The Americans were deeply proud of their new space program. The Shuttle was a symbol of the very best of American ingenuity. ibid.
An escape system was eventually included along with a further 345 modifications: only then was the Shuttle considered safe enough to go into space. ibid.
For decades some have suspected there might be others out there. Beings capable of communicating with us. Even visiting our world. Horizon: Strange Signals from Outer Space, BBC 2017
The Lorimer Burst: ‘This signal that was so bright and apparently so far away it was completely unlike anything they’d seen before.’ ibid. Duncan Lorimer
A deafening lack of any communication from extraterrestrials has become known as the Great Silence. ibid.
The Wow! Signal: the most famous cold case in the search for extraterrestrials. ibid.
This beautiful imagery of our universe isn’t an artist’s impression but visualisations using data from a telescope that orbits above our heads in space. A telescope that has transformed our view of the cosmos. The world’s most famous telescope: Hubble. In orbit since April 1990 Hubble has travelled further than 6.5 billion kilometres around Earth. Horizon: Hubble: The Wonders of Space Revealed, BBC 2020
A team of daring astronauts risked their lives in a series of dangerous and challenging missions to keep Hubble working. ibid.
The outer edge of the main mirror had been made too flat. The solution would involve the most spectacular mission attempted by NASA since the Apollo moon landings. ibid.
From Stanley Kubric’s dazzling cinematic masterpiece to pop music to children’s TV, space was the latest craze. Brian Cox, Moon: The Horizon Guide, BBC 2009
Once we had got to the moon interest in space exploration began to fade. But in 1970 a drama would unfold that would once again put Apollo centre stage. All together there were seven attempts to land a man on the moon. ibid.
So the first amino acids on Earth – the fundamental building blocks of life – may have formed in the depths of space and delivered to the Earth on meteorites. Brian Cox, Wonders of the Universe 2/4: Stardust, BBC 2011
Beyond Earth’s atmosphere life is impossible. Exposed to the vacuum of space you’d be unconscious within twelve seconds. Brian Cox, Human Universe BBC 2014
The International Space Station has been permanently occupied. ibid.
As far as we know we humans are unique in the universe. ibid.
At its peak Petra had a population of 30,000. ibid.
Each one of us is made from mere matter. Yet we are matter with curiosity ... Why are we here? Brian Cox, Human Universe II: Why Are We Here?
We appear to live on a perfect planet in a perfect universe. It feels as if it’s made for us. The Earth orbits at just the right distance around just the right star with the temperatures on its surface to be just right for liquid water to exist. ibid.
We live in a universe that’s expanding at just the right rate. ibid.
‘The gods are later than creation.’ ibid. Vadic verse
Are we a lone island of life lost in a vast galaxy? Brian Cox, Human Universe III: Are We Alone?
Red Dwarfs are by far the most numerous stars in our galaxy. ibid.
There are ten billion inhabitable worlds out there in the Milky Way Galaxy. ibid.
The question of how often Life spontaneously arises on a planet. ibid.
The silence persists; we remain alone ... We are unique. ibid.
Every human life has to start somewhere, a place in Space and Time. Brian Cox, Human Universe IV: A Place in Space and Time
The Milky Way is a disc of between two and four hundred billion stars reaching out in giant spiral arms. ibid.
Our inquisitive minds began to develop models of the universe. Brian Cox, Human Universe: What is Our Future? V BBC 2014
Just a few hundred humans have witnessed this view. But there’s promise of a new age of space travel. Brian Cox, The 21st Century Race for Space, BBC 2017
And now private companies set up by some of the world’s most successful billionaires promise to dramatically open up space. ibid.
One of the companies developing sub-orbital tourism as the first step towards this is Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic. Over 700 advance tickets to space have been sold. ibid.
Are we alone in the universe? What really is gravity? Where will the exploration of space take us? And what is Time? Brian Cox’s Adventures in Space & Time I, BBC 2021
Mars has vast dunes, enormous volcanoes, and giant ice-sheets. It has canyons and river valleys. Mars is a dry frozen version of our home, covered in red dust and sand … Mars has virtually no atmosphere. Mars is not a nice place. ibid.
Are we alone in the universe? … This seemingly fundamental link between water and life is driving the search for life out there in the solar system. Brian Cox’s Adventures in Space & Time II
Gravity: our understanding of it has been transformed by recent discoveries … about the nature of gravity and the way it behaves. And how this relates to the origin of the universe. ibid.
Newton believed that gravity is a force that acts throughout the entire universe. ibid.
Cape Canaveral in Florida: This is Kennedy Space Centre where fifty years ago Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins blasted off aboard Apollo 11. And on July 20th 1969 Neil and Buzz became the first humans to walk on the moon. Brian Cox & Dara O’Briain, Stargazing: Moon Landing Special, BBC 2019
Cape Canaveral space port in eastern Florida: It’s spread across over 200 square miles. In the centre are the rocket factories and science labs. While the launch pads are scattered along the coastline about four miles to the east. From here over 400 people have blasted into space. ibid.
‘At lift off it was real shaky … real big vibration …’ ibid. Charles Duke
Aerospace company Boeing is building the Starliner Spacecraft right here on site. It will fly on top of a Atlas 5 rocket. ibid.
Around the country teachers started filling out the forty-eight-page application form. Among them was a social science teacher from Concord High School from Hampshire called Christa McAuliffe. Challenger: Go For Launch 2001
The vehicle broke up into hundreds of fragments. The crew compartment plummeted towards the ocean, but at seven miles up it took nearly two and a half minutes to descend ... All were probably alive. ibid.
They were discovered accidentally by spy satellites, and are so big, at first they were suspected of breaking the laws of physics. They’re called Gamma Ray Bursts or GRBs. These powerful bangs can be detected only from space as gamma rays don’t reach the ground. Adam Hart-Davis, The Cosmos: A Beginner’s Guide, BBC 2007
It has been estimated that there are more stars in the universe than there are grains of sand on all the beaches in all the world. Jim Al-Khalili, Everything & Nothing: Everything, BBC 2012
The universe they were seeing was revealing itself to be one of dynamic complexity. A universe of natural organic motion. A place of endless wonder. ibid.
Dotted around the sky Herschel and others had been observing strange cloud-like objects known as nebulae. Some of these nebulae seemed to have distinctive form and complex structure. Some astronomers began to suggest a radical idea. Perhaps the Milky Way wasn’t everything there was. ibid.
They had no way of measuring distances in outer space. ibid.
One of the great unsung heroes of science. She worked at the Harvard College Observatory. And her name was Henrietta Leavitt. Leavitt’s job was to count and catalogue the stars. ibid.
The talented, passionate and eccentric Hubble rapidly made a name for himself in the field of astronomy. ibid.
Andromeda was indeed an island universe ... We now estimate Andromeda contains over a trillion stars. And it’s just one of a vast multitude of galaxies. ibid.
What is Space? ... Does Space only exist when there is stuff in it? ibid.
The properties of Space were first described by the mathematician Euclid over two thousand years ago. ibid.