The High Wind Blows: Part 5

By DAVID HILL

I saw the other buildings too. The white dome of Mt Dauntless Observatory down at the far end of the valley, safely out of blast range. The low, square Launch Control Centre. The Rocket Assembly Building, where the Ariane was put together after being shipped in sections from Europe. The scatter of workshops and laboratories and storerooms and living quarters.None of them mattered. The rocket was all I really saw. It was beautiful.OK, I know that's not a guy's word. But there it stood, the Ariane Mk 5, tall and slim and white, like a spear waiting to be flung at the sky. I could see the big steel shaft of the main stage, the skinnier second stage above that, and the pointed tapering nose section where Polewind would be stored.

Publisher: Puffin

Price: $15.95

Age group: 8-14 years