Now that NASA’s shuttle is history, it is a joy to read about Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX), a private company that collaborates with NASA in an effort to carry humans to space (“Rocket Road,” May-June 2011). Located on Rocket Road in Hawthorne, California, the company is about to launch Falcon 9 from Cape Canaveral. Named Dragon, SpaceX’s capsule for carrying cargo and crew to space is well advanced, as well. Great news, indeed. But where is the moon? Where is Mars? And where is the Asteroid Belt, which would round off the Inner Solar System exploration and eventual colonization? Private companies can do a great deal, no doubt, but much more than NASA’s occasional help is needed to pursue the old dream of space colonization. The infrastructure needed for such an endeavor would require massive help from the state. As well as international cooperation to pool together the resources of all space nations. Otherwise, we will remain glued to the earth. Beautiful as it happens to be, it is still but a point of departure for the rest of the universe. Or am I daydreaming well past the point when space colonization has turned into a pipedream?