2006 Is Going To Be Amazing...

It was QUITE the moment...

A few months ago, I was doing what I usually do... writing, researching, and managing the intermitable business of the Aero-News Network when an email from the X Prize's irrepressible Peter Diamandis arrived.

When Peter emails me, I pay attention. Nothing dull ever happens around him, and the past year or so of our friendship has proven that quite dramatically. Hanging with Peter is like trying to ride a roller coaster without a seat-belt... but with a lot more twisting and turning -- and is a hell of a LOT more fun. He's one of the genuine souls that prove out Ernest Hemingway's dictum that, "As you get older it is harder to have heroes, but it is sort of necessary."

And that one message from Peter, though, may prove to be one of the most pivotal of my life.

All it said was..

"Zoom, you're going to be a Rocket Racer."

For a change, it is not hyperbole to say that I felt a chill go down my spine... as the walls reverberated with my shouts of joy and intense satisfaction.

At that point, I went from being a chronicler and observer of aviation and aerospace history, to a person who will get a chance to play a small part in how it is made.

Dear God almighty, what the blue-sky-blazes have I gotten myself into?

In the tumultuous weeks since then, I have attended the initial Rocket Racing League press conference, given my first small speech as a Rocket Racer, gotten involved in the planning and preparation for the crafting of these new rocketplanes, enjoyed the comradery of a few folks that are proving to be some of the finest I've known and upon whom my very life may depend, and started getting used to the idea that the dreams I had a rocket-happy kid are about to be the reality of adulthood. It is a profound feeling and truly one of the most humbling I've ever felt. Instead of the ego boost one might assume one would get from such a selection, I am struck by the awesome opportunities ahead of me, the phenomenal responsibility I've taken on, and the humbling reality of what lies ahead.

There is a lovely recurrent memory that comes to me when it can fight it's way through all the detritus that clogs my cluttered cranium. Not so very long ago (or so I keep telling myself...), I perused the library shelves of the Brinkerhoff Elementary School in search of Robert Heinlein's latest Sci-Fi books in order to partake in a feverish dream that was just getting a toehold on my soul as I was working my way through second grade. The dream had been growing within me since I was old enough to understand the allure of the sky. 'Rocket-Ship Galileo,' 'Have SpaceSuit Will Travel,' 'The Man Who Sold The Moon' and so many other works of inspired genius became favored texts and the source of many a day dream and somehow, through it all, I was inspired to believe that I might someday fly aboard a rocket... and when you're all of seven or eight years old, there is not a doubt in your mind that all things are possible.

I remember it all so clearly... the feel of the dust cover, the smell of all the books -- old and new -- in the library, the weight of each volume in my hand, and the delicious anticipation I'd feel for those moments in which I'd finally sit down to read and journey off to galaxies of stunning imagination and great daring. I just knew my life was to be full of such things. I just knew it.

Because to a child, there are nothing but possibilities.

It is the process of maturing that brings the more disappointing aspects of reality to the fore, leaving many of us to forget the treasured joys of imagining great things and seemingly improbable futures. Because of the way that I was raised and the examples set before me by some amazing people (my family, most of all), I rarely lost sight of the fact that most all things were possible to those who were willing to strive for them. That's one of the reason that I so enjoy people like people like Peter and the X Prize gang... as they are folks who also grew up believing in their ability, even their right, to do and be a part of great things -- and have never lost sight of that. These are worthy people to surround yourself with.

It is with the most intense joy that my current state of adulthood now tells me that I'll not only be flying rockets quite soon, but commanding a small rocketplane in an exciting and very experimental program -- matching wits and skills with three very fine aviators and even-greater human beings. This is a heady thought... What a rush. I hope that each and every one of you gets to feel the rush I'm feeling now... to have worked so hard and seen so many great things... while knowing that the greatest things you've ever dreamed of... are ahead of you and still attainable.

To everyone I've ever cared about, the finest thing I can ever wish for you is to feel just like that... at least once.

Mind you, these are simple rockets, nowhere near the caliber of what Heinlein wrote about, but they're among the first of a new generation of private enterprise rocket vehicles. The four of us selected by Peter and the team at the Rocket Racing League; Rick Searfoss, Erik Lindbergh, Sean Tucker and myself, are to be the founding flyers who will not only fly these birds and train others to do the same, but will someday be flying even greater and more capable birds that are already being planned. Peter's vision for this project is extraordinary -- and a successful execution should mean great things for us all.

The future looks extraordinary to me right now... and as scary as the forthcoming endeavor is (in terms of how much I need to do to prepare and be equal to the task), I've never felt more challenged or more empowered.

So... a few months hence I will strap on a very high-performance vehicle with a real live rocket engine sitting just inches from my butt -- with a terrifying load of propellant in even closer proximity... and then I'm going to light that Mother off and SKY OUT. I have imagined that moment all my life and somehow I have a feeling that the reality will be even greater than the dream... which is about all one man can ever hope for... for himself or anyone else that they care for.

I expect to be scared witless, I expect to be tremendously excited and I expect that I will be as wired and as attentive to the task at hand as I have ever been... I'm also going to fly with a well-worn copy of Rocket-Ship Galileo in my back pocket, so that the origins of this amazing dream will be close to me as my own skin... and maybe somewhere, somehow, Bob and Ginnie Heinlein will be getting as big a charge of out of all that as I will be. I do believe in God and I do believe in heaven... and a perfect heaven would allow these two amazing spirits to find some satisfaction in setting yet another soul in search of adventure on a course to the world above us  all. That would be cool in so many ways... as there is nothing greater, ultimately, than a wondrous dream that can be shared by all those who had a hand in crafting it.

By the way, for those of you that may be wondering... I do have a name picked out for the bird that I'll be flying and I don't think Peter will mind my presumption in doing so. It's a name that came to me while perusing the science fiction shelves in the southeast corner of Brinkerhoff's library some time ago... where even now, I can still remember the first time I saw the name of my future mount...

Rocket Ship Galileo

It has a ring to it... don't you think?

FMI: www.xprize.org, www.rocketracingleague.com