My exhaustion meant I was louder than I realised, and I must have woken him when I arrived home. When I walked in to the bedroom he sat up in bed and smiled.

‘Good morning. How was your night?’

I sighed. ‘I thought it would get easier the closer it got to the launch date, but if what happened in the simulator was real, we would have died six times tonight.’

His smile disappeared, and he looked at me quite seriously. ‘Are you prepared for that?’

‘What?’

‘Dying. Crashing on impact.’

‘Of course! I’ve waited for this day for so long. I’m ready to give my life for science. What could be nobler and more exciting? Why do you ask?’

‘I – I just wonder sometimes if you’ll think of us here when you’re hurtling through space so fast that our even radio signals can’t catch you. Will you remember us? Will you remember me?’