Europa

August 7, 2048

The weather today could not have been more perfect. There was not a cloud in the sky. As I am writing this, clearly the launch went well. This is my first of hopefully many journal entries from space.

Zero gravity is going to take some getting used to. Actually, I guess this isn't technically zero gravity. Lee explained to me when I used the term earlier that we are in a constant state of free fall, as we are simply falling towards the Earth. It's strange to think about, but it doesn't really change the feeling of weightlessness.

I started writing this journal entry on one side of the capsule and when I looked up, I was floating in the middle. I'm going to have to get used to fastening everything down.

Looking down at Earth from here is a surreal experience. I've seen plenty of satellite images of the planet but none of them truly do the Earth any justice. The detail of how you can see how the land separates from the water and how they are covered by the white clouds is remarkable. It's also incredible to see how bright the man-made lights illuminate the dark side of the planet.

Shortly after we unbuckled from our seats in the cabin, I filmed a video of me floating around for my son doing a little spin. I can't wait to see how he responds to it.

We will be going into cryogenic sleep in ten days. Until then there are some basic experiments for me to conduct aboard the space station, related to how microorganisms and bacteria cultures act in space. None of them are anything groundbreaking. If anything, they are a way for me to become more familiar with the tools I will be using to examine samples on Europa.

They try to keep the days after the launch pretty laid back, as it is common for astronauts to have extreme reactions to the gravitational force and the intense vibrations. To be honest I kind of lost consciousness during the launch, but it wasn't like I was knocked out. I was more dazed. I can remember my heart was pounding pretty hard during, but that was about it. All being considered I handled it pretty well, especially since I feel the heartbeat could have partially been due to elevated anxiety. My mother had died during her laugh after all.

Commander Hunt and Jennifer Miller kind of stomped on my euphoric moment when they pointed out it was the easiest launch they've experienced. After, Miller did note that I handled myself incredibly which helped me feel better about myself. Other than a slight headache I was good.

The only new member of the team that handled the launch better than I did was Adams, but that made sense considering he'd spent the past ten years flying fighter jets.

Richard handled the launch the worst. He has been vomiting since we unstrapped ourselves. Jenifer says it is nothing to worry about, a lot of new astronauts react to the extreme conditions of the launch negatively.

Dr. Horvat is experiencing similar symptoms, but he is not vomiting, which makes it much easier to be around him. As I suspected back on Earth, watching someone vomit in space is a disturbing sight.