LONDON -- "You would hope that from this point on," said Jim Van Laak, manager of the space station Alpha, on Friday, "we will never have a period when humans are not living in space."
I hope so, too, and I actually know how long "never" is.
It's much longer away than the year 2085, which is closer to us than the outbreak of World War I. It's farther away than the year 2507, which is already closer to us than the year of Columbus's first voyage. It's even farther away than the year 4054, which is still not as distant as the year Julius Caesar conquered Britain. "Never" is a very, very long time.