Yuri Gagarin's statue, The Mall, London

On my way to the Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition, I took the opportunity to see Yuri Gagarin's statue, which was unveiled as part of the 50 year celebrations of his first space flight, in the UK-Russia Year of Space 2011.

Parliamentary Space Committee Summer Reception

Members Dining Room, House of Commons

The Parliamentary Space Committee (PSC) is a cross-party group of MPs and Peers who aim to raise awareness and understanding of the great benefits of Britain’s important role in space, while promoting dialogue between politicians and the space community. Around 120 representatives of industry, government and academia attended the reception. I was very grateful to have received an invitation to this event, held on 4^th July.

Excalibur Almaz Capsule in Westminster

The Space Tourism Conference took place at the Royal Aeronautical Society on Tuesday 19th June. I was unable to attend, but several friends went and reported that it was a very uplifting event, with so many companies making progress towards the first flights of their first commercial space vehicles.

Excalibur Almaz capsule
Photo credit: Amjad Zaidi

I met one of the attendees the next day, to visit the Excalibur Almaz capsule which was on display near Westminster. Some large posters were on display, to tell us full details of the long history of this vehicle:

Tour of the Mullard Space Science Laboratory (MSSL)

I arranged to visit the Mullard Space Science Laboratory (MSSL) after meeting a postdoc student back at the UKSEDS conference in March.  As I will be starting an MSc in Planetary Science at UCL in September, I was curious to find out what goes on at MSSL, which is part of UCL, 30 miles south of London, near Dorking.

Published!

I was delighted to wake up one morning in the USA to an email from a friend, Richard Painter, who was on my Arctic Science course back in February and is currently the projects officer for UKSEDS. He had received his copy of Spaceflight magazine (July 2012) from the British Interplanetary Society, and sent me a scan of my freshly published article about the UKSEDS conference.
You can buy a copy of the magazine here, or join the BIS here.

SpaceFest, Kitt Peak, Lowell Observatory, Meteor Crater

Gene Cernan & myself

I attended SpaceFest IV, in Tucson, Arizona, which took place 1-3rd June 2012. Guests included many of the Apollo astronauts, some shuttle astronauts, mission specialists and principal investigators of space missions, along with other space media personalities. There were three tracks of talks and meals with the astronauts.

ISS Symposium: Charles Bolden

Future use of the ISS for Human Exploration: Charles Bolden (NASA Administrator)

“Throughout history, nations have always explored in order to develop humankind. Exploration drives technological breakthroughs that benefit all of society. The ISS is there to advance us further…but if we are not tangentially relevant, not improving life on Earth, then we are missing the boat, and we need to help remind everyone that we are trying to make life better for people here on Earth. In doing so, we improve our ability to explore.”

Charles Bolden
Photo credit: Remco Timmermans

These were Charles Bolden’s opening words, at the International Space Station (ISS) Symposium in Berlin on Friday 4, May.

ISS Symposium: Long-term Space Monitoring & Exposure

The International Space Station (ISS) Symposium titled “Research in Space for the Benefit of Humankind” was held in Berlin, Germany from 2-4 May, 2012. Over 250 delegates were invited to attend, representing all of the ISS partners and more. This session looked at past and future science carried out on the ISS concerned with long-term space monitoring.

Waleed Abdalati, Pascale Ehrenfreund, Julie Robinson,
Masaru Matsuoka Gerhard Schmidtke, Boris Zagreev, Torsten Neubert

Waleed Abdalati, NASA’s Chief Scientist, introduced the round table discussion by saying the international space station (ISS) is a great platform and opportunity, which we need to take advantage of in order to understand Earth, the universe, and our place in the universe. The science we can do from space spans earth science, heliophysics and astrophysics.

ISS Symposium: “The ISS has changed the world forever”

“In building the ISS partnership we have made an impossible step, we have changed the world forever.  The ISS is a model for the future of humanity. We have to manage the ISS as one part of a wider exploration program for the benefit of humanity”

Jean-Jacques Dordain

With these remarks, Jean-Jacques Dordain ESA Director General, opened the International Space Station (ISS) Symposium: “Research in Space for the Benefit of Humankind in Berlin” on Wed 2, May. Over 250 delegates were invited to attend, representing the ISS partner nations.

ISS Symposium: Berlin

I successfully applied for an invitation to the International Space Station Symposium which took place in Berlin, 2-4 May, 2012, and enjoyed an amazing two days learning about the science being conducted on the ISS.

Top respresentatives from all five ISS partners were in attendance, including Charles Bolden and John-Jacques Dordain. Over 250 delegates attended, a diverse range of stakeholders including astronauts, scientists, engineers and politicians.

Paolo Nespoli (ESA astronaut) very kindly spent a couple of hours talking with a small group of us after the gala dinner.

Photo credit: Brigitte Bailleul

Brigitte Bailleul, Paolo Nespoli, myself