THEY’RE NOT AT STARSHIP AMENITIES LEVELS…YET
(but honeymooning in space may not be too far off…)

Despite some recent spectacularly explosive failures commercial space ventures have received official sanction and license to proceed with their efforts to further develop the industry because commercial space travel is more or less at the same stage of development as commercial aviation was a hundred years ago with…zeppelins…flying boats…prop-driven airliners, etc..

Back then, of course, there wasn’t the matrix of established technologies to build upon, as we have today, so it took a few more decades before we were able to make those quantum leaps forward that have achieved what we have today…with orbiting satellites…space vehicles…a space station…lunar landings…Mars rovers…and so on, with most of that accomplished in less than fifty years.

Given the pace at which our technological advances are moving forward today it’s not inconceivable that even greater quantum leaps forward from now could happen…in half that time. All of which means that most folks who are alive today are very likely to see the results of such coming leaps forward…within their lifetimes.

As an example, perhaps newer versions of our tried and true, now retired, space vehicle – Atlantis – could emerge from new composite materials for lighter yet much stronger main bodies, with much more advanced control and guidance technologies, and, much lighter but more powerful means of propulsion, as a first small hop forward from where we are today. That is, instead of having to be blasted off to space atop huge rockets to get into orbit, such vehicles would take off from any air field in a conventional way, carrying a load of several dozen space travelers, then climb straight up to the outer fringes of our stratosphere where at that point relatively small “booster” type rockets could then send it off onto a pre-programmed orbital track…to spend perhaps three days to a week in that orbit… before returning through our atmosphere to gently glide back and land… just as –Atlantis- and others did so well…for so many times before.

While at first these might not be at –Starship- amenities levels…yet…it could mean honeymooning in space might become a reality, offering a package deal letting couples board such a flight in Southern California, spend a week in orbit, and return to land in Hawaii…for a second week of spooning. The result of such adventures generating a new crop of baby names for children conceived from these, such as…Astro Anderson…Orbit Jones…Mooney Smith… Spacey Johnson…Starflight O’Leary…Weightless Brown…and so on. Yes, indeed, that would have us all well on our way of being…out of this world.

CENTURION