The Narrow Window - A Shackleton Base Story

Eleven-year-old Mira Okafor has a real job now at Shackleton Base — but nothing has prepared her for watching her own mother suit up for the base's first crewed spaceflight. The launch window opens in fourteen days. It stays open for three. Miss it, and the next chance doesn't come for another four months — orbital mechanics doesn't negotiate, and neither does the calendar. When a flaw is discovered deep inside the Ferry's ascent system days before liftoff, Mira and her friend Dae-Jung are pulled into the fix — not as an exception this time, but because they've earned it. Under pressure, Mira has to learn a harder lesson than the one that shaped her before: sometimes the bravest thing isn't asking for help. It's speaking up before you're sure you need it. Meanwhile, deep in a two-billion-year-old ice core, something is waiting that shouldn't exist at all. Grounded in real orbital mechanics and spaceflight engineering, The Narrow Window is a story about trust, honesty, and the kind of pressure that doesn't bend just because you need it to. Each chapter closes with a short science note connecting the story to real spaceflight research. Book Two in the Shackleton Base series.