I've decided to double up on this challenge. You will recognize the topic from Song Challenge 63.

Now, passing the stratosphere, I, Steve Bennett, am piloting the first English spacecraft in space

The Naysayers, with their foolish talk of wind tunnels, said I would blow up on launch. My home made hydrogen rocket ignited flawlessly and smoothly burned for the required twenty seconds. They call themselves Engineers!

I reach the top of my arc and experience a glorious moment of weightlessness.

I am out of oxygen.

I am not concerned.

Hurtling towards the Earth at four hundred miles an hour, I only need to hold out for a few seconds.

But how do I decelerate?