August 12, 1963
- Gordon tells Cooper he has enough data—what he needs now is more background reading and data analysis.
- Gordon goes home late and finds Penny watching the March on Washington on TV.
- He notices that the dishwasher is still broken and asks Penny if she called, but this just devolves into a fight with Penny over how he never comes home anymore.
- At work, Gordon breaks down Cooper's experiment and rebuilds it, checking everything for a way to explain the signal.
- Saul shows up with a photographer from Life, Alex Paturski—the magazine is doing a piece on exobiology and want some pictures.
- Gordon gets the NMR rig up and running. He receives nothing out of the ordinary.
- Adele Morrison with Senior Scholastic Magazine calls Gordon, wanting to know if Gordon wants to comment on the Shriffer piece. Gordon says no.
- Further along in the summer, Penny tells Gordon she wants them to go visit her parents soon. This, along with the whole I don't want to marry you bit, confuses Gordon.
- That evening, he takes Penny out for dinner and dancing. He tries once to discuss his work problems with her, but soon gets angry and decides to keep the evening mindless fun.