0800 hours
`` If you have a tough job to do , you put your best team to work on it , and the job will get done ! '' It was difficult for the three cadets , who had been standing to one side listening , to suppress a smile . They saluted and followed Strong from the room . He left them at the slidestairs with orders to be ready to blast off at 0800 hours . Tom was silent as he climbed into his bed in the _ Polaris _ unit 's quarters on the forty-second floor . Roger and Astro fell asleep almost as soon as their heads touched their air-foam pillows , but the curly-haired cadet lay with arms under his head , staring up at the ceiling . He felt uneasy about the task that faced them .