After weeks of travel and entertaining, today is the first day with just the two of us and no planned activities. Time to catch up on Board work, consulting work and some neglected home maintenance.

But first it’s time to watch the Bezos Blue Origin / New Shepherd launch. I’ve been privileged to witness the beginnings of the space “industry” starting with the US’s Gemini and Apollo programs in the 60s and now the competing billionaire space programs of the 2020s. In the 60s we were competing with Russia for space supremacy. Then we allowed ourselves to become dependent on Russia for launches in the 2000s, a situation I hated. And now we have corporations leading the way, with three competing private launch systems all working with NASA. I like where we are now – the privatization of space is the most likely way that we’ll establish any kind of off-planet presence. Mining the asteroid belt – the starting premise of The Expanse – should start an industrial revolution similar to the advent of the steam engine and the integrated circuit. I wish I could be around to see it all happen.

UPDATE: Bezos and his three passengers had a successful flight. Happy for him, dumb-looking hat and all.