After mysterious bouts of vertigo, Shepard turns to Dee O’Hara to help him. Meanwhile, Cocoa Beach has transformed from ghost town to perpetual party. Gordo finds himself tempted by another woman. Glenn seeks refuge from the bedlam at a local church gathering, where even he is confronted by temptation. The astronauts’ families arrive in Florida to watch the first test launch of the Atlas Rocket.

JFK sends a science committee to Cape Canaveral to assess the validity of the space program. Glenn, burning from the results of the peer vote, drafts letters to politicians complaining that Shepard is morally unfit to be the first man in space. But matters of internal power plays and a skeptical president are soon dwarfed by news out of Russia that could be the nail in Project Mercury’s coffin.