Personal Narrative-First Space Flight

The day was finally here, and I was stressed out. Having been up most of the night stressing over everything that could go wrong, re-checking my notes and calculations relentlessly, I was praying that everything would go well. I had just had my third cup of coffee when I sat down at my desk. My boss, Mike, looked over and gave me a half-sympathetic half-reassuring glance. I started taking some deep breaths. Mars rover InSight had launched on May 5th, 2018, right on time. The flight had gone well with only one or two minor problems. Now came the day we’d been waiting for. Today, November 26th, 2018 we were supposed to safely land InSight on the surface of Mars. Correction, I and my team, were supposed to safely land InSight on Mars.

Although

The voice belonged to Pete, who had been unusually quiet throughout the duration of the mission.

“I’ve got an Idea. It sounds crazy but hear me out.”

I stared at him, waiting for his grand scheme he was about to present when I looked at his monitor. Pete was supposed to fix his computer clock weeks ago, but I looked and realized his clock was still two minutes ahead. Two minutes can make a big difference in a mission. Pete had released the parachute too early, and the parachute had ripped off by the force of air resistance. I narrowed my eyes.

“I told you to fix that clock two weeks ago!” I practically screamed.

“I know, I know, I’m sorry, but I can fix it. If we release the sub-sequence parachutes just five seconds earlier, it would provide the same air resistance all three together would have. We can also fire the RCS thrusters to slow us down.” He explained

“Well, whatever you do do it quick!” I exclaimed, glancing at the clock. Just three minutes left in the seven minutes of terror. I saw him furiously typing commands on his keyboard. I looked up and gasped, the numbers were going down. We were slowing down. We had a chance to land this. I looked back at his