Orbital

Roman makes contact with Tony, a stranger on Earth, through the radio. Their conversation is brief, filled with static and repeated introductions. Tony is surprised to be speaking to an astronaut, but their connection, however small, feels as though it bridges the vast distance between them. Elsewhere in space, Voyager probes drift around, carrying records with sounds from Earth such as music, greetings, nature, and even a recording of a woman’s brainwaves. The woman had been thinking of history and science, but her thoughts kept returning to the man she loved. Those feelings, now encoded in sound, travel endlessly through the universe. The odds of any life form finding and understanding them are almost zero, but people have found it worthwhile to send out nevertheless.

The previous day, the crew on the space station watched the lunar rocket launch, a fireball erupting as it lifted off, leaving a tower of smoke before the boosters detached and the rocket ascended into space. The group of astronauts on the lunar mission had spent the morning in routine preparations—after a final shower and breakfast, they left their beach hut for the launch pad, transported by a sleek car. After saying goodbye to their families, they suited up, underwent final checks, and secured their helmets and gloves. At the launch pad, they took their seats, tested communication systems, and confirmed all hardware. Just hours earlier, they had been ordinary people; now, they were astronauts, ready for departure.