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?