There were five key phases for the flight: launch to orbit, trans lunar injection, lunar-orbit insertion, trans-earth injection, and entry. During the first three, there had been a way to abort and go home. It was the fourth, T.E.I., trans-earth injection, that had worried people since August. This was the moment that some said had caused Webb to leave NASA. It was quite simple: The S.P.S. engine had to work, bringing the crew out of lunar orbit, or else the crew would circle the moon, with a nice, clear radio link back to earth, for about nine days until their oxygen was exhausted and they
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