The absurdity of space in FF8 in no way has to do with it being impractical technologically. But if someone rings my doorbell right now and tells me it's time to go to space, I'll be a bit taken aback to say the least.
They weren't even going to tell them they were going to space until the party was like "wait where are we going" and the Esthar dudes were like "space duh where else"