I have never been a science fiction fan, and I am not familiar with many examples. Therefore the ones I have chosen may belong to common knowledge. For a science fiction thing that is already a science fact, I chose man’s trip to the moon, as illustrated by Jules Verne and transformed into a science fact by the Apollo program. For a science fiction thing that is still to become a science fact, but it may sometime soon, I chose extraterrestrial life.
In 1865 Jules Verne published From the Earth to the Moon. In this story, to reach the moon, the characters launch themselves from a canon in a projectile spaceship to land on the Moon. Since the novel does not conclude as to what happened to the characters afterwards, Jules Verne wrote a sequel entitled Around the Moon in which the author continues to follow the unfinished trip to the moon. I believe the idea that man could travel to the moon developed in this book has generated lots of confidence in people that such a thing could become a possibility. After all, Jules Verne’s literature brought some other ideas that later on became reality, such as the submarine in Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea, and the helicopter in Robur the Conqueror. A book like From the Earth to the Moon could have had an impact on the eventual development of space travel to the moon. Actually, during the return trip to Earth of Apollo 11, Neil Armstrong said:
"A hundred years ago, Jules Verne wrote a book about a voyage to the Moon. His spaceship, Columbia took off from Florida and landed in the Pacific Ocean after completing a trip to the Moon. It seems appropriate to us to share with you some of the reflections of the crew as the modern-day Columbia completes its rendezvous with the planet Earth and the same Pacific Ocean tomorrow." [1]
The Day the Earth Stood Still is probably one of the very few science fiction stories that captured my interest. At the beginning of this story, an astrobiologist is recruited by the government to participate in a highly classified operation that turns out to be the landing of an extraterrestrial spaceship in the Central Park of New York. I believe we are getting close to discover life elsewhere in the universe. While I am not convinced the reality will occur just like in The Day the Earth Stood Still, as intelligent life seems to be scarce, simple life forms have a good chance to thrive on various other celestial bodies. Earth’s extremophiles have proved that life can develop about anywhere, in any kind of environment. With this knowledge in mind, we will have to design future missions capable to reveal such a possibility. While Curiosity is on the way to forever change our views about the neighbor planet, missions like the Europa Jupiter System Mission seem realistic and possible in the next decade. Such a mission would search Europa’s surface for evidence of fossilized organisms that have been carried up through the cracks and deposited on the surface. This would be sufficient to reveal life on Europa, provided its already discovered liquid ocean has been harboring life for quite while. This seems to be a science fiction scenario about to become science fact, and I sure hope this will happen in my lifetime. 
Notes:
[1] NASA History. Apollo Flight Journal, Apollo 11, Day 8, part 2: More Television and Stowage for Re-entry. http://history.nasa.gov/ap11fj/25day8-reentry-stowage.htm (accessed November 28, 2011).
Reference
NASA History. Apollo Flight Journal, Apollo 11, Day 8, part 2: More Television and Stowage for Re-entry. http://history.nasa.gov/ap11fj/25day8-reentry-stowage.htm (accessed November 28, 2011).
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