Come, my friends,
'Tis not too late to seek a newer world. . . .
To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths
Of all the western stars, until I die. -
Alfred Lord Tennyson, 'Ulysses,' 1842.

Imagine… you are ready to take your first flight into the stars. The countdown plays throughout the cabin of your private spacecraft, “10…9…8…7…” The rockets continue to build pressure, everything shakes under the sheer force of power getting ready to be exerted.

“5…4…3…2…1”

The entire spacecraft shudders as the engines burst into life, each generating almost 1.8 MN (400,000 pounds) of thrust at liftoff to push the spacecraft upward toward the sky. The intensity of the g-forces pulls you downward into your seat as the spacecraft ascends toward the heavens, traveling at speeds upwards of 3000 mph. Out the window, the sky changes from azure blue to a deep purple as you ascend 50,0000 feet above the Earth's surface, and then…

The stars. You're surrounded by more bright pinpoints of light than you have ever imagined in the deep vast blackness of space, looking down upon the slowly spinning crystal blues and whites of your home planet's atmosphere. This view laid out before you is more beautiful than you could ever have imagined. You release the safety harness which, until this moment, has held you stationary in your seat. But now high above the Earth and outside of the confines of gravity, you find yourself weightless and able to, with the lightest push, propel yourself gently forward across the cabin to the large viewing glass. The globe stretches out before you in an arc, below you passes entire continents that, until now, had only been drawn out on the confines of a map. This is your home, the home of humanity and source of life, in all its majestic glory.