These Are the Voyages …

Oscar Wilde, in his 1889 essay The Decay of Lying, posited that “Life imitates Art far more than Art imitates Life.” Sixty-three-years later, in his renowned short story, A Sound of Thunder, Ray Bradbury asserted science-fiction “… is the art of the possible, never the impossible."

Both men were right, and their collective perspicacity will be dramatically corroborated when United Launch Alliance's Vulcan Centaur mission delivers the ashes of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry and cast members James Doohan (Lt. Cmdr. Montgomery Scott), Nichelle Nichols (Lieutenant Uhura), and Majel Barrett Roddenberry (Nurse Christine Chapel) into a so-called graveyard orbit around the sun.

To a greater extent than any science-fiction property before or since—excepting, possibly, Star Wars—Star Trek has influenced Western culture and inspired aspiration to an egalitarian future in which humanity values self-actualization over blue-chip stocks, Bentley automobiles, Cristal Champagne, and Gucci pantsuits.

Star Trek’s hold on the American imagination is evident across the vastness of scientific, academic, and artistic endeavor: the Enterprise Space Shuttle atmospheric test-vehicle; the Alcubierre Warp Drive; the uncanny similarities between the insignias of Starfleet and the United States Space Force; Surmet Corporation’s ALON, a portmanteau of aluminum-oxynitride commonly referred to as transparent aluminum, and the progressive rock band Spock’s Beard.

That the Roddenberrys, Doohan, and Nichols should be laid to rest upon the final frontier’s infinite silence and timeless majesty is fitting and proper, but they’ll need wait until Blue Origin delivers the BE-4 rocket engines with which United Launch Alliance (ULA) plans to power its Vulcan spacecraft. Development of the engines has proceeded more slowly than anticipated. As of August 2021, the BE-4 engine program was running four-years behind schedule. Notwithstanding naysayers’ whispers to the contrary, ULA maintains Vulcan will launch before the end of 2022.

ULA CEO Tory Bruno has maintained a commendable degree of professional sangfroid regarding Blue Origin’s tardiness, declaring his confidence in Bezos’s boffins and assuring stakeholders in the Vulcan program of the BE-4 engines’ imminent delivery. Privately, however, Mr. Bruno has expressed frustration and pressured Blue Origin to get its house in order and his engines shipped.

Currently, Vulcan’s inaugural launch is slated for December 2022.

FMI: www.ulalaunch.com