Radiant Sky

Imagine for a second what would have happened if the Soviets had gotten a cosmonaut to the moon first, if Neil Armstrong and Apollo 11 had been in a humiliating second place. Everything would have unfolded differently. America would never have let the Soviets win the space race. That would have been unthinkable during the Cold War, political suicide for any president. We’d have gritted our teeth and doubled down, poured billions into the Apollo program. HOT MOON is set in 1979 in this alternate world. The US and the Soviets both have permanent moon bases, orbiting space stations, and manned spy satellites supported by frequent rocket launches. Reagan is President and the Cold War is hotter than ever. The crew of Apollo 32, commanded by Vivian Carter, career astronaut, docks at NASA’s Columbia space station on their way to their main mission: exploring the volcanic Marius Hills region of the Moon. Vivian is caught in the crossfire as four Soviet Soyuz craft appear without warning to assault the orbiting station. It’s the world’s first space battle, with 1970s technology. In a daring move, Vivian space walks through hard vacuum back to her Lunar Module and crew and escapes right before the station falls into Soviet hands. Their original mission scrubbed, Vivian and crew are redirected to land at Hadley Base, a NASA lunar outpost with a crew of eighteen. But soon Hadley too will come under Soviet attack. With multiple viewpoints, shifting from American to Soviet perspective, from occupied space station to American moon base under siege, to US Air Force military response, Alan tells the gripping story of a Cold War in space that very nearly might have been.