Ruthless Sky

A risky mission
A disastrous accident
The crew’s struggle to get home

In the merciless void of space, love and survival intertwine as two marooned astronauts battle impossible odds.

It’s 1989, and Dr. Catherine Riley, a NASA astronaut who overcame all challenges to live her dream, sees her first mission turn into a fight for her life. As the space shuttle Intrepid launches, an explosion propels Cat and her fellow astronauts into a treacherous journey. NASA’s efforts to save their crippled orbiter don’t go as planned. Cat and Hayes Bartlett, her egotistical and charming crewmate, find themselves isolated and facing imminent death.

While NASA internal politics and Cold War rivalries make things worse, Cat and Hayes work to save themselves. They are drawn closer together as conditions worsen. Choosing love over a surrender to despair, their sparring courtship keeps hope alive. Will their resilience and ingenuity be enough to save them?

Step into the captivating world of RUTHLESS SKY, a heart-pounding realistic sci-fi adventure with a touching love story at its core. Featuring the tech detail of The Martian and the emotional perspective of love and mortality in The Fault in Our Stars, prepare to enjoy a story of the depths of human determination and the infinite reaches of the heart.

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D.K. (Kim) Broadwell is a physician and specialist in aerospace medicine, now living in North Carolina. This is his debut novel. As a flight surgeon at NASA’s Johnson Space Center during the space shuttle era, he has a unique perspective on astronauts, shuttle technical details and NASA internal politics. He is also a turbine rated pilot and operated an aircraft charter company for years before he wised up. The many hours of medical research he performed in NASA’s zero-gravity KC-135 aircraft (“vomit comet”) provide realism to life on the shuttle in orbit. He would have been an astronaut if his eyes weren’t too weak. He’s sticking by this story despite the facts.