Operation Moon Rocket

Operation Moon Rocket is the thirty-second novel in the long-running Nick Carter-Killmaster series of spy novels.^[1] Carter is a US secret agent, code-named N-3, with the rank of Killmaster. He works for AXE – a secret arm of the US intelligence services.

Publishing history

The book was first published in 1968 by Award-Tandem Books (Number A295X [Award / T180 [Tandem]) by Universal Publishing and Distributing Corporation (New York, USA) and Universal-Tandem Publishing Co. Ltd. (London, England). The novel was written by ned

.^[2] ^[3] Copyright was registered on 13 February 1968.^[4]

Tagline

The wave of terror against America's astronauts could force the U.S. into war with China … and Killmaster's orders made him human bait.

Plot summary

The novel is set in May 1968.

The Apollo space mission immediately prior to the moon mission explodes on the launchpad. AXE Chief, David Hawk, suspects sabotage and sends Nick Carter, agent N-3, to investigate. The saboteur is identified as a member of the launchpad crew but he is soon found dead – his murder staged to look like suicide. He was last seen in a high-end nightclub in West Palm Beach with NASA physician and prime suspect, Dr Joy Sun.

Carter and his inexperienced young assistant, Candy Sweet, investigate the nightclub. They discover a sophisticated covert surveillance operation run by The Syndicate – an organized crime gang. They also discover compromising photographs of Dr Sun with Reno Tree – former hitman for the Las Vegas mob and owner of the nightclub.

Hawk informs Carter that NASA is secretly preparing to launch a replacement mission (Phoenix One) in the next few days using the reserve crew. The leader of the reserve crew, Colonel Glenn Eglund, has been seriously injured in an assassination attempt at Manned Spacecraft Center in Houston. Carter is to impersonate Eglund as it is expected that the assassin will strike again knowing that they failed the first time.

Carter, heavily made up to resemble Eglund, resumes training at Houston. He is attacked on the moon surface simulator by an unknown assailant but manages to break his assailant's wrist and escape. AXE discovers that the secret information about the Phoenix One launch has been leaked by someone high up in NASA. As the Phoenix One crew flies from Houston to Cape Canaveral for the launch, Carter confronts Dr Sun with the photograph. She is aware Carter is not Eglund and may be a US government agent. She denies trying to have Carter killed. An explosion causes the plane to decompress at high altitude but the crew manages to land the plane safely. Carter realises that the Apollo program security chief, Major Sollitz, is the saboteur.

Candy Sweet asks for Carter's help searching the swamps at the edge of the Kennedy Space Center. Major Sollitz is forced to crash a remotely controlled helicopter into them and is killed in the process. Carter traces the radio transmitter that controlled the helicopter to a nearby gas station. He discovers two men packing away electronic equipment on to a boat. Carter kills them both. Candy Sweet pulls a gun on Carter. Carter dives over board and escapes.

Carter returns to the nightclub in West Palm Beach posing as conman and gambler, Mickey Elgar, looking for a high-stakes poker game. He discovers Candy Sweet in a relationship with Reno Tree. Carter is beaten and awakens in the Riviera Beach home of Alex Simian – owner of NASA contractor, General Kinetic. He is invited to play cards with Simian and the leaders of The Syndicate. It is clear from the discussions that Simian is greatly in debt to The Syndicate.

Simian needs General Kinetic to displace Connelly and secure the US$20 billion Apollo program funding to refloat his holdings. Simian has kidnapped the families of the Apollo program electronic guidance crew and held them captive in the General Kinetic medical center in Miami. The Phoenix One launch has been sabotaged to alter course after lift-off and crash into Miami. Carter and Joy Sun head for the medical center.

Carter leaves Joy Sun to recuperate in a cheap hotel while he surveils the medical center. When he returns he finds Joy Sun missing and Candy Sweet in her place – murdered. Carter is captured, drugged and taken to the medical center. When he regains consciousness there are only 4 minutes to the sabotaged launch of Phoenix One. Simian taunts him via a closed-circuit TV link from his beachfront home. Carter escapes and manages to contact NASA mission controllers to delay the launch for 24 hours. Carter races to Simian's home. He breaks in and confronts Simian who tries to escape by motor launch. Carter kills Reno Tree. Simian loses control of the motor launch and crashes it killing himself.

The next day, Carter relaxes in a Miami hotel watching the launch of Phoenix One in bed with a girlfriend.

Main characters

Nick Carter – agent N-3, AXE (posing as Sam Harmon – lawyer; Colonel Glenn Eglund – astronaut; Mickey Elgar – conman and gambler)
David Hawk – head of AXE; Carter's boss
Dr Joy Han Sun – Medical Research Chief, Project Apollo
Candace Weatherall Sweet – aka Candy Sweet; AXE agent
Alex Simian – manager, General Kinetics
Major Duanne F. Sollitz – security chief for Apollo program
Rinaldo Tribolati – aka Reno Tree; nightclub owner; member of The Syndicate
Johnny Hung Fat – associate of Reno Tree and Alex Simian
Hank Peterson – AXE agent L-32

Other information

The sabotaged Apollo mission in the novel is “the final test before the actual moon flight itself” (Chapter 1), which would be equivalent to Apollo 10.
The names of the Apollo flight crew in the novel reflect in part those of the Apollo 1 crew: Lieutenant Colonel Norwood “Woody” Lipscombe = Lieutenant Colonel Virgil I. “Gus” Grissom; Lieutenant Colonel Ted Green = Lieutenant Colonel Edward H. White; Lieutenant Commander Doug Albers = Lieutenant Commander Roger Chaffee
Hawk refers to several acts of sabotage on the US space program including the crash of the Gemini 9A crew (28 February 1966) said to have occurred “a few years ago” (Chapter 2); the loss of a SV-5D re-entry vehicle from Vandenberg Air Force Base “last June” (the first 2 tests of the SV-5D did result in unexpected loss of the vehicle, but these tests occurred in December 1966 and March 1967, respectively. The last SV-5D test was conducted in April 1967 after which it was never flown again.)
The death of Vladimir Komarov in Soyuz 1 in April 1967 is referred to as occurring “last year” (Chapter 7)

Errors

In the novel, the doomed Apollo flight is numbered AS-906. The correct designation should be AS-5xx, where AS-5 refers to Apollo-Saturn 5. Apollo 10's designation was AS-505.
Colonel Eglund was injured when testing the Apollo life support system (Chapter 4). It is stated that the supply of nitrogen was increased which reacted with the astronaut's perspiration inside his suit to form deadly “amine” gas (Chapter 4, 5). This reaction is not possible. By increasing the nitrogen content the oxygen would be diluted resulting in asphyxiation. The minimum oxygen content to support human breathing is 19.5% compared with the usual 20.9% in normal air^[5] Under normal conditions, nitrogen and ammonia from sweat would not react to form “amine gas”, as suggested.
Carter roams freely about a simulated 10-acre moonscape with 1/6th artificial gravity (Chapter 5, 6). However, a reduced gravity environment as described in the novel cannot be simulated on earth. A lunar surface simulator, with 1/6th gravity, has been described,^[6] although the artificial gravity was produced by suspending the astronaut on an overhead cable and pulley system in a much smaller environment.
In Chapter 10 Carter is beaten up by a group of men (“a Brownsville stomping”); in Chapter 11 it is called a “Brooklyn-style stomping”.
Chapter 15 (plot hole): Carter and Joy Sun drive to Miami. Carter leaves Joy Sun in a hotel to rest. When he returns Joy Sun is missing and Candy Sweet is in bed murdered. Carter assumes Joy Sun has been kidnapped by Simian’s men. In Chapter 16, it is revealed that Carter is aware that his colleague from AXE has picked up Joy Sun and returned with her to Kennedy Space Center.

References

↑ http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/c/nick-carter/
↑ Serial Vigilantes of Paperback Fiction: An Encyclopedia from Able Team to Z-Comm. Bradley Mengel. 2009. ISBN 978-0-7864-4165-5
↑ http://www.spyguysandgals.com/sgShowAuthor.asp?ScanAuthor=Louderback_Lew
↑ Catalog of Copyright Entries. Third Series: 1968: January-June. By Library of Congress. Copyright Office, p840
↑ http://classroom.synonym.com/minimum-oxygen-concentration-human-breathing-15546.html
↑ JL Seminara. Simulation of manned lunar surface operations. Journal of Spacecraft and Rockets. 1968;5(8):979-81.

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