Why has pop culture become so obsessed with space this year?

I. want. to. see. that. 15km. starship. hop. 

Honestly, Musk seems to be turning into the patron saint of batshit ideas that happen to work when actually tried. 

And I am underwhelmed by Blue Origin. If (very big if) SpaceX gets the Starship to work, Blue Origin's New Glenn will be obsolete before its first flight. Until they deliver, they're the trust fund kid of the space companies.

I'm happy that Rocket Lab seems to be carving out a niche, though. Pretty smart, with their small, low cost rockets. Need someone to keep SpaceX honest. And Blue Origin ain't gonna do that. The only concern I have is them not getting the recognition to get substantial capital investment, and recognition is honestly the lifeblood of SpaceX. Or they get bought out and gobbled up by some ossified company. 

And honestly, I'm happy to see Boeing and Lockheed Martin slowly heading towards the door as far as space is concerned. The whole point of the private sector is to maximize economic efficiency, and their coattail riding for military contracts has dulled their edge in that regard. Still fascinating companies, and have done very good working in the past, and are still doing very good work in other sectors, but in the face of an aggressive competitor they are slowly getting devoured by their complacency. They deliver, but they are too slow, too expensive, and have been for years.

Roscosmos is A) not American and therefore bad B.) Russian and therefore bad C.) Been riding on Soviet era tech for a long ass time. I think they are circling the drain. They've got a lot of experience in space, but none in innovation.

Virgin Galactic seems like a marketing joke. They haven't really delivered either.

But all things considered, I think this is the most exciting time for space since the 1960's. And it's only getting better.