Why we need more space

AS the world twiddles its thumbs at home obsessing over rather small dreams like a dash to the grocery story through a gap in the Covid clouds, seven organisations and nations are on their way to space, four of them to the fabled and mysterious Red Planet. Others are dreaming up unimaginable space thrills.

In 2004, observing the new-fangled space dash by private enterprises hoping to jettison tourists - and possibly harridans and groping old codgers - in low orbit, I suddenly realised that on June 21, 2004, something had happened that would change our lives and the face of conventional travel forever.

High above the baking Mojave Desert, SpaceShipOne dramatically extended the boundaries of both compound words and human knowledge. An exhausted and relieved Mike Melvill, the pilot, had just concluded complex manoeuvres 100km up in the ether. "As I got to the top I released a bag of M&Ms in the cockpit. It was amazing," he said.