The sky is no longer the limit
Last month, I took a weekend trip to Atlanta to visit friends. It was a quick trip, but I decided to check my small bag since it had tweezers, an 8 oz bottle of lotion, and other dangerous objects I could use to…I don’t know…maliciously groom fellow passengers. This all would have been fine, but the bag somehow didn’t make it on the airplane, and I didn’t get it until late Saturday night, which meant a very rumpled Saturday day and no cell phone charger (my own stupid fault for packing it). It also (perhaps even more annoying) delayed me an extra hour at the airport, just enough time to plunge me into 5 o’clock traffic with my rental.
It’s not a unique story—everyone has a similar tale of flying frustrations—and a news item I read this morning got me thinking about the travails of modern air travel and where it’s all headed. Apparently, it’s going to New Mexico. Just when you thought losing your bag en route to Atlanta was bad, you’ll soon have the opportunity to be stuck in zero gravity without a toothbrush.
Plans are currently underway to build “the nation’s first commercial purpose-built spaceport” in New Mexico. Already the home of White Sands and Area 51, where else would it be located? Looking at the design concept images, the facility will look a lot like a big crop circle (appropriate), or maybe an oversized ping-pong paddle. The inside looks like something right out of Men in Black. But here’s the real head teaser—there’s already a list of carriers “committed to making Spaceport America their headquarters.” Virgin Galactic, Rocket Racing League, Starchaser Industries, UP Aerospace, and the X Prize Cup, to be exact. “Spacelines” they’re called.
Suddenly, I have a vision of dodging flying robots and hovering debris as I pound on the hover-taxi window to hurry up the driver on the galactic freeway—got a flight to catch for a Wednesday appointment on the dark side of the moon. And I really hope Starchasers doesn’t lose my luggage again—last time I had to buy a whole new oxygen tank at Air-Is-Us in Sector 41 once I got there, and we all know how much those criminals jack up the price when you’re in a pinch. But what do you do? Gotta breathe.
Of course, this opens the field for all sorts of new businesses at the Spaceport itself. It’s almost as if Starbucks had a moment of prescience when branding. How appropriate for a clientele heading off the planet. But who knows what other items today’s modern space traveler will need? High fashion space suits, gourmet space rations, water bottles that don’t leak, custom-made catheters… Not even the sky is the limit.
As for the flight tickets themselves, a mere $200,000 will get you a seat on a Virgin Galactic flight, and according to Virgin, more than 45,000 people from 120 countries have already registered as “potential astronauts.” They do expect the cost to come down, though, as it’s apt to with any new technology. You do have to wonder, though—for that price, are the peanuts and pretzels still complimentary?