The Cassandra Project by Jack McDevitt

Being an Apollo buff I loved this story about Jerry Carter, a PR man for NASA who is working on the Minerva program which is a shared US/Soviet mission to return to the moon.

Before the historic launch the Russians release some pictures, from the far side of the moon from 1967.  In those pictures a structure is found on the surface and a tabloid runs them and causes a sensation.  Pictures from NASA circa 1968 show no such structure.  The incident is laughed off and explained as a technical error.

Jerry is intrigued by this and decides to look into it a bit further, what he discovers is very interesting.

I always love big government stories like this one, where there incredible discoveries just waiting in a box in an archive somewhere in a little used facility.  Cover-ups are fun especially when a decision must be made to keep it secret or to let it out.

The story was first published in the first issue of Lightspeed Magazine, an electronic magazine who's content is available free from the website our you can subscribe and receive it monthly as a digital issue.

Jack McDevitt's website is HERE

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Jack McDevitt