“I will be brief. I have decided to fulfill my dream of going into space. If you have a spaceship and are looking for a hilarious astronaut with an irregular heartbeat and thirty million dollars, I am prepared to leave as soon as tomorrow. I wrote that yesterday. I will not be taking questions.”

So, this morning I came to work and Liz just got back from Southern California with her family, where they went to Disneyland and Knott berry Farms. It sounded like she had a blast!!! She was talking about some of the rides, and one of them, she said, felt like she went from 0 to 80 miles per hour in about four seconds, and that four-second journey takes place all uphill. She then expressed that she would never want to go into space, for the sheer G-Force, among other factors. Well, that brought several things to mind:

1. Tracy Morgan as Tracy Jordan in 30 Rock, season 3, the episode called "Apollo, Apollo".
   
2. An article that came up on my RSS that Obama is trying to commercialize space travel.
   
3. My childhood days, where "I would look up into the stars and dream of going into space, escaping the slums, and killing an Ewok" (okay, so that's another Tracy Morgan quote from the episode mentioned above).
   

Just as a side note, if you've never watched 30 Rock, I suggest that you do so very quickly. That show is ridiculously hilarious and entertaining (one of the best comedy shows on TV).

The article I read was on DailyTech.com. It talks about SpaceX's successful space launch and talks a little about the history of commercial space flight, and some of the reservations that people have with it. In the comments under that article, someone mentioned that certain congressmen (and the author of the comment) were worried that with the commercialization of space travel would also lead to the loss of control that NASA and the US Government has on the cosmos, which (in their opinion) could lead to China militarizing space and leaving the United States of America in the dust. Personally, I think that man is paranoid. What's in near space that's of any value to the United States or China right now? So, what would be the point of militarization of that realm? I think commercializing space isn't a bad thing. It may be a waste of money, but not a security threat. Also, rich people spending millions of dollars on space travel will mean that those millions will trickle back into the economy. The more economic traffic there is, the better for the world in terms of economic recovery. That's just my opinion, though.

I'd like to sign off today with, yet, another quote from Tracy Morgan:

    "Space is very cold, but very beautiful. And sometimes it sounds like Jenna yelling in the distance."

Justice