300 meters.250 meters,200 meters , janet rogers,the commander of the first manned a paceflight to the planet mars,read the numbers on her computer screen as the space ship went down.
for the last ten months, janet and her crew, george,andy, and sarah, had traweled million of kilometers after leaving earth in a space ship headed for mars. now it was the most dangerous part of the mission: the landing.
''150 meters,'' janet read.she looked at george, second officer. if the crew could land safely on the surface, they would be the first human beings to stand on another planet.
suddenly a loud alarm filled the small cabin. red light flashed on the control panel.
''we're getting some wind!'' shouted george.''it blowig us off conrse!''
janet looked out the window and saw a large, rocky crater. they were heading straigh in to it!
''100 meters,50 meters!'' janet tried hard to steer the space ship away from a crater, but the wind was blowing too hard now.
crash! with a huge jolt, the spaceship slammed into the side of the crater, bounced up, and then come down. something was wrong. the ship was lying on its side. the landing gear was broken.
the four astronauts looked around at each other. no one was badly hurt, but the space ship would never fly again. they had a year's supply of food and water, but that was all they had.
''maybe we can call for help,'' said sarah, the science officer. ''it's our only chance to get back to earth.''
''andy, check the radio. send the emergency message,'' said janet. ''let's hope the radio is working.''
''earth station, this is mars station. we have crash landed. can you hear me,'' said andy into radio. ''earth station, can you hear us?''
to be continued