It was early that morning on the Space Coast of Florida. It was a beautiful morning without a cloud in the sky.
At his house, Tater worked on his riding mower. The drive pedal had been sticking lately. He attempted to fix that issue.
It was a perfect morning for a Magellan launch. Over four hundred thousand people drove to the area to view this historic launch. They came from all around the United States and the other regions worldwide.
Tater drove his pickup truck with hitched trailer and lawnmowers down a street in Atlantis. He parked his pickup in front of a house along the street. He wanted to see the launch but knew he had obligations in his job that came first. These customers gave him a chance to earn a living after his layoff from the space center.
Inside her shop in Cocoa, Lilly carried a poodle called Touché, with the saddest puppy dog eyes, to a large tub. She placed the poodle in the tub and grabbed a remote off a nearby table. She pressed a button, and a nearby TV turned on.
On TV, she watched a soap opera while she proceeded to bathe Touché.
At Louie's dentist practice in Titusville, a man sat nervously in the dentist's chair. A TV hung from the ceiling for his viewing pleasure. The news by Channel 13 was currently available, but there was a commercial in progress.
Louie entered the room. “Well, Mister Yarbrough, are you ready for me to work on that filling?"
The man shook his head in disagreement when he saw Louie bring what he thought was a massive needle to his mouth.
In Winter Park, Rose drove her Mercedes down a street. She was on her way for a day of shopping for new dresses and shoes.
Outside Space Camp, Cindy and Jack gathered the kids outside to view the launch of the Magellan V rocket. Cindy glanced at the kids. Something seemed wrong, and he looked harder at the kids. Her eyes widened in fear. It dawned on her. "Where's Todd and Ricky?" she asked Jack.
He looked at the kids and didn't see them. "I don't know," he said, then thought for a few seconds. "I haven't seen them since we went to the launch pad yesterday," he responded.
Cindy rushed back inside the Space Camp building.
Cindy rushed to the boy's dorm room. Todd and Ricky were not inside that room.
Cindy rushed to the training room. Todd and Ricky were not inside that room.
Cindy rushed to the cafeteria. Todd and Ricky were not inside that room.
Cindy rushed back outside.
Once she got outside, Cindy rushed back over to Jack. "I can't find them," she said in a panic.
Then "ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one, lift-off" came over the outside loudspeakers.
All eyes looked to the east for the launch.
Cindy worried that Todd and Ricky were lost at the Kennedy Space Center.
In the storage cabinet in the Magellan capsule, Todd and Ricky still slept. There was the roar of rocket engines firing. The cabinet shook and vibrated. Todd and Ricky woke up and looked around in a daze. Then it dawned on them what happened with the roar of the rocket's engines.
"We're in deep doo-doo," Todd told Ricky.
The cabinet shook, and the roar of the rocket engines continued.
"Your right," Ricky added. "Deep doo-doo!”
People all over the area watched the Magellan 5 rocket rumble into the sky with a fiery smoke trail.
In Atlantis, Tater mowed the front yard on his riding mower. He stopped the riding mower when he spotted the Magellan 5 rocket racing into the sky.
Louie and Mister Yarbrough watched the launch from the Channel 13 news on his TV in his dentist's office.
In Winter Park, Rose could care less about a rocket launch while she walked into a fancy dress store in Winter Park. Some people stood on the sidewalks, looked east at the sky, and saw the Magellan rocket race upward.
In outer space above Earth, the first stage of the Magellan V rocket separated. The Magellan's second stage engine fired, and it ascended into space.
The first stage fell back down to Earth.
The second stage of the Magellan V rocket separated.
The engine of the capsule and payload module separated from the second stage. Its engine fired, and it started to orbit Earth.
The second stage dropped back down to Earth.
Inside the Magellan 5 capsule, a light came through the slits in the storage cabinet door. Todd and Ricky floated to the top of the cabinet and thought that was cool.
"Should we tell them?" Ricky asked.
"And risk going to jail? I don't think so. We better sit here and remain quiet. We can sneak out after they land," Todd responded.
They continued to float inside the cabinet, scared to death. It dawned on Ricky. "But they land in the ocean!"
Todd and Ricky looked scared and were clueless about how to get out of this pickle.
Astronauts Jake, Lance, and Clint floated around the capsule in slacks and golf shirts.
Lance connected a small cable to a camera pointing at Jake and Clint. Lance floated back to Jake. They all floated and faced the camera.
A red light came on the camera.
“Hello, Earth," Jake addressed the camera lens.
Down on Earth, at home in Atlantis, an old lady, over eighty years old, was watching TV from her couch. Behind the old lady was a sliding glass door. Tater was visible mowing her backyard on his riding mower from the door.
She watched Channel 9 News on her TV. It showed the Magellan astronauts floating in the capsule.
"We would like to take some time to explain how our mission will unfold," Jake said from the TV.
In Lilly's shop, she dried Touché' on top of a nearby table and eyed the nearby TV, showing the Channel 9 News. She watched Jake, Lance and Clint perform their new conference from space.
In Louie's dentist's office, Louie entered and where the nervous man waited in the chair.
“Okay, Mister Yarbrough, you're numb. We can start," Louie said while sitting next to his patient.
In Winter Park, Rose drove her Mercedes down the street with four shopping bags in the passenger seat.
At Space Camp, Cindy panicked while she searched the campgrounds for Todd and Ricky. She couldn't find them. She got sick to her stomach.
In the Magellan capsule above Earth, Jake, Lance, and Clint floated and looked at the camera.
"That's an excellent question. The R1D1 robot is a prototype developed for flying uncrewed rockets. We'll install R1D1 in the old Apollo lunar module. It's programmed to fly the asteroid away from Earth," Clint addressed the camera.
They paused while Lance listened to a question from a news reporter.
"Sure, we can show you," Lance said. Then he floated over, unlocked, and opened up the storage cabinet door. He reached inside and pulled Todd out by his shirt.
He held Todd up to the camera and thought it was R1D1.
"I would like to introduce R1D1," Lance addressed the camera with Todd in hand.
Ricky floated out of the cabinet.
Clint and Jake stared at Todd and Ricky in disbelief.
"Space camp kids? What the?" Clint said, stumped.
Lance saw Ricky and then realized he had Todd in his grip. He looked bewildered.
Back at the old lady's home in Atlantis, Tater drove his riding mower by the old lady's sliding glass window. He eyed the TV inside. The TV showed Todd and Ricky in the capsule.
Tater whistled as he mowed her backyard and glanced back at the sliding glass door. His eyes widened when it dawned on him that Todd was on TV.
He jumped off his mower and ran back to the sliding glass door.
His mower drove by itself to the neighbor's yard and splashed into its in-ground pool. His fix for the drive pedal didn’t work.
Tater looked at the sliding glass door with his eyes widened in shock at the sight of Todd in the Magellan capsule.
At Lilly's shop, she stared at the TV with eyes widened and mouth dropped open in shock. Poor Touché had a Mohawk haircut, which the dog loved. But that's not the style she wanted to give the poodle.
At Louie's dentist's office, Louie stared at the TV in shock at the sight of Ricky inside the Magellan capsule. He stuck the drill into Mister Yarbrough's mouth while staring at the TV. Mister Yarbrough screamed bloody murder as Louie drilled the wrong tooth. It was a tooth that was not numbed. Mister Yarbrough's eyes rolled back, and he passed out.
In Winter Park, Rose drove her Mercedes down a street. She drove past a TV store with many TVs in the window front.
The TVs showed Todd and Ricky floating in the Magellan capsule with the astronauts.
"That's nice. Ricky's on TV," Rose said while glancing at the TVs. It dawned on Rose, and her eyes and mouth dropped in shock. She slammed on her brakes and screeched her Mercedes to a stop.
Cars behind her swerved to avoid her rear end and missed her by inches yet crashed into each other.
Rose jumped out of her car and ran to the store windows. She stared in disbelief at the sight of Ricky up in space inside the capsule.
In her living room, Lucy watched TV from her couch. She saw Todd and Ricky while they floated in the Magellan capsule. She stared in disbelief at Todd being up in space inside the capsule. “Todd? Up in space?” she said while she stared at her TV.
At Space Camp, Henry Michaels sat at his desk with his eyes glued to a TV on the wall while Cindy moped into his office.
"Henry, we have a major problem," she said.
"I know; two of our space camp kids somehow snuck aboard the Magellan capsule and are now in space," he told her,
Cindy looked bewildered. Henry pointed at his TV.
Cindy saw Todd and Ricky floating in the Magellan capsule with Clint, Jake, and Lance. The boys still wore their Space Camp T-shirts.
Cindy fainted and dropped to the floor.
Henry jumped up out of his chair and ran over and assisted Cindy.