Space has always been present.

The stars shine down on us as they did on our ancestors, inspiring generation upon generation with their dazzling, and perplexing brilliance. The planets revealed to the ancients the clockwork of the cosmos. The moon brightened our nights with its light and waited patiently for us to reach out.

Space begins a mere 60 miles above us, but for most of human existence it remained tantalizingly out of reach.

Sixty years ago we opened a doorway to the skies and ascended, on fiery engines, proudly into orbit, and began the Space Age.

Professional astronauts, braving the unknown, piloted primitive spacecraft into orbit. Twenty-four humans flew to the moon; twelve walked on the moonu0027s silent, gray surface. Their presence was the culmination of a convulsive, collective effort.

Citizens of countries locked in a Cold War met in the cold of space and shook hands. The International Space Station is the greatest peacetime mobilization in history—the Great Pyramid of our day, the Chartres Cathedral, but the more extraordinary because it is a triumphant monument to science, and to what we, as a species, can accomplish, when we have the will.

Sixty years into our journey, something magical is happening again. The door opened by the first astronauts is opening a little wider. What used to take an entire country can now be done by a small team, and ordinary citizens are lifting off into space.

The prior half-century of progress is playing out again in front of us, but this time the characters are you and me.

The first citizens have lifted into orbit by the time you hear these words. Now, itu0027s just a few, a few very rich ones, but we will get better at democratic spaceflight, and more will go. One day, quite soon, entire generations will look down on the Earth, and as the first astronauts did, fall in love again with our great blue planet, one by one. One by one. With new clarity, with their sight undimmed by the atmosphere, some of them will look out to the stars, and decide to set out further, starting a new chapter in our history.

Space is only 60 miles up.
Donu0027t you want to go?