Away

Go, go, go, go!

Your wife is stable and recovering.

And the child?

You have a healthy baby girl.

A girl?

Yes.

- Are you sure? - Of course.

Have you decided on a name?

I told my wife that was a mistake.

I'm sorry?

That we would jinx the birth by choosing a boy's name before...

The child's name is Lu.

How's it looking?

You ask the blind guy how it's looking?

Not your best joke, Emma.

- I didn't mean it like... - She meant, how's it feeling?

Eh, no, it doesn't feel good.

Feels like a car engine about to go "ka-chunk."

Three weeks. Just keep it running three more weeks,

and we'll have a brand-new water system waiting for us on Mars.

- Why would you say that? - Excuse me?

Pegasus doesn't even land for another hour,

and you're just assuming it's safely on the ground.

- No, I wasn't assuming... - You're gonna jinx it.

No one's jinxing anything.

Quite frankly, all I've been thinking about for weeks now

is that freighter ship waiting for us when we land.

Can you imagine? No more water rations.

Oh. Sorry, Lu. I didn't mean to...

It's all right.

I'm actually fantasizing my first cup of tea.

And enough hot water for some coffee.

Enough water for my plants to come back to life.

Personally, I'm looking forward to a long, hot shower.

I think we're all looking forward to you having a hot shower.

And what of you, Commander?

What are you looking forward to?

Oh, she is not looking forward to anything.

What the hell, Lu?

You made it very clear that you didn't wanna be here.

That you only wish you were home.

Lex, it's breakfast!

Coming!

Dad, how am I gonna eat all of this?

Melissa and Cassie are supposed to be here in, like, five minutes.

Well, you can take it in the car. There's enough for them too.

It's an important day for your mom, and you know this is tradition.

Yeah, but it's not like she's launching.

Pegasus landing can be just as stressful as a launch.

And you need to eat if you're feeling jittery.

All right? You need to be full, grounded.

Yeah, okay.

Tell that to the entire school if they see me puking at assembly.

Yes, the whole school will be sitting in the gym

watching NASA's live feed.

If you're worried about me seeing Isaac, don't be.

- What does that mean? - Nothing.

We just haven't been talking much lately.

Since when?

Since the accident, I guess.

- I thought you'd be happy. - Why would I be happy?

Dad...

You wanted to kill him after I got hurt.

Yeah, I was scared out of my mind, Lex. You could have broken your neck.

Look, I don't want you to end up like...

Um...

I still might.

What?

End up like you.

If I carry the gene.

Have you been thinking about this a lot?

No.

I don't know.

Uh...

I should go. I don't wanna make Cassie late.

Sweetie, we can talk about this.

Can we please just focus on Mom?

You know, one... nerve-wracking thing at a time. Okay?

All right, people. Let's make a little more history.

Public feed is going live...

now.

Jack, you have the conn.

Good morning, everyone.

Thank you for joining us here on this momentous day

at the Johnson Space Center.

We are 21 minutes away from entry interface,

good for touchdown on the Martian surface at 9:54:15 Central.

Pegasus is carrying most of the supplies

that the crew will need to set up camp on Mars,

including their new water and life-support systems...

Why didn't they bring that stuff with them?

Uh, it's too heavy, hon.

So they sent a different rocket that's landing today,

and then Emma will land Atlas right next to it.

All their things will be waiting for them there,

just like a... a big present on Christmas morning.

I bet your mom is so excited. Are you excited?

Totally.

Our friends at JPL sometimes call the perilous descent to Mars

"seven minutes of terror."

Stand by on an update from Jack.

Seems a bit cruel, doesn't it?

We're a hundred times closer to Pegasus than Mission Control,

yet they get to learn its fate before we do.

Well, if it's of any consolation, when we land on Mars,

we'll know our fate before them.

Okay, wait. Here we go.

All systems looking good.

Pegasus on course for entry interface in 21 minutes.

And of course, it would have taken roughly 20 minutes

for us to receive that message, so in reality...

Pegasus is about to enter the atmosphere.

What would you say is the most likely thing

that could go wrong here?

I know a lot of people would say angle of entry.

Pegasus comes in one degree too shallow, it'll skip right off the atmosphere.

But...

I gotta go with parachute deployment.

That puppy opens a split-second too late and...

poof.

Freddie...

You're thinking heat shield malfunction?

I'm thinking we watch this in silence.

Oh. Speaking of...

Plasma blackout is likely during peak heating,

and we could lose radio contact for up to two minutes.

Radio contact has been interrupted, as expected.

Hold for two minutes.

Hopefully, any second now.

Radio Science, have you regained contact with Pegasus?

Negative. Please stand by.

Copy that. Standing by.

- It's been two minutes. - Yeah, I know, hon.

They said they'd hear in two minutes.

I know.

- What does this mean? - Nothing yet.

Try them again.

- Radio Science? - Please stand by.

Come on, God damn it.

Houston, Radio Science. Do you copy?

Copy that. Tell us you have a signal.

That's a negative, Houston.

Radio Science, say again.

All communication with Pegasus has been lost.

I repeat, all communication with Pegasus has been lost.

That means it just landed, right?

If everything went according to plan,

then yes, Pegasus just touched down on Mars.

All right.

Let's hope everyone in Houston is cracking open champagne.

Let's run... Let's run another diagnostic.

We should all meet in the conference room as soon as possible. No...

- Dad? - It's gonna be okay, Lex.

But what if Pegasus really is gone?

- What if it blew up? - We don't know that's what...

Isn't that the stuff they need to live on Mars?

There's always a backup plan, okay?

And they can land and live on Atlas if they have to.

But you said they're already on the backup water system.

And that system's still working. They can continue on rations.

For how long?

And why didn't they send Pegasus a year ago?

They couldn't leave it in the dust and storms,

and there's already another Pegasus on the way.

Not for months.

They can make it that long if they have to.

But again, we don't know yet...

Exactly.

We don't know anything.

We don't know if Pegasus is sitting on the ground

or exploded into pieces,

or if the backup system is even going to last,

or if Mom's gonna survive.

Commander?

Emma?

"Signal uplink unsuccessful.

Attempting reboot. Please stand by."

Uh, let's not get ahead.

All we know right now is the signal was lost,

but there's a hundred engineers in Houston working right now to get it back online.

- They won't. - Come on. Let's...

let's just let them do their job.

Emma,

I... I appreciate what you're trying to do here,

but let's be honest, you know as well as I do

when a plane goes off radar,

that pilot isn't coming home.