My crew and I had been in the capsule since well before dawn, anticipating a 7:10 liftoff.

But as always seems to be the case, a technical glitch held up the countdown. Once that was resolved the weather broke down. What could we do but wait it out. The countdown resumed just after 10:00 a.m.

At the three second mark the mighty engines began to rumble; the vibration shook like an earthquake, rattling me to the bones.

This wasn’t my first launch, a veteran of two others. The second of which took me to the moon back in ‘29.

“Ignition!” the launch controller called. The deafening roar outside muffled by the capsule and my pressure suit could still be heard. The entire spacecraft and rocket shuddered as flames shot out in all directions.

Despite the commotion, I remained focused on the instrument readouts. After all, a launch is no sure thing. Anything could go wrong.

“Liftoff! We have lift off of Nova Seven!”

Ever so slowly the largest rocket ever assembled lifted off the pad. One second seemed like eternity, the second not so much. We were on our way to Mars!