Jett Jenson was a social media star. Millions of his followers tuned in daily to see the teen sensation simply living his life. It helped that he had been an actor on a hit TV show and also the lead singer in a up-and-coming indie band.
But few of his followers knew the other side of Jett’s life—his father, Captain John Jenson, was an astronaut. Jett took a break from everything and documented his training in preparation to join his father's crew into space on the ship Jettison One for a two-month journey to test advanced propulsion systems for future long-distance space travel missions.
He would be the first social media star to post and livestream from space!
The launch and trip up was uneventful. Jett would monitor his socials and post and livestream, and his transmissions were beamed back to his followers on Earth. His stream was on 24/7 so that his followers could even watch him do boring things like eat, read and sleep.
Everything was fine until the third week of the mission, when a catastrophic system failure occurred. The ship’s artificial intelligence, Nova, announced an emergency: the navigation and life support systems were compromised.
The crew was in panic mode, except for Jett. To his father’s surprise, he was calm and steady.
"Dad, I have an idea," Jett said, his eyes wide with determination.
"Not now, Jett," John snapped, trying to assess the damage with his team.
"No, listen! Remember how I bypassed the school's firewall last year? I think I can hack into Nova and reset the systems."
John hesitated. His son was a creative genius, not an engineer. But seeing no better options, he reluctantly agreed.
Jett’s heart pounded as he sat at the control console. His fingers flew over the keys, recalling every trick he'd learned from his advanced coding class at school. Nova's defenses were strong, but he knew he could outsmart them. All their lives depended on it!
Finally, he had a breakthrough, hacked into Nova’s system core and hoped that he had done the right thing. The screen flashed: SYSTEM REBOOTING.
"All systems are functioning normally,” Nova’s voice said, calm and controlled. “Navigation and life support restored." The crew erupted in cheers. John pulled his son into a tight hug, tears of relief in his eyes. "You did it, son. You saved us."
As the mission continued, Jett's followers on Earth had no idea that he had just saved the spaceship. For the first time, he realized that his skills could be used for more than just entertainment. He was more than a social media star; he was a hero.
The experience changed Jett. Back on Earth, he began creating content about science, technology, and space exploration, inspiring a new generation of followers to see beyond the screen.
And every time he looked at his father, he felt a sense of pride that no number of likes could ever match.
