Shipwreck in the Sky

A handpicked test pilot undertakes a pioneering high‑altitude flight and records clinical observations about weightlessness, cosmic rays, and the stark blackness of space. During descent he spots a tiny, dark moonlet that intercepts his trajectory and, after a gravitational interaction, drives his rocket into a destructive collision. He ejects in an emergency spacesuit and survives, finding himself captured into close orbit around the pitted moonlet and immediately confronted with the practical challenges of survival, radioing for help, and the unsettling discovery of an uncharted object near Earth.