NASA’s Orion spacecraft, designed to carry manned missions to Mars and be the first of its kind was set to launch today, however, high winds and a full assortment of other issues arose to delay the launch until tomorrow. A mission to bring humanity to another planet has yet to ever take place, the closest mission of its type being the moon landing on July 20, 1969 with Apollo 11.
This mission is to test critical systems to see if the sustainable flight to Mars and back will be possible using the Orion systems. The flight is designated a double orbit 4 hour trip rescheduled for Friday the fifth of December. NASA Scientists believe that with the success of this launch would result in 2021 passenger missions, meaning us regular folk may get to go to space in this lifetime!
With this being said, thanks to some animators’ wonderful imagination we are on no shortage of anime that can take us to foreign planets, or simply the vastness of space itself! One of my personal favorites, Outlaw Star, being one of the leading space travel anime. Featured on Cartoon Networks Toonami (if you haven’t heard of Toonami, you missed out on a childhood) in 2001 and again on Adult Swim in 2002, this show caused some of the earliest memories I have of wanting to be a badaxx space explorer like the main character Gene Starwind.
The entire premise of the show is for Gene Starwind to take revenge on the man who killed his father, but the only thing he knows about this man is what his ship looked like. Together with his best friend and business partner James Hawkwing, the two make a freelance business of both mechanical, bounty hunting and bodyguard duties (which ends up being “whatever you’ll pay us to do”). They eventually meet a space outlaw by the name of Hilda who starts them off on an adventure into the realms of the unknown. Along the way they make new friends, new alliances and new shenanigans that leave you sitting there in awe of the vast beauty of it all.
This is one anime you don’t want to miss out on, especially with the future of space exploration in NASA’s capable hands. Our time as a single planet human race is looking less and less daunting as the stars become closer to our grasp. Check it out today if you already haven’t, and remember to keep looking to the stars!
Outlaw Star Trailer