Three years passed between the first transcontinental airmail service and the establishment of the first transcontinental airline. Twelve years passed between the Soviets’ first rocket and the Americans’ Moon landing. Forty-four years have passed since the last time humans were on the Moon.
Read MoreIt really wasn’t that long ago when the two greatest superpowers were vying to put satellites into space. Now, 50 nations have their own satellites in low Earth orbit. If you’re a Thailand, say, you can call Space Systems/Loral, a Canadian-owned company based in Palo Alto, California, and tell them you want to put a satellite into geostationary orbit for television broadcasting or military communications. You can have the thing in orbit 25,000 miles above Earth within two years.
