From his control position astronaut paul travers reports that he is ready to receive the nose cone. This reverses to fit on the front of the Flight Deck. The assembly is complete. Countdown begins and passes. The massive motors of the lifting bodies fire and the great craft moves down the runway.
Shaun Wittacker–Cook, one of the visual effects directors, checks the seven feet long zero x model which weighs 50 lbs. and cost £2,500.
With a fantastic roar Zero X leaves the runway and soars majestically into the air. But the Mars shot authorities have not realised one desperately dangerous fact. A stowaway passenger is aboard the spaceship.
ln Lifting Body 1 a sinister, moustached man calmly, coolly photographs the top secret mechanism of the aircraft.
The click of his camera shutter continues as Zero X switches to its chemical engines for space flight.
Time is checked, hydraulic elevator controls are operated . . . and the greased rods close smoothly together . . . shutting unmistakenly on to the boot of the uninvited stranger.
The man is trapped. He groans in pain, his hand reaching involuntarily up to his face. Then the identity of the spy is revealed as a clever rubber mask is pulled down.
The interloper is the hood!
