Also, a last-minute risky plan of using the Micro to take off the last few people is put into action and it rescues the last group off the Moon just before impact.

The coasts of the US are hit by multiple tsunamis and the land areas also face some impacts, resulting in widespread loss of life and property.

Many characters who have to deal with these events, like the residents of the affected areas, journalists and extremist militia members, are discussed in the novel.

Haskell and other passengers of the Micro are subsequently rescued by the Percival Lowell, a 'nuclear-powered' ship (presumably nuclear thermal) originally meant for the first crewed mission to Mars.

A mile-long piece of the debris, dubbed 'Possum' (from 'Possible Impactor'), is discovered to be on course to hit the US mainland, kill almost everyone in the US and possibly cause long-term worldwide disaster.

An extremist militia group, with a lack of understanding of the impactor and sensing a possibility to take over the government, damages one of the SSTOs before getting subdued.

After the initial loss of hope, the mission is altered to a last-ditch attempt to coax the impactor, which happens to have a flat side, to skip off the atmosphere.