Reaching for the stars

Tom Clancy, who died yesterday, is most remembered for his novels, especially The Hunt for Red October and his recurring character, Jack Ryan (played on screen, variously, by Alec Baldwin, Harrison Ford and Ben Affleck).  He was accused of having a nuts-and-bolts approach to his creations, being far more interested in the technical aspects of the equipment and vehicles used, than with development of those operating these.  Yet the image of him that stands out for me shows the positive side of this rudimentary authorial path, when in a documentary about commerical space flight, Clancy explained why he had sunk a good chunk of his fortune into one such project.  Asserting that the 'railroad' opened up America to economic expanision, Clancy compared spaceflight open to ordinary people would be a vast opportunity and his spaceship - and all others - would be the railroad of the future.  It's an extraoridnary and compelling vision  and with Virgin about to launch its own version soon, it's a shame that he never had a chance to be one of the 'pioneers'.