Tag: Space History

Space, Race & the Fires Below!

Five days after George Floyd died under a policeman’s knee, the sleek Crew Dragon rocket soared into Florida’s skies. Americans were invited to ‘stop everything’ to watch a live stream of the launch. A collaboration between NASA and Elon Musk’s Space X company, it was the first commercial craft to bear astronauts from US soil to the ISS space station. Cameras captured astonishing close-ups of the rocket’s first stage plunging back to Earth for a perfect landing on a drone-ship. Billed as a ‘Launch America’ mission, the event saw President Trump boast of making America ‘number one on Earth’ and ‘making space great again’. Yet even as NASA director Jim Bridenstine evoked the spirit of 1969 ‘to bring people together’, the country was convulsed with #BlackLivesMatter protests. For all the suspense and glory of that fiery cigarette stub streaking through the blue, it couldn’t distract us from the cities burning below. If anything, their juxtaposition only recalled the Space Race’s dark subtext.

SCP NEWS: Prizes, Giveaways & Discounts for E-launch

It's Day 16 of our countdown to the virtual launch of Space Cat's first e-book; Desert Moonfire: The Men Who Raced to Space. As the clock ticks towards our Virtual LIVE Launch on Friday 29th May at 5-6pm on Space Cat's Twitterfeed, we are buzzing with excitement. To celebrate the moment, we have a week of Prizes, GoodyBags & Discounts to share with you. Details below. Don't miss the fun and look out for us on Twitter at 5pm each day this week: https://twitter.com/SpaceCatPress

Space News: Astronauts in Isolation

One of the things that’s always fascinated me about humans in space is their profound seclusion. Think about cosmonauts cooped up in those tiny modules of the Space Age. Or those Apollo Lunar Commanders who sailed around the Far Side of the Moon utterly alone, out of Comms. reach. Even with his strumming guitar, who could be lonelier than Bowie’s Major Tom communing with a crackly Ground Control? ‘I'm feeling very still.’ So as we Earthlings weather a lockdown we never trained for, what can we learn from astronauts who’ve been doing this for years?

NEWS: Leonev’s Last Voyage & Space Cat’s First Flight

Talking of reaching for the stars and finding Earth, can we all doff our helmets to Alexei Leonev who passed away this week? What an extraordinary man. In those early days of space travel, the Space Race recruited plenty of courageous explorers. But rarely were they so articulate about what they experienced, so artistic in their vision. Leonev is best known for undertaking the first ever space walk or EVA. His own paintings show him as a white suit hanging on an umbilical cord above the blue planet. The dark visor reflects the deep, leaves us to guess the emotions of a man untethered from his homeworld.

News Updates: Lift-off for Desert Moonfire Book

Space Cat Press has been in orbit for two months now and what a blast it's been! We've put up five reviews, three blogs on space exploration in popular culture, marked two space anniversaries, and enjoyed an amazing day out at Edge Lit 2019. Now the countdown begins to our first book release. Desert Moonfire: The Men Who Raced To Space will be on sale from the 21st of September. Catch our series of upcoming launch events.