“Star Wars” may take place long, long ago, but some of their tech is light-years ahead of current knowledge.
There’s a beautiful shot of a Star Destroyer that looks like its floating (ominously?) in the atmosphere above a city. I’m not here to pick apart the technology in a science fiction movie, but for something that massive to just float like that so close to the surface of the planet is … let’s say it’s impossible within the realm of current knowledge.
In fact, while I love the shot of Jyn Erso (Felicity Jones) walking right up to the rising TIE Fighter, my brain can’t help but note that it’s very difficult to build ships that can operate in planetary atmospheres, but also launch into and fly through space. The Space Shuttle , for example, needed to catch a ride into orbit on a rocket, and could only glide through Earth’s atmosphere on its way down. (It had to ride on the back of a 747 to travel between cities).
Currently, modern “spaceplanes” that launch from the ground can only go to suborbital heights. That said, it’s not crazy to think that in the next half century, humans might design ships that can transition directly from the surface of the Earth to space-based destinations without a middle man. That’s not so far-fetched as to seem totally unrealistic.
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