This Island Earth

 "Wanna go for a ride?" This was the invitation that fictional S.R. Hadden dangled in front of scientist Ellie Arroway just prior to her taking a cross-dimensional trip through wormholes and other outer space anomalies to make contact with aliens who have constructed a galactic transport system. He does this after the initial machine that was built to do that was sabotaged and destroyed. This comes as a surprise to Doctor Arroway, who believed that her chance to make Contact with intelligent life outside our solar system was blown up. Hadden reminds her, "First rule in government spending: why build one when you can have two at twice the price?"

The movie Contact was made in another century. A simpler time when the idea of space travel being financed by billionaires was, well, science fiction. Now a quarter of the way through what used to be the future, we have no fewer than three billionaires who are making their way to the stars. One of them is currently distracted by the operation of a chainsaw instead of figuring out ways to charge travelers for oxygen on their voyage to Mars. Another has ceased operations in the wake of a catastrophic failure more of the financial kind rather than the exploding kind. 

Which leaves us with the guy who spends most of his time counting the money he's charging you to put commercials back into sitcoms that you want to watch on his streaming service. This past Monday, his space concession sent an all-female crew into space. Making the trip was pop star Katy Perry and CBS This Morning Host and Oprah Pal Gayle King. Where did they find the pilot? Well, by sheer coincidence, it happens that the fiancée of the owner of the company is a pilot. What exactly are the qualifications Ms. Sanchez brings to the project? Probably not best to compare hers to those of the fictional Doctor Arroway. Then again, Doctor Arroway was never on the cover of Vogue. 

So, if the passengers of Blue Origin mission NS-31 were not exploring strange new worlds and seeking out new life and new civilizations, just exactly where were they boldly going? According to Ms. Sanchez and Pop Song Mission Specialist Perry, they were going to "get glam" in space. 

This might just set the search for extraterrestrial life back another few decades. 

Safe landing, girls!