Those words, said casually by bounty hunter Jubal Early at the conclusion of the Firefly episode “Objects in Space,” ended up being the final line of the series, uttered as he drifted in the void of space with little to no hope of rescue.

Nearly twelve and a half years after Jeff Cunningham and I launched our campaign to have the first SpaceX Crew Dragon named after Serenity, I find those words and their context to be appropriate when I think about the state of Take Back the Sky. When Crew Dragon Endeavour launched on May 30, 2020, effectively ending our campaign, our intention was to continue Take Back the Sky as a platform that would not only advocate for and inform about private spaceflight, but also keep Browncoats up to date on goings on in the ‘verse that pertained to Firefly and Serenity. I suppose for a while we did a decent job of that, but for nearly four years now, this site has been mostly dormant with no new content to speak of, and our social media presence is also a shadow of its former self, mostly just reposting content from SpaceX, Firefly Aerospace or various Browncoats groups. Like Jubal Early, we’re on the drift.

The saddest part of that, though, is that even if we decided to dedicate ourselves to the pursuit of a passionate revival, the very nature of our mission probably precludes our ever again having the kind of support we enjoyed in Take Back the Sky’s heyday (circa 2013-2015). A little over ten years ago, Joss Whedon was a Hollywood wonder who had just helmed one of the highest-grossing films in movie industry history and was hailed as a champion of women’s rights. Now, after a very well-publicized scandal, he is a Hollywood pariah who is regarded by many as a misogynist and a hypocrite. Elon Musk’s public image has undergone a similar transformation, albeit for very different reasons. Just over ten years ago, he was often referred to as ” the real-life Tony Stark” and was somewhat of a geek icon, but as his pursuits became more and more political, no amount of innovation or success at SpaceX or Tesla could keep him from becoming one of the most polarizing figures in America. And that is understandable. Regardless of your political views, you have to admit that the kind of over-the-top antics that were so entertaining when Musk was unveiling the Crew Dragon or the Cybertruck come across very differently when they are done in reference to thousands of people losing their jobs.

It’s pretty obvious that neither Jeff nor I had this drastic shift in the public perception of Elon Musk and Joss Whedon on our Bingo cards when we first conjured Take Back the Sky. But… here we are. We have always tried very hard to keep Take Back the Sky an apolitical endeavor, but nowadays that will matter very little. And to be honest, if someone takes a look at this site or one of our social media sites, sees the names Musk and Whedon in the profile and says, “Hard pass,” I may not personally agree with the conclusion, but I understand how and why it was drawn.

There is one thing I am proud to say we got very right though, and that was our belief in the success of SpaceX. In a little over a decade, we have watched SpaceX launch satellites, recover booster rockets on land and at sea, reuse both boosters and fairings, send American astronauts back to space from American soil on multiple occasions and accomplish still more things that were previously only seen in science-fiction. From Falcon 9 to Falcon Heavy to Starship, SpaceX launches are so commonplace now that it’s practically impossible to cover them all the way we did in the early days of Take Back the Sky, and the company has quite rightly assumed a major role in the future of American spaceflight, even if its accomplishments are often overshadowed by the latest political statements or actions of its founder.

My involvement with Take Back the Sky has been a great ride. I’ve traveled all over the country talking about Firefly, Serenity and commercial spaceflight, and I am proud to have been an advocate for all three. I met some wonderful people, including nearly half the main cast of Firefly. And best of all, I gained a lifelong friend in Jeff Cunningham. I wouldn’t trade any of it, and I’d do it all over again in a heartbeat, even if I knew in advance that the results would be exactly the same.

I will always love Firefly and Serenity. No pop-culture ‘verse has had more of an impact on my life, and I suspect that none ever will. I am still very involved in the Browncoats community, and plan to remain active for the foreseeable future. I am currently the “Cap’n” of the Rivers and Bridges Brigade of the Pennsylvania Browncoats, as well as the local event coordinator for Pittsburgh’s annual Can’t Stop the Serenity charity screenings. I am also on the committee that is working to bring the Browncoat Ball to Los Angeles, California in September of this year (in conjunction with the California Browncoats’ 2025 CSTS screening).

If you enjoyed what I’ve written on this site about all things Firefly and Serenity, then I’d encourage you to check out my “Cap’n’s Blog” on the website of the Rivers and Bridges Brigade: theriversandbridgesbrigade.com. That’s where you will find any future musings I may have that will be of interest to Browncoats. I will not be posting any more content on this site, however. I am sad to say I just don’t see the point.

Thank you for all the love that has kept us in the air for over a dozen years. It has been shiny sailing with you. I hope I’ll see you in the world. Until then, keep flyin’.

– Chris