World War I began with airplanes as toys, little more than large kites with small engines. At first they were used primarily for spotting troop movements and helping to aim the big guns — but by the end of the war they had improved tremendously, taking on all the military responsibilities of today’s air forces. As soon as the war ended, aviators and aeronautical engineers used what they had learned to build civilian aircraft and establish airlines. The next world war will do the same thing for space travel — in fact, denying one side’s access to space may well be what wins the war. Until then, talking about space is like playing around with motorized kites at the end of the 19′th century, not really all that relevant in the grand scheme of things.
