3 Ships built per day, 1000 per year

When President John F. Kennedy stood before the nation in 1962 and declared that we would go to the Moon—not because it was easy, but because it was hard—he lit a fire that carried a generation into the stars. It was bold. Audacious. A promise that seemed impossible… until it wasn’t. Today, that spirit is alive again—but this time, it’s not coming from the Oval Office. It’s rising from the dust at Starbase Texas with Elon Musk.

As a kid, I’d lie in bed with a flashlight tucked under the covers, devouring Sci-Fi Pulp Fiction novellas long past bedtime. Back then, those glowing pages were portals—each word a beam of light teleporting visions straight into my mind. I saw moon bases, rocket ports, and human settlements scattered across the solar system. Those futures felt far-off but inevitable—like watching the first glint of dawn and knowing full daylight would follow. Not knowing then, I realized later that science Fiction is fact waiting to happen.

Now, that imagined future is solidifying into steel and launch pads on the Gulf Coast. Starbase, Texas—once a stretch of quiet shoreline—is transforming into the first entirely new city in decades, and more than that, it’s becoming the cradle of space colonization. Not just another launch site, but a functional city with its eyes pointed skyward. What once was fiction whispered to a child by flashlight is now a blueprint being built in daylight.

Most Americans haven’t quite absorbed this shift yet. The scale of it—what it means to have regular rockets, self-landing boosters, orbital refueling, and crews preparing to build on other worlds—still hovers just outside the public consciousness. But make no mistake: history will point to this moment and say, this is when it began. Not with flags planted in dust, but with concrete poured Texas and Florida, with dreams launched on reusable wings.

And Elon has managed to develop what feels like alien technology—without raiding the vaults of Area 51 or unsealing some forgotten Pentagon file. No secret spacecraft reverse-engineered from crash sites. No whispered hand-me-downs from shadowy defense contractors. Just the sheer force of vision, engineering, and iteration. It’s almost more unbelievable that way.

What we’re witnessing isn’t the result of hidden knowledge—it’s the result of someone who seems to think like an alien. A mind unbound by convention. While the aerospace establishment took baby steps, Elon sprinted past them, leapfrogging entire generations of tech. He didn’t wait for permission. He didn’t wait for NASA to go first. He moved fast, broke what needed breaking, and built a new space industry from the molten core of ambition.

In a way, Elon is our own alien developer—not from another planet, but from another mindset. He didn’t arrive in a saucer; he arrived with software updates and stainless steel prototypes. He doesn’t hide behind secrecy—he invites the world to watch. He tweets engineering problems. He launches Starships like we used to launch dreams.

The spacecraft we imagined hidden away in desert bunkers? He’s landing them upright on drone ships, catching them with chopsticks, naming them after science fiction AIs, and prepping them for Mars. And doing it all in plain sight.

Starbase, Texas, is not the endgame—it’s the launchpad for a civilization becoming interplanetary. A century from now, schoolchildren might look back and say: It didn’t come from aliens. It came from us. From a man who thought like no one else, and dared to build the future while the rest of the world waited for it to arrive.

This should be the most important 40 minutes shown in every classroom—a powerful antidote to the scrolling addiction that’s hijacking a generation’s focus, purpose, and potential.

When it comes to asteroids– close counts

On April 13, 2029, the asteroid Apophis (designated 99942) will pass within 20,000 miles (32,000 kilometers) of Earth—an incredibly close distance in astronomical terms. This asteroid is about 1,100 feet (340 meters) in diameter.

NASA assures us there is no risk of Apophis impacting Earth for at least the next century (really). If you’re curious, NASA’s website offers live tracking of the asteroid’s current location, which is definitely worth checking out.

Still, when it comes to asteroids, even a near miss can feel unsettling—like playing horseshoes, where close counts.

To put the distance in perspective: if we were to unravel Earth’s circumference (about 24,000 miles) into a straight line, it would stretch 4,000 miles beyond where Apophis will pass. For further context, geosynchronous satellites orbit 22,000 miles above Earth’s surface—2,000 miles farther than Apophis’ path—and there are roughly 400-500 such satellites currently in orbit.

And here’s an interesting coincidence that NASA doesn’t mention: Apophis will make its closest approach on Friday, April 13th. Yes, Friday the 13th. And then you need to consider the name, Apophis, the ancient Egyptian god of chaos and destruction….

For a thrilling and thought-provoking read, check out Red Lightning by John Varley, if you can find it (out of print). In this science fiction novel, a massive, unidentified object skips past Earth, initially feared to be a weapon but later revealed as an asteroid. Although it didn’t collide with the planet, it came close enough to generate a shockwave that grazed the Atlantic Ocean, triggering 300-foot tsunamis that devastated the Eastern U.S. coastline as well as parts of Europe and Africa. It’s a gripping story that blurs the line between fiction and reality—reminding us that we are all in a game of Galactic Roulette.

A film that would make Yuri Gargarin Smile

This is my most anticipated film of all time. The Challenge. A Russian made film (started in 2021) and the world’s first feature-length Science Fiction-Drama that was filmed (partially) in space with actors, by the professional filmmaker, Klim Alekseevich Shipenko. Although not the first film to ‘use’ scenes shot in space; this is exceptionally different. The actual footage presented in the movie is around 30-40 minutes. The rest of the film was shot on Earth. The film crew and actors were in orbit for approximately two weeks.

The film stars Yulia Peresild – A Russian Stage Actress, Singer and Cosmonaut– the first professional actress in Outer Space! The film also carries two well known actors:  Miloš Biković and Vladimir Mashkov.

The premiere was held on World Cosmonautics Day, (April 12th, 2023) which coincided with the 62nd anniversary of the first human spaceflight by Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, (April 12th 1961) at the State Kremlin Palace in the Moscow Kremlin.[8]

The viewing collected more than 1 Billion Rubles in 13 days (about 10.9 million) –– the most ever for an opening day, grossing over 2 billion Rubles on a 905 Million Ruble budget, which is to say… impressive.

The story is about a Earthbound Surgeon sent to the ISS to perform surgery on an injured Cosmonaut, too ill to return to Earth.