In the year 1972, SAGA (The Space and Aeronautics Global Alliance) successfully completed the first ever hyperspace trip to Mars. But celebrations were cut short when the crew of the Mercury 3 rocket missed their reentry window and an explosion damaged the ship. Now, you must work together to bring the rocket and the crew home safely. Mission Control: Critical Orbit is an asymmetric cooperative roll and write real-time rescue adventure. One player takes on the role of the Aethernaut Flight Commander and up to 3 players take on the roles of Flight Controllers. Each of the Controller players have unique tasks that earn tools the Aethernaut player needs to restore oxygen and critical systems to the damaged rocket. If the Aethernaut can build a path with polyominoes before the 20 minute timer runs out you win! But if you run out time the ship suffers a catastrophic failure causing the Mercury 3 rocket to explode in orbit. and everyone loses.