Figure 4—Gryphon and pallet with Tiger Baily in LEO in an uncontrolled tumble.
LOW EARTH ORBIT
“What the f**k!” I yelped as the rear of my Gryphon-10 pallet tilted sharply upward while the nose yawed to the right. Then the whole thing started to tumble in a spiral fashion as the kick thruster continued its burn. Mother wasn’t stopping it, so I activated the manual jettison override. I watched the burning kick thruster spiral ahead of me and then flare out. I lost it in the glare of the morning sun.
“I got a problem here, Control,” I said as calmly as I could manage. I described what had happened from my limited perspective. “Mother, deploy the tethered holocam and make a full external inspection,” I ordered as I began to get my act together.
“Tiger, we are calculating your modified orb
