Space Travel

As a child, I was captivated by the thought of space travel and have long since dreamed of what it would be like to travel into the cosmos. I still find myself contemplating whether other intelligent life exists, or not, and if it does what that means for our future.

My intrigue with all things space led to me being a huge science fiction fan. As a teenager, I read every book I could find from HG Wells' War of the Worlds to Frank Herbert's Dune -- both of which I’ve read multiple times. I've also consumed every space-related TV show or movie from Space 1999 to Star Trek to Stargate to Star Wars starting with Episode IV - A New Hope all the way to The Mandalorian. For any other deep science fiction fans out there, one of my claims to fame is creating one of the largest guilds in “Star Wars Galaxies”, called the Darkfire Guild.

I watched every launch of NASA Space Shuttle with bated breath, wondering what those astronauts felt as they rocketed into space and looked down on our beautiful planet.

2021 is a big year for space fans like me.

On July 11th Richard Branson became the first self-funded citizen to fly into space, kicking-off the reality of space tourism with Virgin's beautiful aircraft - reminiscent of a Jedi Delta-7 starfighter. This week Jeff Bezos became the second, successfully launching himself on an 11-minute journey aboard one of his Blue Origin's rockets, executing a flawless launch and landing.

I believe these initial endeavors will usher in a golden age of space travel that will support our obvious need to become a multiplanetary species, and I look forward to the day when these opportunities are more broadly available to anyone who has a passion for space travel.

Innovation in technology is the driving force behind this. Humanity's insatiable appetite for progress combined with developments in machine learning, and material science, have made this a reality. For someone who has dreamt of space travel since childhood, this year feels like one where we have taken several steps forward – and I feel even closer towards my goal of being able to explore the cosmos in person.

While you're going about your business today, take a moment to pause and look up to the sky and reflect on the fact that hopefully one day soon, it could be you going up into space to look down on our beautiful planet. I know my hopes are sky high!

If given the chance, would you adventure into the celestial unknown? Did you have childhood space travel dreams? I'd love to hear from you in the comments!