About forty years go, I was a reporter at the Manned Spacecraft Center (Mission Control) just outside Houston while Neil Arrnstrong and Buzz Aldrin walked on the moon. "One small step for (a) man," Armstrong, who died this past year, said, "a giant leap for mankind"
Well, the leaps worked well for a while and then they stopped. If any Americans are in outer space now, they hitched a ride there on Russian rockets.
So you can imagine my surprise today when I saw a front-page story in the Washington Post--all right, below the fold, it wasn't that big a deal—"Want to get away? Book a trip to the moon."
The company offering the trip is the Golden Spike Co.: "We know how to do this," a spokesman said. And maybe they do. People did, once. The company envisions a lunar lander and moonwalking suits. They see 2020 as a possible date for a first trip.
There is one hurdle--the price. The newpaper quotes the company as saying 750 million dollars per seat. They think they'll sell to foreign governments and space tourists. One unnamed rich guy is already talking to them about it. I think I'll wait a while.
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