In science fiction, the most compelling characters rarely stop after achieving the impossible.
They complete one mission, leave their footprints on a distant world, and immediately begin preparing for the next journey. For Alexander Kaplan, whose path began in Richmond and continued through Virginia Tech classrooms in Southwest Virginia, that storyline is now becoming real.
For young Virginians who spend evenings staring into the night sky and wondering what comes next, Kaplan offers something increasingly rare: a hometown example of someone helping shape the future of space exploration…