As I approached the 150-second mark at forty klicks, Gryphon-10 began to grab atmosphere, and things started to heat up. The Master Chief said, “Talk to me, Tiger!”
“Suit’s warming up…I’ll continue a few seconds more…”
At 160 seconds, I said, “Now, Mother!”
Mother had already gimbled the rocket nozzle to push the stern down and adjusted the wing torque controls to optimize my return to space. I felt weight return as I rocketed upward. Then Mother cut the burn and announced, “Forward velocity five-zero-eight-five meters-per-second, net forward transfer nine-two-one kilometers.”
I watched the timer reset as Mother said, “Vertical motion zero on my mark…Mark!”
Although Mach numbers don’t really matter at this altitude, we started out at Mach 20, and as we began to grab air sixty-four kli
