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A young man adjusts himself in his seat, preparing for takeoff into space.
I am currently sitting in the first EU-built rocket to take humans into space. I never really expected I would take this specific career choice, and if you told the younger me from back in Gymnasium that I would become an astronaut, I would probably have laughed in your face and called you a moron. But, well, here we are.
Frederik Mogensen, about to become one of the youngest astronauts ever flown into space at the age of 25, used to be rather unremarkable. One of many Danish gymnasium students who indulged in large amounts of alcohol with his friends, and wasted so much time procrastinating that it affected his academic performance. While he did have more talent than the average bloke, he simply used it so that he could stop worrying about school and focus entirely on his hobbies, to the annoyance of his teachers.
He was a genius, and still is. In terms of intelligence measured with IQ tests, he is part of the top 10% smartest people in Denmark. Not only that, but he is very quick to figure out how something works. Though, unfortunately, he would rather waste that talent on his gaming escapades. His actual work in school was mostly done at the last minute, and to the massive annoyance of his educators, it was decent enough. Even if he did occasionally underestimate a project and end up turning it in late.
<<9... 8... 7...>>
However, this lazy lifestyle would not last. One fateful early summer day, while he had stayed home due to an unfortunately timed sickness, his classmates were driving through the Norwegian mountains in a tourist bus on their class trip to see the Norwegian mountains. It was a trip that everyone had been looking forward to, and paid for as well. Everyone in the class who went on the trip paid 2000 kroner for it. Luckily, he did manage to get a refund, since he would be staying home anyway.
I was rather bummed out that I missed that trip, but what came after changed my life. Not the refund, but something much, much worse than that. So bad that it even made me consider the sickness as a stroke of luck, heh.
That day, an accident was plastered across every news site in the otherwise peaceful Scandinavian internet. "19 people killed in a road accident; tourist bus flung off the side of a cliff."
Just like that, most of the people Frederik considered friends were gone in an instant. All because of a single drunk truck driver.
Everyone was talking about it. The news, older people, parents, especially all the other classes. Sure as hell sucked to be the only person left in my class, what, with the two teachers that went with them gone as well. That was a giant fucking shitshow.
This sudden shock caused an immediate change in Frederik's lifestyle. The realisation that he barely avoided death by drunk driver changed something in him, and he began to put much more effort into being productive, as he realised that on his current life path he would just be remembered as another insignificant moron wasting his life.
Diligently finishing every single assignment well before the deadline even comes close, doing a lot of extra studying instead of the bare minimum, paying a lot more attention in class. Ya, it was almost like I became a whole other person. Of course, I did still play lots of games in my free time, but I sure as hell got my priorities straightened out.
His academic performance instantly improved, and he went from receiving 7s and 10s to regularly being graded 12.(1) This was a shocking, but welcome development from his educator's views. After he finished Gymnasium without his now dead classmates, he went to Aalborg University and quickly caught the attention of the educators there with his genius. Before he knew it, he had ended up as an astronaut, one of the pioneers of the European Space Agency's space program.
Sure did have quite a time at university. Can't believe that they pay us to go there. Got access to all sorts of cool tools, and made a bunch of new contraptions with all the resources. First autonomous medical drone, all developed by a university student? You can thank me, heh! But now I'm going to space! Space! one of the few chosen ones going into the great abyss... Can't wait to try some of my inventions out in space!
Though his past decisions did still affect him a little, even with his new work ethic.
There was this one moron that saw my report cards from before... The incident, and immediately dismissed me as if I wasn't even worth looking at. The look on the old idiot's face when he realized that I was becoming an astronaut... PFFTTTTHAHAHAHA!!! Take that, mr. "you will never get anywhere in your life!" hahaHAHAHA!!!
The astronaut held back a chuckle as he adjusted in his seat.
Oh man, almost began laughing out loud there. Now where was I? Oh yeah, rocket launch. Right.
<<6... 5... 4...>>
Is it unsafe? To a degree. Strapping yourself to a pressurized tube on top of a bigger tube filled to the brim with explosives will never not be dangerous. But a multitude of state-of-the-art safety systems do go a long way to keeping Frederik and his fellow astronauts nice and not exploded. Of course, something like this is always going to be at least somewhat risky, but if the previous, not-so-explosive test flight of their rocket was anything to go by, a smooth and safe flight was to be expected.
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Suddenly, the man sitting in the seat next to Frederik spoke up.
"You excited, kid?"
Carl, one of the astronauts going to space with Frederik, queried his junior out of curiosity. Despite being a decade older than Frederik, he was still considered relatively young for an astronaut.
Frederik took a second to process the sudden question, but answered with a "Naturally, sir."
One of the astronauts from the UK, huh? Heard the guy's already been up there once. Did some experiments with manufacturing stuff in micro-gravity. Making stuff in space apparently saves some energy fighting against gravity, not to mention all the stuff you can do when your parts can just be left floating in space. Pretty neat if you ask me.
The third person in the spacecraft chuckled.
"It's been a dream of mine as well, since I was a little girl." The third astronaut, Maria, was around the same age as Carl, and was the last of the trio going to space. Carl was the only one among them who had been amongst the stars before. Not that the other two weren't prepared. They had still gone through a fair amount of training to even be allowed on board the rocket at all.
Ah, the astronaut from Spain. She's quite well known for her research in plant stuffs. Can't say I know much about the field, what, being focused on engineering and all that. Not much similarity if you ask me, or heck, anyone for that matter.
"Alright people, this is going to be a bumpy ride. Gonna feel like you weigh thrice as much as usual. Though the trip back down is gonna be a lot wilder, haha!"
The British man looked at the others with a big smile, which they reflexively returned. The three of them were going to space, something that only the best of the best get to do. Of course they would be smiling, having the opportunity to be the spearhead for humanity's most advanced research projects.
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Whoah! It's really squishing me quite a bit! So this is what constant 3G acceleration feels like, heh.
The rocket began violently soaring into the sky, piercing the few clouds above them as they sped past the sound barrier. The crowd in the control room cheered as the rocket ascended towards space.
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As the sky outside the small windows slowly turned darker, the force pushing the astronauts into their seats began easing up. Clamps in the staging mechanisms of the rocket began de-engaging, separating the first and second stages.
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Oof, the second stage has quite a kick as well. But what is this weird vibration I'm feeling..?
More cheers could be heard through the mission controller's headset. This launch was going very smoothly, but that would not last. Suddenly, an alarm began blaring in the spacecraft as all the astronaut's faces lit up in confusion and concern. Carl was the first to address the issue, and immediately identified where the alarm was coming from.
"Mission control be advised, we have an anomaly with the second stage LOX pressuri-"
Instantly, Frederik's vision went white. For a split second, he could barely make out the silhouette of the rocket's upper stage blowing apart in a brilliant explosion.
Huh..?
It took a few "seconds" for Frederik to process what exactly was going on. The fact that he had seen the outside of the spaceship he was supposed to be inside of was setting off quite a few alarm bells. Not that he could do much about it now, though.
Damn, so this is how I die, huh? Fate finally caught up to me it seems, heh.
As he realized what was going on, his life began flashing through his eyes as he was slowly losing consciousness. His time at school, his life after the accident, his parents, his friends, all those he knew.
Guess I will finally be joining you guys for the field trip, huh? Ya, looking forward to it.
Frederik's consciousness fell further into the void until his world turned dark.
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"Holy shit."
The world went quiet. One could easily hear a pin drop. The beginning of the EU's entrance into the manned space industry was forcefully ended by the explosion of the rocket's second stage. Even when the first stage returned to the ground and vertically landed on a drone ship off the coast, no one but the mission controllers uttered a word, as they professionally made callouts and monitored the first stage for any anomalies.
For the first time in 60 years, astronauts had died in space. What was supposed to be a massive victory for the European Union would instead go down in history as a stain on the otherwise clean European space program.
News networks across the world began broadcasting this historic tragedy to all corners of the globe, and the Danish watching the launch mourned the loss of one of their finest. The genius had made shock waves with his rapid ascent through the Danish academic world, and while he was already well known before his astronaut career due to him being one of the world's most accomplished engineers at a very young age, his later career choice would immediately put him amongst the household names in his homeland.
Later in the same year the accident happened, a memorial service would be held for the fallen astronauts, and in honor of Frederik Mogensen, the second Danish astronaut to fly to space, a street in Aalborg was named after him.
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"mmhh..."
He turned and tossed in a bed, and was slowly waking up, feeling like he had been run over by a truck of some kind.
I was going to space. Then suddenly, an alarm went off, and then everything went white... Wait, where am I? Why am I on a bed? Wasn't I going to space a few seconds ago!?
He began to slowly lift himself out of bed, only to look down on himself and physically recoil in shock.