This is a game changer, a milestone as significant as the flight of Charles Lindbergh across the Atlantic, probably more so. All of a sudden, outer space got a lot closer to home.

The sticker price of this 14 story, Falcon 9 stage 1 is roughly 60 million dollars. This rocket will get you to the ISS more economically than any other vehicle available.

Go ahead, take a close look at her. Kick the struts, run your hand across the finish. Heck, if you're willing to pay a nominal $200,000 fuel charge, we'll even let you take her up for test spin (and we mean that literally) where you can experience a few minutes of zero gees and get a really good look at the curvature of the earth.

We're that confident you will want to park this baby in your driveway, tomorrow. Far more impressive and faster than our top of the line Tesla.

But closer to home, we can put a permanent base on the moon, for much less than the cost of an aircraft carrier battle group. The price of a new carrier alone is more than 13 billion dollars. Add in the cost of the 90 plus aircraft, the dozen or so escort war ships and supply vessels, at least 2 attack submarines and of course, the 10,000 or so highly trained personnel, and you're talking about some very serious money. Now, which of the 2 will buy America greater power and prestige?

Consider that the Chinese, in their quest to dominate the South China Sea, have developed anti-ship missiles, potentially capable of destroying our carriers, which are vulnerable to other threats, as well. The dreadnought battleship was made obsolete by the aircraft carrier, which itself has become increasingly vulnerable to threats from ever more sophisticated submarines and missiles. The predilection of the military/industrial complex is to procure weapons to win the last war, not the next.

Once again, to maintain military, technological and scientific pre-eminence, and more significantly, to spark a bright vision of the future, America needs to take the high ground.