Ever since the first human gazed into the night sky, we’ve been fascinated by space. It’s easy to see, but our eyes only scratch the surface. Telescopes help, but what’s it really like up there? Rovers and voyagers provide pictures and data, but is that enough? Time has shown that we weren’t just content to sit back and look at the sky–we had to be there. This fascination has lead the human race through some of our most incredible milestones. It began in 1957 with Sputnik, the first man-made object to ever orbit the earth. But that wasn’t enough; we needed humans up there. Then came Yuri Gagarin, who in 1961 became the first human to ever enter space. Alexei Leonov took the first spacewalk in 1965, making him the first person to ever “touch” space. America’s Apollo 8 mission proved it was possible to go to the moon and come back. In 1969, we showed it was possible to land someone on the moon and come back.

The 1960s proved to be an exciting time, not just for space enthusiasts, but for humanity enthusiasts. Limits were pushed and boundaries were bent as we, for the first time, became something beyond earth bound. For the first time in history, we had branched out from our atmosphere to be surrounded by not water, or sky, but nothing; to touch the soil of a different rock. But something changed. We reached what we thought was impossible and then things just… stopped. Of course, the programs didn’t stop and the astronauts were still there, but the boundaries stayed the same. After the moon, what was there? More rovers and spacewalks? And who got to go up? More test pilots and engineers? If boundary pushing was to continue, space had to become more accessible.

In order to accelerate the accessibility of space, various billionaires have channeled funds into space travel companies, effectively turning the stars into enterprise. Although these companies have formed to serve a different niche of the space travel market, the technology advances all the same, which is good news for earth-bound humans. Richard Branson, founder and CEO of the Virgin Group of companies is pioneering space tourism through Virgin Galactic. After the Ansari X Prize (a $10,000,000 reward for the first non-government funded vehicle to take a passenger to the edge of space twice within two weeks) was awarded in October of 2004 to Scaled Composites’ SpaceShipOne, Branson jumped at the opportunity to commission the company to design a more commercial version of the spacecraft, dubbed SpaceShipTwo (creative, right?). SpaceShipTwo is designed to carry six passengers and two pilots to the edge of space (100 km above Earth’s surface and known as the Karman Line) for a short time before being pulled back into the gravitational field and gliding back to Earth. Built to serve wealthy customers’ desires for space tourism, Branson’s Virgin Galactic falls somewhere in between the private jet industry and NASA’s Space Shuttle Program.

Then there’s Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon.com. The money he’s accumulated through growing the online shopping giant has granted him the status of the world’s wealthiest man, boasting a net worth of over $135 billion. This money has been used in part to fund his passion project Blue Origin LLC, created in September of 2000 to design and launch cargo-bearing rockets into orbit and beyond. Its New Shepard rocket is designed to carry cargo—and, in the future, people, to suborbital flight. The company is currently working on New Glenn, a mega-rocket built to carry hundreds of passengers to orbit and beyond. New Glenn may in the near future serve the space equivalent of airliners, transporting passengers to and from space stations and planets.

Aerospace titans Lockheed Martin—responsible for many of the US military’s fighter jets, missiles, and support craft—and Boeing—one of the key manufacturers of airliners such as the 737, 747, and 787 Dreamliner—have formed a unique alliance known as the United Launch Alliance, or ULA. Formed in 2006 for the purpose of commercial satellite and International Space Station (ISS) delivery launches, the ULA is the launch industry’s take on cooperative development.

And finally, there’s SpaceX. With over 30 successful launches and landings, they’re arguably the frontrunner of privatized rocket launches. Its Falcon IX and Falcon Heavy rockets enable the company to transport up to 29,000 and 141,000 pounds of cargo respectively to low earth orbit. But it’s not just rockets. Innovations in its Dragon spacecraft has led the company to recently launch its first ever passenger-focused version of the rocket, Crew Dragon. SpaceX is expanding not only the way we deliver cargo and satellites, but also where we live. CEO and visionary Elon Musk makes it very clear that he believes humanity can only survive long term if it can become a multi-planetary species. His idea? Colonize Mars. The rocket that he plans to use to get us there, BFR (Big “Falcon” Rocket) will be the first of its kind, producing an estimated 17 million pounds of thrust and carrying a payload of up to 220,000 pounds to Mars, and is expected to be ready to launch by 2020.

To SpaceX, as well as most other rocket companies, increasing the reusability of rockets is what will enable humans to efficiently and cost-effectively launch humans and cargo into orbit and beyond. To quote Musk, perfecting rocket reusability will make it “possible to achieve at least 100-fold reduction in the cost of space access”. As he often says, you wouldn’t want to have to build a new plane every time someone wanted to fly, so why are we doing that with rockets? Under government-funded space programs, rockets were almost exclusively one-time-use machines. However, advances in technology and private development have led the Falcon IX to become almost entirely reusable except for the second stage.

So where are we headed? How long will it be before billionaires are flying settlers to Mars and taking us on orbits around the world? It may actually sooner than you think, possibly even within our lifetimes. While technology is definitely on the right track, there’s a few things holding it back: money and regulations. As you can imagine, rockets aren’t cheap. The cheapest rocket launches still cost over $50 million, and prices go up rapidly from there. This, however, is pocket change in comparison to NASA’s Space Shuttle program cost per launch of around $1.5 billion. In addition to a heavy financial burden, companies can also expect serious restrictions when it comes to transporting large numbers of passengers. The heavy regulations and safety standards put on commercial airliners would most likely transfer over to the space flight industry in even greater ways.

Up until 62 years ago, nothing we’ve built had even touched space. Now, rockets are being launched more powerfully and more frequently than ever before. With over 3,700 man made satellites in space, 536 different astronauts, and an unrelenting desire to explore the cosmos, the space industry isn’t going to slow down any time soon. As the industry slowly makes the shift to the private sector, only one question remains: how far can we go?

I follow a general flow when it comes to my writing process: idea, writer’s block, idea, draft, unhappiness, final draft. If it seems a bit messy and uncoordinated, that’s because it is. As my career as a student has grown in experience and knowledge, one would assume that with it would come a certain sense of creativity and ease of writing. The reality, however, is that as I get older and more picky with my writing, writer’s block seems to seep in more deeply and affect my mind with a void-like emptiness which leaves me stranded on the island of unoriginality desperately waiting for creativity to sail my way and save me.

Although I work best in complete silence or white noise, I generally listen to music when I write. I find that the subtle trance of low fidelity hip-hop is both relaxing and inspiring. Up until I joined band in 6^th grade, I had no trouble listening to classical music when I wrote. Now, however, my mind naturally ventures into performance mode when I hear it, preventing me from focusing and controlling me with distractions. Mild trance music accompanied by dark rooms and blacked out computer interfaces put me in a sort of my own sensory deprivation tank where I think the clearest and find most peace, allowing for my highest performance when writing.

After I pass through the difficult writer’s block phase and emerge with a relatively clear idea of how I want to structure my writing, I get to work typing it out. I am not the kind of person who can fully type a draft and be ok with not making any edits or changes. I don’t agree with the whole “one draft at a time” mentality. To me, making subtle changes over the course of various short editing sessions is much more productive than moving from unfinished draft to unfinished draft. Why create a new draft for each large editing session when you can work through the entire essay, polishing various rough areas little by little as time and ideas come to you? In my opinion, writing is much more about the long-term vision than each step in the process along the way.

Once I finish the final touches on my piece of writing, I re-read it, looking for any errors. Upon deciding that the piece is ready, I send it to the printer and print it. Although my process is messy and complicated, I’ve found through trial and error of various other workflows that it’s the best option for me in terms of efficiency and productivity.

Welcome! My name is Daniel Stone and I hail from Fairfield, Ohio. I’m a senior at Fairfield High School and I’m a lifeguard at my local YMCA. I play the clarinet and I can often be found spending time at my church. I’m interested in mechanics and hope to someday be an aerospace engineer at a company like SpaceX. I’m lighthearted and find humor in everyday things.

My friends would tell you that I’m dedicated, influential, and value logic over feelings. I pursue things that most people don’t care about and I’m always interested in finding the meaning and origin of things around me. I consider myself an independent person, but I love spending time with close friends, as well as surrounding myself with a large variety of people with differing interests, ideals, and walks of life as me.

I struggle often with letting skepticism, criticism, and negativity influence my relationships. I’m a realist to the nth degree and blunt to a point; as a result my communication skills often suffer. People occasionally tell me that I’m extremely polarizing–people either love me or they hate me. Similarly, I often act bipolar and struggle to find balance in many aspects of my life. If I could be whoever I wanted, I’d like to be more positive and less judgmental. My conversations with people many times feel tense and unsettling. I’d like to change that.

I have an incessant desire to improve myself in every way possible; I’m always looking for flaws or shortcomings in myself and ways to improve them. Unlike most people, I believe strong self criticism is important and necessary for positive change. I’m most worried about someday giving up on myself and never pushing to get more out of my life.

Thanks for getting to know me a little bit. Until next time,

Daniel

Thanks for joining me!

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton