Early this morning EST, Sir Richard Branson and his Virgin Galactic spacecraft created history by becoming the first civilian flight to enter space.

You may ask, what has this got to do with Lismore?

Nothing, on a small scale but neither did Neil Armstrong walking on the moon in 1969 yet it captured the worlds attention.

The Virgin Galactic flight into space is 17 years of planning, design, building and testing various options that began from one man's vision. A little bit like Steve Jobs did with smartphones when he asked his engineers to remove the keyboard and they replied, it can't be done.

It is proof that anything is possible and dreams can come true.

Commercial space flight is split into two categories, sub-orbital and orbital.

Sub-orbital, which Virgin Galactic achieved this morning, is reaching an altitude of approximately 90km's above earth giving passengers a few minutes in space. Orbital flights reach an altitude of 400 km's which gives passengers a few days or even a week in space.

Which company is one of the few to lead the charge into orbital space? Tesla's Elly Musk has a company called SpaceX. They are looking to send passengers to ultimately orbit the earth and have a holiday on the International Space Station (ISS). No, I kid you not.

All of this space travel costs money, of course. The Virgin Galactic flight is priced at about $250,000 per person and while you think, not many could afford that price, they have sold 600 tickets already. The worldwide market is believed to be 2.4 million people, this is based on people with a net worth of $5 million or more.

Orbital flights have not been priced yet but think millions while NASA's cost to use the ISS is $35,000 per night. That gives you some perspective when flying to Cairns for a 7-day holiday in winter.

So, what does this have to do with Lismore & surrounding villages?

It starts with a vision.

Do we have a person that has the type of vision that can propel Lismore into the future? The kind of vision that leads to positive change, not just for that person but the community.