Service to Boston
Nikoli tapped his foot impatiently. Two hours he had been waiting. You were supposed to get there early, to check-in and such, but it wasn't a busy day. Still he was too punctual to risk it. Now he had a cup of melted ice and was still waiting to board.
"Spaceflight 117 with service to Boston, boarding will begin in five minutes."
Nikoli swore under his breath. It was a bad habit, but he found it difficult to stop.
It seemed absurd to him to wait several hours when the trip itself would only take one. The development of supersonic rockets was great for the space industry, shuffling people around between the Earth and the moon, but nobody wanted to visit the moon. There was nothing to do there.
On the other hand, their domestic potential was just beginning to take off. Perhaps they took too much design from the airline industry. After all, the consumer spaceflight companies were really just subsidiaries of the airlines. The spaceports were built in proximity to the existing airports.
The whole experience kinda sucked, but it was still faster than a plane, and that was what he was looking forward to trying himself.
He hadn't done one of these before, but this was really the first time he had been so far away from home. He had gone on vacation in Tijuana, and a flight would've taken up his whole day.
Supersonics on the other hand would spend much of their time taking you up into the upper atmosphere. There, they would ignite their primary thrusters and start accelerating you much faster than could be tolerated at standard pressure. More time is spent taking you down to the port in Boston. A lot of prerequisites had to go right in order to complete the trip, but if it all went well it would take just an hour and a half.
"Now boarding spaceflight 117 with service to Boston. If you are in group A, as in Alpha, you may now begin to board."
Nikoli looked down at the ticket information on his phone. It stated that he was in group "G". He swore under his breath again.