The Project Gutenberg EBook of Egocentric Orbit, by John Cory

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Title: Egocentric Orbit

Author: John Cory

Illustrator: Gardner

Release Date: January 1, 2008 [EBook #24101]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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EGOCENTRIC ORBIT

[Illustration]

_It took a long time for human beings
to accept that our little piece of meteoric
rubble wasn't the exact and absolute
center of the Universe. It does appear
that way, doesn't it? It may not take
so long for a spaceman to learn ..._

By JOHN CORY

Illustrated by Gardner

Near the end of his fifteenth orbit as Greenland slipped by noiselessly
below, he made the routine measurements that tested the operation of his
space capsule and checked the automatic instruments which would transmit
their stored data to Earth on his next pass over Control. Everything
normal; all mechanical devices were operating perfectly.

This information didn't surprise him, in fact, he really didn't even
think about it. The previous orbits and the long simulated flights on
Earth during training had made such checks routine and perfect results
expected. The capsules were developed by exhaustive testing both on the
ground and as empty satellites before entrusting them to carry animals
and then the first human.

He returned to contemplation of the panorama passing below and above,
although as he noted idly, above and below had lost some of their usual
meaning. Since his capsule, like all heavenly bodies, was stable in
position with respect to the entire universe and, thanks to Sir Isaac
Newton and his laws, never changed, the Earth and the stars alternated
over his head during each orbit. "Up" now meant whatever was in the
direction of his head. He remembered that even during his initial orbit
when the Earth first appeared overhead he accepted the fact as normal.
He wondered if the other two had accepted it as easily.

For there had been two men hurled into orbit before he ventured into
space. Two others wh