Cabin full of passengers strapped to seats before takeoff.

Meridiano

Ordinary people, stuck in the same seat as you.

No one here is an astronaut. The cabin rises whole, all at once.

Pale dawn sky seen from the launch tower.

For now, just the usual sky.

It’s the last time it will look big.

Eight and a half minutes.

You won’t like any of them.

It’s the price, and it’s short.

The vehicle ascending, still within the atmosphere, over the exhaust plume.
Weightless passengers, loose seat belts, floating hair, all looking the same way.

The engine cuts and no one says anything.

The seat belts lift on their own. That’s how you find out you’ve arrived.

The edge of Earth seen from orbit, with the blue atmospheric layer against the black of space.
Earth filling the frame, ocean, cloud systems and the amber terminator line.

She doesn’t fit in the window.

Two passengers floating backwards, looking through the hatch.

You’ll return. The cabin too.

The flight is short and the queue is of people who have never flown. When the next launch window opens, you can reserve a seat.

Meridiano Demo page. The vehicle is fiction.