That's why I can't feel too
bad about the monkey. You see, it might have been a man, maybe me.
I've been out there, too.

* * * * *

There are two types of classified government information. One is the
type that is really classified because it is concerned with efforts
and events that are of true importance and go beyond public
evaluation. Occasional unauthorized reports on this type of
information, within the scope that I knew it at least, are written off
as unidentified flying objects or such. The second type of classified
information is the kind that somehow always gets into the newspapers
all over the world ... like the X-15, and Project Dyna-Soar ... and
Project Argus.

Project Argus had as its basis a theory that was proven completely
unsound six years ago. It was proven unsound by Dennis Lynds. He got
killed doing it. It had to do with return vehicles from capsules
traveling at escape velocity, being oriented and controlled completely
by telemetering devices. It didn't work. This time, the monkey was
used for newspaper consumption. I'm sure Bannister would have
preferred it if the monkey had been killed on contact. It would have
been simpler that way. No mass hysteria about torturing a poor,
ignorant beast. A simple scientific sacrifice, already dead upon
announcement, would have been a _fait accompli_, so to speak, and
nothing could overshadow the success of Project Argus.

But Project Argus was a failure. Maybe someday you'll understand why.

Because of the monkey? Possibly. You see, I flew the second shot after
Lynds got killed. After that, came the hearing, and after that no men
flew in Bannister's ships anymore. They proved Lynds nuts, and got rid
of me, but nobody would try it, even with manual controls, where there
is no atmosphere.

When you're putting down after a maximum velocity flight, you feed a
set of landing coordinates into the computer, and you wait for the
computer to punch out a landing configuration and the controls set
themselves and lock into pattern. Then you just sit there. I haven't
yet met a pilot who didn't begin to sweat at that moment, and sweat
all the way down. We weren't geared for that kind of flying. We still
aren't, for that matter. We had always done it ourselves, (even on
instruments, we interpreted their meaning to the controls ourselves)
and we didn't like it. We had good reason. The telemetry circuits were
no good. That's a bad part o