"... as the astronauts make the final preparations for their Friday launch... to the orbiting Antares spacecraft... from there to Venus and beyond." "Today, they had their final medical examinations... and then they posed for their official portrait in Mission Control." "The next few days for the crew will be devoted..." " to saying good-bye to Earth and their loved ones." " Which one are you?" "The mood here is buoyant but it's clear" " I'm not on this one. - ... by the length and difficulty of this historic" " This so-called grand tour of the solar system" " Which one?" "Pop, I'm not on the mission." "Okay?" "I didn't make this one." "I know that." "I know that." "Mars." "My old man calls space travel a fool's game." "He says human beings are 60% water." "They eat, sleep, defecate, can't follow directions... and explode like pinatas when exposed to the vacuum of space." "Lately" " I've been wondering ifhe's right." "Calliope, do you read?" "Sharon, you guys need to move it." "We gotta get up out of this." "Calliope, this is Zeus." "This storm is on the rise." " You need to get off the planet." " Zeus, they're a hundred meters out." " Let me go out and I can lead them in." " Negative." " You will not leave the lander." " Launch weather parameters are at minimum." " Thirty seconds." "Come on, guys." " Seventy meters." "We can hold." " Zeus, we're holding at 25." " Launch weather parameters are at minimum." "Calliope, I'm overriding your launch controls." " Donner?" " Launch weather parameters are at minimum." " Donner, did you close that valve?" " Just give 'em two minutes." "You don't have two minutes." "You will die." "The mission will fail." " I want that lander off the planet now." " Donner!" " Sharon?" " Donner, launch." " Launch weather parameters are at minimum." " Sharon." " Donner." " Open the damn valve, Donner." " Launch now." "Launch now." " Launch now." " God forgive me." "Ten, nine, eight... seven, six, five... four, three, two, one!" "Oh, my God, Paula, you still look a little dry there." " Don't you dare, Wass." " I'm sorry, Paula." "I'm sorry." "Methinks she will forgive me." "Remember that feeling." "Oh, yeah." "Best day of my life." "Everything's in front of you." "It all looks good." " Yeah." "It all looked good." " Yes, it did." "How do you do this all the time?" "This one is particularly disgusting." "You are such a geek, you make me look cool." " Oh, I'm so looking forward to this honeymoon." " Good." " Because we couldn't afford Niagara Falls." " You are so cheap." " Congratulations, Commander." " Thank you, sir." "If you call me Mrs. Commander, I'm gonna give you a fat lip, sir." "Relax, Jen." "Tonight I'm just a towel boy." "Oh, and Rollie, listen." "I've scheduled one more media interview for you..." " tomorrow at 1430." " How long did they meet today?" " Goss and Rollie?" " Yeah." "Three hours." "You're the alt commander." "Aren't you supposed to be present for all briefings?" " Well, I wasn't invited." " Huh." "Maybe you need to talk to your wife about that." " Don't even go there." " That's what you get for marrying the boss." "Welcome to the agency's training facility." "This is Mission Control." "The flight of Antares will be the most ambitious mission in history." "As astronaut candidates, you will be competing... not only with yourselves, but with many of your instructors." "That's Shaw and Donner." "They were the two on the Mars mission." "I don't think there's anyone in this program who doesn't want to be on that crew." "Your training will involve everything from flight systems to launch survival." "And make no mistake, we are gonna challenge you- physically, emotionally, intellectually." "In the end, less than one-third of you..." " are gonna make it to the final year." " You know him?" " And we're gonna be coming with fastballs" " Who?" "Donner." " 'Cause it sure looks like he knows you." " No." "He doesn't." " Oh." " This will not be a soft day of orientation." " Well, he's smiling at you." "Smile back." " We call the first day" " Jen." " shock and awe." " Come on." "Don't be such a tight-ass." " No!" "Excellent." "Candidate Barnes has volunteered to be in the first centrifuge group." " Oh, no." "What's this?" " This is the bucket." "It's an award." "You're the first one in your class to heave." "And everybody's gonna get one... or two." "Five, you wash out." "You want to meet me at Major Tom's?" "I'll give you some tips." "You cannot be serious." "What?" "I'm being nice." "I'm being serious and I'm being nice." "What's wrong with being serious and nice?" " You have to lighten up, girl." " What?" "So light, I am floating." " He was making a pass at you." " He's not my type." "What?" "The smart, good-looking, American hero type?" " He left two people on Mars." " Okay, fine." "The tragic American hero." "Even better." " Oh, you're not gay, are you?" " No." "I am a geologist who wants to travel to another planet... without unnecessary complications." "Right." "A space nun." " A what?" " A space nun, or..." " she's gay." " No, she's not gay." " You got firsthand knowledge?" " I don't do astronauts, Rollie." "You know that." " Yeah, well, you might want to reconsider." " Oh." "What?" " Whoa!" " My place, now." " Really?" "Mm-hmm." "We have six years of screwing to do in one night... and I don't wanna miss one minute." "Well, that's-Aah." "Woman, damn, you bite hard." "Mm-hmm." "The door will be unlocked." "I'll be in the bedroom." " Did she mark you again?" " Yeah." "Yeah, she did." "I think that's a German thing." " Deutsch mark." " So, uh" "So my mother's saying that Mercury's in retrograde... and that we shouldn't launch... at all." " Well, listen to your mother on that, definitely." " I try not to." "It's hard to stop." "Yeah." "I always thought out of the two of us, you'd be the one flying." "So did I." " Sorry." "It's no offense." " No." "None taken." "Hey, you see any cows on Venus" "You will be the first to know." "Zoe." "Picture." "Have a good time." "The flight of Antares- six years, seven planets and eight astronauts." "A grand tour of the solar system." "The most ambitious exploration in the history of mankind." "Today is the day thejourney begins." "But why a manned mission?" "Why send men prone to mistakes... when probes and rovers can do the job?" "It's a six-year mission to seven planets." "It's far too complex." "Would you call the last manned mission to Mars a success?" "Three of us came back." "We'd all say yes." "Despite deserting two astronauts on the planet's surface?" "We knew what the risks were 10 years ago." " And these people know what the risks are now." " Do they?" "It seems to me... that aside from your mission commander, this is a very green crew." " I know where this is going." " Let him handle it, Donner." "This crew was picked for its skill and compatibility." "But clearly not its experience." " I'd say you're fishing, Trevor." " Then I'll be more specific." "I think we in the press were all surprised when Donner and Shaw weren't selected." " Did it surprise you guys?" " They're alternates." "But why?" "Does it have something to do with what happened on Mars?" " Man just said that it didn't." " But that's not what I heard." "Well, you're hearing what you want to hear." "The truth would be nice for once." "The cockpit recorder conveniently pixilated before launch." "There's been no public record." "Why haven't the cockpit transcripts been" "Yeah, it's pretty simple." "We had a storm." "We had to launch." "So we did." "But did you have to launch, or did you and Shaw panic... and blow out of there to save your own skin?" " It's a simple " "What's the matter with you?" " Whoa." "Rumble!" " Get off!" "Get off." "What kind of a stump-dumb cowboy are you?" "You jump British television on launch day during an interview?" " Hey, he jumped me, Mike." " And you jumped back." "It's not your job to handle him." "It's not your job to talk about Mars." "And it's definitely not your job to question my judgment." "Your job is to back up Ajay and make sure that that ship is running properly." " Yeah, I know what my job is." " Do you?" "It's not gonna be your job for much longer." "Because as soon as I can bring someone else up to speed..." "I'm having you discharged from the program." "Now get out there and say good-bye to the crew." "Your collection's in the vidbank." "All 369 hours of it." " Dude." " But you gotta crack the code first." " Sphincter." "Vodka on launch day?" " You're at least a.12." " Then ground me, Claire." " Why are you letting me go?" " Because there's nothing to drink up there, Evram." "I'm saving your life." "Wassenfelder and I thought you rocked." "Yeah, well, I guess Goss didn't." "One more reason you got the suit, I got the sweater." "Goss knows that there's no way I can do this without you." "You, me, that ship" " We're a three-way, Donner." " Team." " Yes." " Trio." "That's- "Three-way" is different." " We are each essential." " Okay." "You cannot blame yourself for not being chosen for this mission." "Clearly, your path is here on Earth." "T - minus six hours to launch." "Yeah, okay." "Okay." "Go get 'em." "I've always been one of those people... who believes that you create your own destiny." "And through a few bad decisions, I've certainly made mine." "But as much as I believe in self-determination... there are those who simply do not." "It's that kind of thinking that makes me nervous... because being an astronaut is all about control." "From the walk to the launchpad to the final touchdown... you don't want surprises." " Ten, nine, eight" " It's not about fate." " Is anyone aware that Mercury is in retrograde?" " It's about planning." " We have tower separation." " Activation complete." "And ignition." "And liftoff." "First step on Antares's voyage to the planets." "In space, there's simply no room for error." "How many of'em do you think would've gone if we'd told them?" "Well, that's a weak-minded question, Eve." "The answer is all of them." "Every single one." "Thank you." "I'll be able to sleep tonight." "Godspeed, Orion 2." "Godspeed." "T - minus 120 to burn." "M.S.B. Is go." "Hydrogen, go." "Deuterium sequences holding." "Donner, where are you on the thrusters?" "I'm making progress." "Do not stop the sequence." "Ted, do you copy me?" "Continue the sequence." "Stabilizers set to 1-4-0." " Positioning thrusters are at 7-niner-7." " Oh, my God." "She's out." "Ted, I got Zoe out and in the airlock." "She's" " She's in Airlock 4." "Do you copy?" "How the hell did she get out?" "Maddux?" "Zoe, please don't." "Somebody get down here." "Stop her." " Ted, do you copy?" "Zoe!" " What's the status?" "Off-watch crew's in their quarters." "EECOM's working on a small vent leak." "It's no biggie though." "We should go home." "Get some rest." "Yeah." " They're playing that every hour." "We're not getting away from it, are we?" "Mars is just gonna haunt us till the day we die." "The headline in our obits." " You're a Buddhist, right?" " Raised as one." "Where do you guys come down on fate?" " Fate?" " Yeah." "Predestiny." "Feeling that the future and what happens is somehow out of your control." "I don't believe that." "And neither did Buddha." " It's garbage, right?" " Through and through." "Right." "So this is night one of day one." "And we are still in near-Earth orbit." "Um" "They want us to talk about anything." "About how we feel." "I am so proud to be the engineer on this ship." "She is my path, my responsibility." "This voyage with her, my karma." "I am filled with awe and indescribable joy." "I know you guys are monitoring this." "I mean, you tell us it's private... but seriously" "So..." "I'm gonna pull my pants down and show you crack." "Yeah, I feel strange not to be sleeping with Rollie." "But it's better for crew morale, I guess." "I mean, you know, we were celibate for three months during crew orientation last year." "So we're okay with it." "L" " I guess." " Hey, baby." " Hi, baby." "Turn the camera off." "And Mother, if I ever let you see this... it was a perfect launch, a flawless docking... and the ship is in incredible shape." "So, so much for your horoscope." "You're pregnant?" "Well, I'm" "I'm puking in the morning, and I'm puking at night, so" "You're the biologist." "Tell me." "This is a" " It's a urine sample." "I dribbled a little." " Sorry." " Oh, you're serious." "You know, they used to sell tests in the drugstore?" "Yeah." "I'm not looking for a history lesson... and if I go to my gyno, the program will know." "So you're not a space nun." " I am now." " Who's the father?" " Don't ask, won't tell." "And you did it without protection?" "He was drunk." "He swore he'd had a vasectomy." " Please don't make me feel any more stupid." " If you're pregnant" "I mean, what the hell are you gonna do?" "Zoe?" "Are you okay?" "You were just standing there." " Did you just hear something?" " Hear something" " Like what?" " I don't know." "High-pitched." "Like crying." "Um, no." "It's probably just the rotator arm creaking." "Right." "I'm sure that's what it was." "Hola, estudiantes." "Bienvenidos a Antares." "Live from the flight deck of Antares." "This is our first broadcast from space... and I'm going to give you a little tour." " Anybody mind if I change the channel?" " At the moment... we're on the flight deck, which is where we control the ship." "Mission Commander Rollie Crane and pilot Nadia Schilling... are programming the injection burn... that will send us on our way to Venus." "En este momento, estamos en la cabina del vuelo, donde nosotros" " Flight, this is Surgeon." " This is Flight." "Got a couple of weird E.K.G.'s from Rollie and Ajay." "They're similar, so it's probably a glitch." "I'm gonna have Evram adjust their med patches." " Just advising." " FI DO, what's the max time we have left in orbit?" "We need the Venus burn in 30 hours and 16 minutes." "That's a pretty hard window." "You seriously didn't hear anything strange last night?" " Strange?" "No." "Then it was the rotator arm." "Yeah, that's your story, and you stick to it, okay?" "Yeah." "I don't know." "I haven't been sleeping much." "Weird dreams." "Some things are in zero gravity, and some things are not." "Well, our grav suits contain nanofibers... that pull us towards the deck electromagnetically." "But anything without the nanotechnology- likeJen's tomatoes-will float." "Ah." " Neat, huh?" "Ajay, we need to check your med patch." " Is there a problem, Evram?" " Think it's just an adjustment." " Sorry, Paula." " Gracias por su ayuda." "Bueno, estudiantes" "Este es nuestro laboratorio de biologia" "What's up with that?" "Rollie and Ajay have a glitch in their med patch." "Trying to get a clean read." "That's not clearing up anything, Ev." " Now?" " Negative." "Could you relay that this is a complete waste of time, and I got work to do?" "Why don't we try a couple of new ones?" "Ev, try a couple of new patches." "Might be the contact points." "Copy that." "Ah." "Our favorite place, the observation deck- where we look at our amazing universe... and watch movies and YouTube from our data bank." "Any one of our vista panes become screens." "Aha." "And this is our physicist, Steven Wassenfelder." "Looks like he's doing something very complicated." "Can you tell us what you're doing, Steven?" " You probably don't want to know." " Oh, come on." "Don't be so condescending." "Tell us." " Diganos." " Well, actually..." " I'm trying to crack a 512-bit encryption code" " Aha!" "To get to the porn... that my friend loaded into the bank for me." "Arnel always finds the dirtiest stuff." " What's the delay to air?" " Thirty seconds." " Then you got 20 to put a lid on it." "And Ted?" " Sir?" " Let's give our boy genius a spanking." "Okay." "See that blip here between the S1 wave and the S2?" "It's a midsystolic ejection murmur." "And both of them have it?" " That's impossible." " Well, these are the old patches." " Let's see what the new ones say." " No, these are the new ones." "We're gonna have to do a heart scan before I can clear either one of them for flight." "It's just not possible for both of them to come down with heart murmurs." "It has to be an equipment error." "Yeah, it has to be, right?" "And you said that Mercury's in retrograde... so maybe this is a "Mercury in retrograde" thing." "Please don't encourage my mother." "In a strange way, your mom's kinda right." "I mean, we're hopelessly dependent on planet alignment." "We've got, like, what, 28 hours to leave Earth's orbit or we're screwed." "And the next launch window isn't for, like, six years." " Well, then we have to use Rollie and Ajay." " Actually, no." " I'm not following." " Then you didn't read the latest flight schedule." "There's a service pod headed for the space station tomorrow morning." "And Ajay and Rollie's alternates could possibly be on it." "Hello, Ted." "Hello, Donner." "Don't you dare go there." "That's six years alone up here with your old boyfriends." "This is calcified plaque." "Here, here and here." "It's on their aortic valves, which is causing the stenosis." "Now, I don't know how it got there or why it wasn't there three days ago... but I've checked the results five times, and it's real." "The odds of this - of two men at the same time." "Off the chart." "Okay, Claire." "Put a med team on it." "Check for everything- diet, environment, viruses." "And run a detailed analysis of every crew member's genome." "We gotta find out what's causing this." "I can't clear these men for space travel." "I think we got that." "You're excused." "I'll have Vandenberg get the pod ready." "I want a few minutes." "You don't need more time, Mike." "You know damn well what's causing this." " And they're going." " This is our mission." "I am not gonna let that thing dictate any more of the crew." "Wassenfelder's bad enough." "We don't have a choice." " Do you think for a moment I want to send my husband?" " Well, that makes two of us." "And Donner for about a hundred reasons." "And who's to say this thing isn't gonna give them heart murmurs?" "Well, there are no guarantees, Mike." "None." "We're in uncharted territory here." "But this seems to be what it wants." "Whether you want to face it or not... it has a lot more to say in this mission than we do." "Remember last night I asked you about fate?" " Told you I don't believe in fate." "I'm a Buddhist." " I didn't tell you something." " I'm having a dream about this mission." " And?" "You and I are both on it." "You're both gonna need immediate physicals." "You'll have tonight to get your things in order... then launch in the service pod tomorrow morning." " Report to Medical now?" " Yes, Donner." "Leave us." "Roger that." "This wasn't supposed to happen." "Ted, you have no idea." "We need to see the new mission commander upstairs." "#Stitch #" "#In your knitted brow #" "#And you don't know how #" "♪ You're gonna get it out ♪" "♪ Crush ♪" "♪ Under heavy change ♪" "♪ Trying to catch your breath ♪" "#But it always speeds you #" "#By your step #" "#All right, now #" "#Making the best of it #" "#Playing the hand you get #" "#But you're not alone in this ##" "Clean bill ofhealth." "But the pants stay off." " Sorry?" " You need your vasectomy, Donner." "I don't understand." "Your sterilization." "It's painless." "Yeah, actually, it's not." "I had it done when I got back from Mars." "Well, yeah." "Um" "According to your chart, you did... but not according to your scan." "When were you gonna tell everybody else?" "In 43 days- when you get to Venus." "I've always believed that this was my mission, my ship." "That I was traveling on the path that Ganesha wanted for me." "That this" "Out here were where my challenges and obstacles lay." "I feel so lost now." "I cannot understand this." "I cannot." "Who needs this path more than I?" " Pop, I'm going on the mission." "It's six years, and I don't know if you're gonna be here when I get back." "You had the sweetest slider I ever saw." "Fastball, changeup... monster curve." "You had all the tools." "I wanted something else, Pop." "Pour me another 'fore you leave." "Here's the stretch now." "Maybe I could request a replacement." "I could come back on the pod." "No." "There's no time for that." "Jen, forgive me." "I want you to know that I was gonna be there with you." "You'd be there with me?" " Yeah." " For what?" "For everything." "Just remember how much I love you." "Okay?" "Show me." "Let's kill the flight node deck cameras." "Give the mission commander some privacy with his wife." "#Running against the wind #" "#Playing the cards you get #" "#Something is bound to give #" "♪ There's hope for ♪" "♪ The hopeless ♪" "♪ There's hope for ♪" "♪ The hopeless ♪" "♪ There's hope ♪" "♪ Whoa ♪" "♪ There's hope ♪" "♪ Whoa ♪" "♪ There's hope ♪" "♪ There's hope ♪" "The way I see, they're lucky." "You can't call an ambulance on the surface of Mars." "Well, you realize this all points to a common cause." "I mean, there's no way it occurred randomly." "It could be viral, environmental, something they were eating." "We were eating." "They're looking into everything." "Claire's gonna be monitoring us all very closely." "Did you hear that?" " What?" " That." " No." "No." "It's the, uh" " It's the rotator arm." " I'm gonna go check on Ajay." " Oh, tell him I got the porno up and running... so he can pop his HALO off andjust enjoy." "Zoe Barnes?" "Uh, I'm Ajay..." "Sharma." " Hi, Ajay." " Hi." "It's a good thing that you won the bucket." " I'm not so sure about that." " No, it" "Upchucking" " It is an obstacle that we all must face eventually... and you were just fortunate enough to face it first." " Uh, there's- I" " Ajay, scram." " Girl talk." " Oh, uh, okay." "Another time, then." "Can I get a vodka cran, please?" "Somebody's got a boyfriend." "If that's vodka, drink up." " Thank God." "I'm not pregnant." " Oh, no, no." "You are pregnant." "Means you're just not gonna have a baby." " Well, last time I looked, it was the law." " It's a stupid law." "You know, a couple of justices kick, and it'll be reversed." "Zoe, you have more than one option here." "Yeah" " I don't know." "There are over a thousand qualified applicants for your slot alone." "I mean, getting into this program was winning the lottery." "Believe me, I know." "I know." "Okay." "So you cannot give it up for a one-night stand." "I mean, you just can't." "Look, I know of a guy." "He's a doctor." "When you're ready, just give me the word." "Think I need some air." " Zoe." "Hey" " Not now." "Dude, you don't stand a chance." "Ajay?" "Mission Control, this is Antares." "Antares, this is Control." "Do we have permission to put up the cameras?" " You do indeed, Mission Control." "And thank you for your discretion." "Yeah, well, we didn't want that to end up in Wassenfelder's vidbank." "Uh, listen, Rollie... we just had the cameras and operation controls for the airlock corridors go off-line." "We can't seem to get 'em back up." "Yeah, we're seeing that too." "I'll get Ajay down to look at it." "Actually, I think Ajay's the problem." "I just saw him enter the airlock corridor." "I tried to follow, but he locked me out." "Flight, I'm showing an E.V.A. And M.M.U. Pack up and running." "Damn it." "He's going for a walk." "How soon until we can override his instructions?" "We're working on it." "Give us five minutes." "If he's in that suit, we don't have five minutes." " Where the hell's Donner?" " On his way in." " And what's the time to Venus burn?" " Six hours, nine minutes." "Ajay's heart rate and B.P. Are spiking." "Antares, this is Control." "Have you made contact?" "Negative, Control." "Rollie's running through the channels." "Looks like his comm's off." "This guy tested the most stable in the entire program." " Does anyone know if Hindus commit suicide?" " No, they don't." "Least I don't think they do." "Let me talk to him." " He's turned his comm off." " Well, that's not good." "He's moving away from the ship." "Don't do that, Ajay." "Space travel is a fool's game." "Human beings are 60% water." "We sleep, eat, defecate, can't follow directions... and we explode like pinatas when exposed to the vacuum of space." "What's he doing?" "Putting himself in orbit." "Oh, Ajay." "Well, wherever he's going, I hope he makes it." "Flight, we've just been able to override his programming." "We now have control of the airlocks." " Antares, this is Control." "Did you copy that?" " We have that here." "I'll go out." "I can go out and get him." "We want to go out and get him." "Do you copy?" "Yeah." "Let her go." "Mike, let her go." "Negative." "I'll eat the loss of an E.V.A. Suit." "I can't afford to lose another crew member." "You and Shaw ship out in two hours." "Get your ass in gear." " That's it?" " That's what?" "You're just gonna let him die?" "I got six hours to launch a $10 trillion mission on its way to Venus." "I don't have time for Ajay and his silly little meltdown." "And I sure as hell don't have time for you." "Don't piss me off now, Donner." "Not now." " Soon as I get back, I quit." "Arnel, how much time has he got left in that suit?" "Eight hours?" "Give or take." "My old man is right about every single item... except the initial premise." "Man belongs in space because of exactly what he brings into the void." "We carry the baggage of our past- our fears, our superstitions, our failings." "Mercury went direct two hours ago." "It's too late for Ajay." "No, it isn't." "But we also carry our hopes and our dreams... the hard lessons learned from our lives." "Donner, Shaw, you dock your craft to the Antares right now." "Uh, negative, Flight." "Unless you can override these controls..." "I think we're gonna take a little detour." " They're on 41." "Hell of a view out there, huh?" "Ganesha and I have been enjoying it very much." "Ganesha?" "He is the lord of obstacles." "But he's also the lord of new beginnings." "All right." "Well, you wanna hitch a ride back in and start something new?" "This is my path, Donner." "Right here." "All the way to Venus." "Correct me if I'm wrong here, Ajay, but if you stay out here... doesn't that mean you gotta start all over in the next lifetime?" "Now, I mean, I'm no expert." "But you're the one who's always telling me that, uh- that each of us has lessons to learn... and obstacles to overcome." "So maybe this is your big one." "You know?" "Maybe you overcome this and you take a big step... towards nirvana." " You don't understand." " Wait, wait, wait." "Wait a second." "You think I don't understand?" "I think I do." "My path is here on this ship with these people." "Your path's back on Earth, Ajay." "But you know what?" "We can't do it alone." "You, me, the ship- We're a three-way." "We need each other." "For all our faults... and whether we're guided by our destiny or we guide it ourselves... we're resilient." "We can adapt." "There's something I must do first." "Yeah." "We can find redemption in the simplest acts of humanity." "I've never heard of a robot or a probe that was able to do that." "So... if space travel's a fool's game, then, uh" "Hey, that's what I am." "So be it." "But I've never felt more alive... or more human." "Antares, you are go for Venus in five, four, three... two, one." "Ignition." "#Ain't it good #" "♪ To be alive ♪" "#Ain't it good #" "♪ To be alive ♪" "♪ To feel the sun ♪" "#Strong against your face #" "#It spills over me #" "#Like the Milky Way #" "Mmm." "Ahh."