I stayed up late Monday night (Tuesday morning) to watch a live feed of the Dragon spacecraft launch.

For the past decade I’ve felt pretty disheartened by the “amazing future” our 21st century is supposed to have been. Instead of cities on the moon and flying cars we’ve had the end of the shuttle program, hyper-partisan politics and rising sea levels.

But that night I was watching a rocket built and launched by a private company send its own spacecraft into space. Space! And it’s on its way to go dock with the ISS. How crazy is that?

At one point I was literally watching a live video feed from the spacecraft as it deployed its solar panels in outer space. I was watching this on my phone.

Suddenly we’re living in a 21st century where private spaceflight means that we’re going to be mining asteroids and possibly even sending men to Mars in my lifetime. Where the idea of spending a weekend in a hotel in space or taking a fancy cruise to Mars might be only pricey, and not prohibitive, options for everyday Joes.

Then my cat threw up all over the carpet.

From the top of a chair.

The splatter pattern of a cat throwing up on the floor from that height is epic.

My child-like wonder for the amazing potential of our era dissipated while I had to get out of bed and clean cat vomit in my boxers before it left a stain.

So we’ve got private spaceflight. Sweet. Somebody make me that robot butler I was promised already.

Still, good job, SpaceX. For me, the future of the human race got interesting again.

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