On 14 May, while Houston mission control receives communication from Capricorn One that they have landed on Mars, Elliot asks Kelloway about the unusual transmission problem. Not satisfied, Elliot continues to research the data at home. Bergen assures him that his console, which has malfunctioned previously, will be checked. Bergen that the television signals from Capricorn One are coming in ahead of the spacecraft signals. On 16 Mar, Elliot Whitter, a technician at mission control in Houston, notifies his superior Dr. Blaming powerful interests, Kelloway clarifies that their families are being flown back to Houston on a plane rigged with an explosive device that will detonate if the astronauts refuse to cooperate. Charles protests the morality of the scheme and asks what happens if they don't comply. When the module returns to Earth, they will be flown to the ocean landing and placed inside the capsule before the recovery vessel arrives. Kelloway assures the three men that they are only required to participate in the live television transmissions from the Mars landing and flight. He says that mission control in Houston knows nothing of this staging because they are receiving information from the real command module in space, as well as the astronauts' voice and medical data recorded during the practice simulations.

To reveal the only available solution, Kelloway takes the three astronauts into the warehouse where a set has been built of a space capsule on the Mars surface. However, aborting the mission would destroy NASA's reputation and funding, considering the skepticism for space exploration within the current administration, as well as the waning interest among the public. James Kelloway, explains to the astronauts that the life-support system, supplied by a greedy contractor, was recently discovered to be faulty, and it would have only kept them alive for three weeks. Meanwhile, the spacecraft is launched, and the control room in Houston, Texas is not aware that it is unmanned. From the launch site, they are flown on a NASA Learjet to an abandoned military base in the desert. As the Command pilot Charles Brubaker and his fellow astronauts, Peter Willis and John Walker, are performing final checks inside the capsule, an official opens the hatch and demands that they leave the craft immediately due to an emergency.

At Cape Canaveral, Florida on the morning of 4 Jan, NASA readies the spacecraft Capricorn One, the first manned mission to Mars, for launch.

Cast of capricorn one