Mohave Interplanetary
Back when I was a kid, I devoured eveny Robert H. Heinlein book I could. One of the major reasons was how he portrayed the future in such a realistic fashion. One of his recurring themes included quick thumbnail descriptions of the local spaceport. Heinlein's stories frequently included throwaway references to "Goddard Field," or similar.
Reality has finally begun to catch up. Mohave Airport is now Mohave Spaceport.
And it's a private enterprise.
Maybe not too far off in the future we'll hear something like "Mohave Interplanetary Spaceport Flight 209, now leaving for Luna, Mars, and Ceres."
This article was cross-posted from the Gantry Launchpad.
I've been trying to figure out what to give a nephew who is graduating high school next week. After reading this, I'm digging out a book I've refused to let go during every seasonal bookcleaning exercise, about the Apollo program, that I got as a birthday present in 1970. It's time to shake the mothballs off that story, in more ways than one.
TC: There's lots of good books on the US space program of the 60s-70s.
Perhaps a bit overkill is the 3 Volume Time-Life edition of Chaiken's _A Man on the Moon_ (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0783556799/), which has the text of the regular edition filled out to three volumes using photos from the Time/Life photo library. The book (before the Time-Life edition) was the inspiration for the HBO miniseries, "From the Earth to the Moon".
TC, you may also want to think about pointing him towards scale models as well. There are an amazing number of suppliers these days.
One of the best is RealSpace Models, but they're relatively pricey. I suppose it depends on how big your pocketbook is. Their 1/144 Mercury Redstone kit is $20, while the 1/144 Mercury Atlas is $25. The same kits in 1/72 scale are $40 and $75, respectively.
If you want to stay with the "classic" Revell/Monogram stuff, you can still find the Saturn V (1/144 c. $30, 1/96 c. $150) around, as well as the 1/48 Mercury/Gemini combo, and the Revell 1/32 Apollo CSM kit (very nice! I have 4 in my closet) for around $20, the Monogram 1/48 Lunar Landing kit for about the same, and the Airfix 1/72 Lunar Landing kit as well.
The best way to see the market is by checking out eBay. I set the link to Toys & Hobbies/Models, Kits/Space. You will, alas, have to deal with the idiots who can't understand the difference between Space (i.e. real space) and Science Fiction, so you'll run into the occasional Star Wars or Star Trek model, but most of the stuff listed is real space.
Oh, almost forgot to mention one of my favorites: the Revell 1/24 scale Gemini. Very nice, and frequently available.
So will air travel on Earth be referred to as "domestic travel"?
Air travel on Earth will be referred to as "idiot Earth drivers!"