus".
Thank you, God.
Stand by for throttles up.
"Daedalus", you are go at throttles up.
Roger, Houston. Go with throttles up.
Stand by for separation of SRBs.
Stand by for SRB sep.
Coming up to negative return.
Negative return.
Roger, "Daedalus". You are negative return.
We're just a dot.
Two engines tal.
Press to ATO.
Houston, do we have a go for orbit ops?
Roger, "Daedalus". You are go for orbit ops.
Good work, guys.
Four hours to intercept. We're right on schedule.
That's not what I'm worried about.
Relax.
Our man is up there with them.
It was worth the wait.
- Yeah, it was. - Thank you.
I owe you one.
Not a bad takeoff...
...for some rookies.
You guys are over, over the edge. You're in space.
- Welcome to the club. - Thank you, Roger.
Okay, "Daedalus" has got Ikon on the scopes.
We should have a visual here momentarily.
Range, 5000 meters.
Roger, Hawk, we have a visual here.
Stand by for a 15-second burn.
All right, get ready to deploy the arm.
Deploying the arm.
2200 feet.
Dead center. Good driving up there, Hawk.
Let's light them up.
Stand by. T.I. Burn in four, three, two, one.
Hello, Ikon. How we feeling today?
Activating floods.
Boy. Will you get a load of this?
Activating radar.
- He's trying to get a tone on us. - What are you saying?
Shut the radar down. It's painting a target on us.
Radar off.
We're okay.
No wonder the damn thing's orbit is decaying. It's got to weigh 50 ton.
Houston, this is "Daedalus". You see what we see?
Roger, "Daedalus". We are...
...studying it from here.
Stand by for a decision.
It's got to have some kind of self-defense mechanism.
Our radar must've activated it.
Can you grab it?
I can get it if Hawk can get us in there.
I'm just worried about the mass.
I'm worried about this thing getting pissed again.
Does that look like a communications satellite?
General, what modifications have your people made here?
That grappling arm can't handle that much stress.
It's within operational limits. Frank can latch on.
I don't know about this.
Our mission is to restore this satellite. Let's get on with it.
I won't let this crew get killed, you included.
Houston, "Daedalus". We're still standing by.
- Give them a go to capture. - "Daedalus", this is Houston.
You have a go for capture.
- Here we go, gentlemen. - Roger, Houston.
We have a go for capture. Pull it in, see what she looks like.
Give me a minute to get it stable.
How does that look?
That's close enough for me.
- Is he as good as you say he is? - Tank?
He's the man.
All right. You can go for it.
You're drifting left too far.
Hail Mary, full of grace.
Holy shit! I got it!
You the man, Tank.
Houston, "Daedalus". We've got Ikon.
Good work, fellas.
You boys look mighty sharp.
Welcome to space, Frank. You've waited a while for this.
Yeah. Only 40 years.
All right, cowboys. Let's round them up. We got work to do.
A little light on the subject.
We'll take a look at its brains.
I don't think that's the panel.
You don't, do you?
Holy cow, Frank.
This is some piece of junk.
This isn't a sightseeing trip, Frank.
- Abort activity. - Frank, listen to me.
I said, abort activity. Now.
What's going on, Frank?
Ethan, what the hell's going on? What is this damn thing?
A Russian communications satellite, colonel.
Bullshit! You don't think I know a nuclear launch platform when I see it?
Why are we helping the Russians put a missile silo back into orbit?
You're a genius. You figure it out.
You're only here as a publicity stunt!
You got what you wanted! You're in space!
Now finish the damn mission!
Go ahead, Frank.
You're on a secure line now.
You were right to be concerned about this thing coming out of orbit.
It happens to have six armed nuclear warheads on board.
What's he talking about?
I have no idea.
General, is there something you want to tell us?
Yes.
Ikon is a relic from the Cold War.
It has floated dead in space ever since the Soviet Union fell.
There are six missiles on board...
...targeted at strategic American installations.
All, most regrettably...
...in large metropolitan areas.
If Ikon goes offline...
...it will assume that...
...there has been a catastrophe and will initiate launch on its own.
You picked a hell of a time for a confession, general.
Those are our boys up there.
And that is a treaty violation. A goddamn big one.
You bastard.
Bob, you don't know how touched I am that you're worried about our safety.
Why don't you ask your friend the general...
...how my guidance system from Skylab got aboard this six-gun?
It was stolen by the KGB...
...from Mr. Gerson's personal files.
This is all news to me.
You'd have us put it back into orbit fully armed and keep it a secret...
... just to save your ass?
People, we have a real problem here.
All right, huddle up.
We got a big-ass problem.
We're latched on to a 100-megaton bomb traveling 17,000 miles an hour.
What about that shit heap? You think we can get it out into deep space?
Four payload assist rockets? Just.
Maybe. I don't know. Let me crunch some numbers.
Just okay, Frank.
Somebody's outside the ship.
"Daedalus", you have an unscheduled EVA you want to tell me about?
What?
He's jammed the air lock door, Frank.
Remove the panel and override it.
Turn on the lights.
Ethan, what are you doing out there?
Ethan, what are you doing?
Your job, Frank.
Putting Ikon back into geosync orbit.
You don't know what you're doing. Come back. That's an order.
You don't know the sequencing.
Get suited up. When the door's fixed, get out there.
All right.
Ethan, do not connect those PAM rockets. Do you understand?
How long?
I nearly got it.
Don't lock onto those PAM rockets. You hear me?
Got it.
It's arming itself.
Oh, God!
Oh, Lord.
- Hawk. - I'm on it.
Shit, we got a fire in here.
We lost Ikon and Ethan.
Roger's hurt, mid-deck. He's bleeding badly.
See what you can do for him.
Tank, contain the situation. Kill the 02 switch.
Killing it.
Hawk and I are going out.
I got it.
Status GBC.
Check.
They've got the fire contained.
Range, 100 feet. It's accelerating, Miss Holland.
They're gonna lose it.
I assume you got a plan.
I think I can reconfigure the flight control system for stabilization burn.
The only trouble is, I gotta do that at exactly the right time.
That's where you come in.
You gotta be my eyes while I'm in there.
Cue me when the satellite comes around and lines up with the shuttle.
But what about the rate of descent?
I'll fire a short burst from the PAM, and that'll counter-thrust.
Just enable the PAM rocket to accept my command.
Hell, I thought this was gonna be hard.
Jerry, to make all this work...
...give me range and rate of opening readings.
Frank, you have one shot, maybe.
You miss, you'll never make it back.
If those bombs hit the atmosphere, it might not matter anyway.
Come on, let's suit up and get out of here.
That's the craziest thing I've ever heard.
2200 feet.
Holy cow. This is a bad idea.
Frank, by my calculations, you got 15 seconds...
... to ignite that PAM.
- Speak to me, Hawk. - We're almost there, Frank.
Five.
- On a count of one. - Four.
- One. - Three.
Two, one.
On my mark, Frank, shut her down.
Five, four...
... three...
Come on, Frank.
... two, one...
... mark.
That's it, Frank. It's static.
Houston, this is "Daedalus". We've arrested the fall.
Attaboy, Frank!
Oh, thank God.
Son of a bitch.
He's out.
I'll hook up the extra Payload Assist Modules. You take Jonny Quest back.
We've got a problem. We've only got one rocket left.
One PAM's got no chance of getting that thing into orbit.
You got another problem.
Oh, no. Even if we get this thing going...
...it's not gonna have enough power with two broken panels.
Take the kid back, I'll handle this.
How will you handle it, professor? You're a pilot, remember?
I'll need all the extra O2 modules you've got.
What are you talking about?
No.
I love you, but why do you have to be such a killjoy?
Besides, you ever see a prettier moon?
What's he talking about, Frank?
You'd never make a quarter of a million miles.
Oh, hell, yes, I will.
I just gotta go halfway. The moon's gravity will do the rest.
I'll fire them into outer space and let them...
...self-destruct.
That's not a solution, Frank. One PAM rocket's not nearly enough thrust.
Let's everybody slow down. There's got to be another way.
There isn't.
No.
Gotta be a winner in every race. Looks like it's me this time.
As usual, huh?
Oh, shit.
- He can't do that. - What's the status here?
What's the status here?
One orbital engine gone, primary and secondary guidance system.
Hydraulics are questionable.
Roger?
He has a concussion.
Oh, God.
With no Roger and no Hawk, Frank...
...you'll have to pilot this bird by yourself.
And you'll have to do it dead-stick.
Don't look at me. I've flown nothing bigger than a Cessna in 30 years.
Looks like I'm getting the better part of the deal here.
Stop laughing. You used up all your oxygen, dummy.
Frank's hot-wired it for you...
...but the trick is, those missiles run out of fuel in 20,000 miles.
You launch them too soon...
...the warheads could find their way back home to Earth.
Too late, they'd run out of fuel and then you'd be stuck with them.
Is this gonna work?
I don't know.
All right, fellas...
...let's shoot this baby to the moon.
Count down to one, right?
On a count of one.
One.
Ikon has left our gravitational field.
Hawk was able to launch the warheads into outer space.
How's "Daedalus"?
We have a critical situation.
The collision left us with one good orbital maneuvering engine...
...and it's leaking fuel.
If there's not enough fuel for a de-orbit burn...
It'll burn up, or it'll skip off.
What about guidance and avionics?
Well, the computers are unresponsive.
The only thing operating at 100 percent is their air flow.
They're gonna have to reenter the atmosphere and set her down in manual.
- That's impossible. - Well, it's never happened before.
The only pilots alive who'd even think about it are Roger and Hawk.
- Roger's wounded and Hawk's... - Okay.
Let's get them as close as we can, then abort the landing.
They'll have to bail out. What are the survival probabilities?
20 percent at best.
Zero if they try to set it down. The bird's dead.
I doubt it would even glide, with its structural damage.
20 percent is better than zero.
- You still have that thing? - Yes. She'll dance all the way home.
Daedalus.
Stand by for Eugene Davis.
The judgement here is to go for Florida.
We'll get you as close to Kennedy as we can.
Now, you're still inverted. And you're flying tail-first.
Ordinarily, the autopilot would do a de-orbit burn to right you.
- But we don't have a computer, right? - That's right.
You don't have much fuel left in that engine, either.
Swell.
Stand by for de-orbit burn.
That wasn't enough. Flip us around and use the forward RCS prop.
Shit.
All right.
Shit.
Easy, Frank. She's not a fighter jet.
A flying brick.
I hope not.
I'm gonna put her in a steep dive.
Make sure we don't overshoot.
I'll make a series of tight turns.
Spill off some of this speed.
Jerry, clip everybody in. At about 10,000, we should be over Florida.
Pop the hatch and get everybody out of here.
Ethan and Roger first.
Tank, you and Jerry after that.
I'll line her up for a ditch over the ocean. You got that, everyone?
Come on, hold together.
You're going in too steep, Frank.
She'll fall apart around us.
Hold together just a little longer.
Altitude 30 miles over Texas.
Come on, just a little longer.
Give me one more turn.
He's trying to call, sir.
He's fried his antenna.
Trajectory, where is he?
He's on final, but way too hot. He'll overshoot at this rate.
Coming up on 12,000.
Equalizing.
Jerry, blow that hatch. Get everybody out of here.
Roger.
Blowing the hatch.
One gone.
Tank, you get going too.
What about you?
I'll line her up for a visual, then I'm out.
Two gone.
Get out of here. Do you hear me? Get moving.
What the hell you guys doing?
We're a team, Frank.
Get out of here. That's an order.
We're staying.
Read out my airspeed, then.
500. Bring her up.
This is "Recover Five". You're way too hot.
Pull out now.
Negative, "Recover".
All right, give me airspeed.
300. Gear coming.
Gear down.
All right, there's nothing to this. Just tap the brakes a little bit.
He's gone into a stall.
Airspeed?
220.
210.
200.
185. She's gonna stall, Frank.
Speed?
175. Drop the nose.
What do you say we drop the nose?
Wheels stopped. "Daedalus" is home.
Just a walk in the park, Frank.
Hey, Gene.
- Yeah? - Never mind.
I never doubted Frank Corvin for a minute.
I brought him in on Project Daedalus 40 years ago and on this one too.
I'll tell you this: For commitment, courage and consistency...
...this group blows away all the teams I've ever had.
Do you think he made it?
Yeah. I think he made it.
Fly me to the moon
Let me play among the stars
Let me see what spring is like
On Jupiter and Mars
In other words
Hold my hand
In other words
Baby, kiss me
Fill my heart with song
And let me sing forevermore
You are all I long for
All I worship and adore
In other words
Please be true
In other words
I love you