Red-eye to Arlington, Virginia

Roads less traveled, friends that mattered.

Not too many years back a business trip report would have us enroute to some outdoor tradeshow meeting with friends from Everest, the poles or somewhere else wild and remote.

Tonight instead we’re headed to Arlington, Virginia (Pentagon-county) for a workshop with DARPA about our space rocket.

How fast life can change.

Some of our best explorer friends are no longer with us. The rocket logo, an alpine chough, is for them.

Along with the bird, their names will be engraved on the final ship, and their bravery will come with us on the greatest expedition yet.

Alpine chough mates for life and nests at a higher altitude than any other bird. It has a buoyant acrobatic flight with widely spread flight feathers. The bird hangs around basecamps and follows high altitude climbers on summit push. Mountaineers say they are the dead climbers' souls.