Ben Moulton
Prof. Harnett
ESS 102 A
2 May 2016
The Hephaestus XV May 24, 2043 “Huston this is Hephaestus XV, do you copy? Huston, HUSTON!” “The radio’s gone Jason, did you get through?” asked Kyle. “No” “What do we do now?” Kim asked while holding her panic at bay. “I don’t know” said Jason, “I don’t know…” In 2018, twenty one years before the Hephaestus program had even began the future of space was changed forever. Saudi Arabia, after losing much of its wealth as a result of the United States rising to the top of the oil producing market, fell into civil war. General Kattan and his extremist followers took over the province and in a blitzkrieg fashion, with the help of Iran, took control of all the countries between the Suez Canal
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He knew the Captain enforced the rules so harshly because this was his mission. At the time of the launch there were no American pilots ready who either had gone on an asteroid mining mission before, or who were not currently on one already. NASA thought it best to contract a pilot from Russia who had already gone on a mission similar to this, so Lieutenant Clemson was pushed to co-pilot for his first harvesting mission. Jason had been in space twice before, once as a co-pilot on his first mission and once as the pilot of the Russian shuttle to the moon. He felt betrayed that he was not entrusted to fly there himself and that someone he never knew was brought in to command the mission. Every Mission was a joint mission but this was an American one and tried to convince himself that he didn’t want Losev to be in charge just based on it being an American venture, but the truth was he just disliked the man.
“Huston this is Hephaestus XV, we are T minus 5 minutes to launch, I am running final diagnostic on engine and electrical systems now.” Said Jason.
Three minutes later the radio cackled to life saying “Roger that Hephaestus, you are reading clear on our part. Launch at your discretion. We are looking forward to seeing you back on Earth.”
“Aye, Kyle here, everything is packed. The lovely miss Kim and I are moving towards the