space

Atlantis Boosters Fall to Earth

Thu, 11/19/2009 - 00:16

Astonishing footage captured by cameras on the twin boosters of mission STS-115, recording themselves and each other as they fall down into the ocean.

Martin's blog

Open your eyes to darker skies

Mon, 11/16/2009 - 22:28

The night skies above our cities and towns - even our villages - glow a bright sodium orange; the most brilliant stars our galaxy has to offer glow feebly through this colourful canopy.

Galloway Forest Park has recently been honoured with the status of the UK's first Dark Sky Park. Perhaps it is time for us to dim the lights on the skies above all our cities.

All Hail the Space Cows!!

Wed, 01/07/2009 - 13:00

[bpsdb] What do you get when a creationist doctor, with an interest in the comparative study of religions, attempts to merge evolution with Islam? You get extra-terrestrial cows, proof that Darwin was a Muslim, and one of the strangest books published.

The author is one Dr Imad Hassan, a Sudanese doctor who came to Britain in 1991, and maintains an interesting website for his book and associated ideas. Hassan certainly seems to be well-intentioned - he spoke up for British teacher who was imprisoned in Sudan over the notorious teddy bear incident for example - but his views are rather unconventional.

Christmas Eve 1968 - Apollo 8 vs. Atheism

Wed, 12/24/2008 - 00:35

It was Christmas Eve, 1968, and the space race was in full flow. As people travelled to celebrate Christmas with their families on Earth, the crew of Apollo 8 - Jim Lovell, William Anders and Frank Borman - circled the moon in their lonely capsule, and became the first human beings to witness the rising of the Earth over the horizon of an alien world. Apollo 8 will be remembered for countless generations to come for those first images of our fragile planet seen from space, but less well remembered is the atheist controversy that the astronauts triggered with a live television broadcast that momentous Christmas Eve, forty years ago today.

Earthrise, seen from Apollo 8, December 24th 1968