The shocking loss of a key NASA official may ruin the planned U.S.-Soviet mission.
Tropes
- Ambiguous Situation: Bradford offers logical refutations to the idea of KAL 007 really being used for espionage, viz, the insecurity of using a commercial airliner owned by another nation, and naming a different type of aircraft as the source of the photos he later shows Margo. However, the way he says this leaves his truthfulness open to interpretation.
- Artistic License – History: In real life, while the Buran did seem to borrow a lot of the American space shuttle's design, the Energiya was actually a liquid-fuel booster system rather than a solid-fuel. It did not have the same O-ring flaw that doomed Challenger. Of course, the show is Alternate History.
- Dies Differently in Adaptation: Thomas Paine died of cancer in 1992. Here, he is killed when Korean Air Flight 007 is shot down by a Soviet fighter.
- Disconnected by Death: Thomas is on the phone with Margo when the Soviets shoot down his plane.
- Don't Be Ridiculous: The Air Force colonel says that the Russians may have thought KAL 007 was equipped as a spy plane. When NASA asks if it was, he replies with this phrase and points out that the plane was property of a private company based in a different country, and therefore it would make little sense to use it for sensitive US espionage operations.
- For Want Of A Nail:
- While the episode takes place three years before it actually happened, NASA had already identified the flaw in the O-ring that caused the Challenger disaster and corrected it.
- The engineer who speaks to Danielle Poole doesn't give a name but is credited as Sergei Korolev, who was known as the father of the Soviet space program. The real Korolev died in 1966, and his survival into the 80's is an implicit factor in the Soviets beating America to the Moon.
- Killed Off for Real: Tom.
- Misery Poker: When Danielle complains about being jailed in her room, the Russian engineer says that a nice warm hotel is nothing like jail and begins describing what actual Soviet prison is like in a way that makes very clear he was in one himself. (Sergei Korolev was arrested in one of Stalin's Great Purge and nearly starved to death in a gulag.)
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: It's clear the loss of Tom (not to mention how she could have been on the same flight if not for a family emergency) is shaking Ellen to the point she's willing to let NASA be militarized rather than lose anyone else.
- Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: Despite orders not to, Margo, while not openly saying it, is able to warn Sergei of the flaws in the Soviet's shuttle to prevent a disaster that would kill hundreds.
- Standard Snippet: Invoked; when flying the marines to the lithium mining site, Helena starts humming Wagner's Ride of the Valkyries over the radio, and everyone on the craft joins in.
- To Absent Friends: When Danielle sits down with the engineer, she offers a toast to fallen comrades in the Russian tradition, pleasing the engineer with her knowledge of their customs.
- What the Hell, Hero?: The NASA team isn't happy when Ellen tells them the shuttle will now be armed and wants the moon team to take back the base fast. They're less happy when Ellen tells them this is her recommendation, and not coming from the President or Pentagon.
