rk writes:

Conversations With Eileen M. Collins
Interview by Frank Sietzen Jr.

http://www.aiaa.org/aerospace/images..._Nov05_CON.pdf

Quote from the interview:

"I am very much hoping that we soon have a breakthrough in propulsion,
that we can build spacecraft that can travel much faster than the means
that we have today. Not just to travel in our solar system, but to
travel outside our galaxy."

Now, *that's* optimism.

Jochem

--
"A designer knows he has arrived at perfection not when there is no
longer anything to add, but when there is no longer anything to take away."
- Antoine de Saint-Exupery