Jump to a whole new section, and the novel has blessedly left the boring, boring Dr. Heywood behind. He is replaced with the only sort of boring David Bowman.
To be fair, Bowman is not in any respect more developed or fleshed out or individual than Floyd. But Bowman has more to do than just stand there and gape at a slab.
What he's got to do is get a spacecraft out all the way out to Saturn, helped by his trusty co-astronaut Frank Poole.
Originally, they were supposed to go to Jupiter, but then the mission changed, and now they're going to sling around Jupiter and out to Saturn.
The ship Discovery can't make it all the way back to Earth.
But the astronauts will go into suspended animation for five years, while earth builds the Discovery II to come get them.
If that all sounds dicey…well, yes. Foreshadowing.
There are three members of the survey team already in hibernation.