'You want one of our astronauts to fly with Leonov?'

'Yes – preferably an engineer who's specialized in Discovery's systems. Like the ones you're training at Houston to bring the ship home.'

'How did you know that?'

'For heaven's sake, Woody – it was on Aviation Week's videotext at least a month ago.'

'I am out of touch; nobody tells me what's been declassified.'

'All the more reason to spend time in Washington. Will you back me up?'

'Absolutely. I agree with you one hundred per cent. But -'

'But what?'

'We both have to deal with dinosaurs with brains in their tails. Some of mine will argue: Let the Russians risk their necks, hurrying out to Jupiter. We'll be there anyway a couple of years later – and what's the hurry?'

For a moment there was silence on the antenna raft, except for a faint creak from the immense supporting cables that held it suspended a hundred metres in the sky. Then Moisevitch continued, so quietly that Floyd had to strain to hear him: 'Has anyone checked Discovery's orbit lately?'

'I really don't know – but I suppose so. Anyway, why bother? It's a perfectly stable one.'

'Indeed. Let me tactlessly remind you of an embarrassing incident from the old NASA days. Your first space station – Skylab. It was supposed to stay up at least a decade, but you didn't do your calculations right. The air drag in the ionosphere was badly underestimated, and it came down years ahead of schedule. I'm sure you remember that little cliffhanger, even though you were a boy at the time.'

'It was the year I graduated, and you know it. But Discovery doesn't go anywhere near Jupiter. Even at perigee – er, perijove – it's much too high to be affected by atmospheric drag.'

'I've already said enough to get me exiled to my dacha again – and you might not be allowed to visit me next time. So just ask your tracking people to do their job more carefully, will you? And remind them that Jupiter has the biggest magnetosphere in the Solar System.'