The fifth and penultimate season of For All Mankind came to a close this week, concluding another tense and eventful series that moved quite a lot of storylines on, and inevitably led us to the next decade time jump. The show has been renewed for the sixth and final series - I think the creators initially had planned seven, but I’m happy they know it’s ending and can plan accordingly.

I have a huge and growing list of things to blog about but April really got away from me… how can I not have written already about the Artemis II mission? I was so looking forward to it, I kept an eye on it constantly, and was hugely impressed with some of the imagery they shared. The moon in all its grey and cratered glory. I love it so much.

Love this. Written before the recent Artemis mission but knowing who was going to be taking part and what they’d get up to, it documents the history of space travel with a unique view. You can find many many books detailing how mankind left earth and started travelling to infinity and beyond, but this one focuses in on the humans (and a little bit about the animals) who made it happen. Intriguing ideas like are astronauts completing the experiments, or are they experiment themselves are scattered throughout and it’s just a really neat, well written, interesting book about these special explorers.

I knew I was going to love this. Reid’s excellent romantic writing combined with a NASA space story? Sign me write up. It was brilliant as well, enough detail to be a respectable science and space novel, but with the additional layer of complex family relationships, burgeoning romantic love lives, and all the threats and discrimination that previous decades had to offer. And all written in that hugely engaging and devourable style. Loved it.

It’s just a lovely, warm, funny story about the people fighting to make a dream come true against immense odds - sending those plucky explorers to the moon. There is the fake moon landing stuff but you never really at any point think that’s what happened, even at the end with the cat providing the proof we all needed. It’s a great take on a silly conspiracy, poking a bit of fun but mostly providing a warm and moving story to while away a couple of hours.

This was a surprisingly good film. Well, no, let’s be clear, it’s not a good film but it was really fun and cute and Emma Roberts shines off the screen. There are plenty of plot holes and it’s all a bit silly, but if you just forget that and go with it, and if you’re in the mood for something bright and breezy, it’s absolutely perfect.

This is such an interesting premise of a book, but I’m not sure it totally landed as intended. I love that we dive straight into the action, things have gone wrong and there are dire consequences giving us a countdown clock of pressure. There are dips back and forward in time and those bits feel drawn out when we want to know what’s happening to the pair now… and then the ending just felt unsatisfactory to me. A good read overall but an odd one.

This movie, wow, I have no idea how to describe it. You can’t help but be impressed by the advanced thinking for the time, and the amazing special effects, but that’s where it ends. It’s SO slow, painful, excruciatingly slow. Beyond the ’they had more time back in the 60s’ pace of other movies and into ’they’re just taking the piss now’ territory. And you could put up with the pretentiousness if it was actually going somewhere and telling a good story, but ultimately it goes nowhere and does nothing.

Loved this. I listened to the audiobook so it had an intro from Tim Peake and then was read by Robin Ince. This is structured around questions that Peake has answered throughout his career as an astronaut and covers the entirety of training to get to the position of astronaut, and then every inch of a trip into space, living on the international space station, and returning back to earth. There were all kinds of details I wouldn’t have thought of asking and have never heard talked about elsewhere, and it was absolutely fascinating. Just a shame that Peake didn’t read the whole thing himself as I think that would have been better.

The third series of For All Mankind started streaming on Apple last June. For something that I proclaim to be one of my favourite shows, it’s shameful that it’s taken me over six months to get round to watching it. But you know what it’s like, there’s always something shiny and new to try and more TV that its possible to watch, plus it’s always nice to have an old faithful waiting in the wings for when all else fails.

While dreaming up ideas for potential 30 day challenges, I pondered whether thirty days of Lego would be something that could work. I love the sets they do featuring elements from popular culture - a lot of fun and nostalgia all in a handful of plastic bricks. It didn’t take long to drop the idea because have you seen how expensive these sets are? Maybe one day in the future but for now, I had to settle for just browsing the online store.

We live in a world of reduce, reuse, recycle, and that can be difficult even when you’re talking about quite small household objects. It gets even harder when you start thinking about very niche, very complex robots built for a specific purpose. Of course my eye was attracted to this story, about a potential Mars rover that’s ’looking for a new job.’

I wrote recently about the new The Line building revealed as a concept design based in Saudi Arabia. Whilst I was busy marvelling at the structure’s size and scope, I hadn’t considered two additional reasons why buildings like this might be the future. I did touch upon the fact that you’d be hard pushed to convince people to live in the Saudi Arabia desert if they’re just rocking up to inhabit a suburban two-bed, but that this insular-style building might be more of a draw.

I was intrigued by this, written by the brilliant mind behind Line of Duty. It’s an odd little book, chronicalling the life of a Russian from a troubled boyhood to a long stint flying planes in the military and then joining the space race against the US. It’s a good read and I thought the ending very impactful, but it does feel like it’s missing something. There’s not a lot of personality given to any of the characters, so it’s hard to get fully engaged. And some of the flying adventures are like reading Top Gun which I wasn’t so bothered about. But overall worth the read.

I don’t know if this has always been the case, but I’m loving how much information Nasa is providing about the Artemis I mission. I know they’ve always had to be very open as a government organisation, and I’ve always been quite grateful for the free pictures, videos, podcasts and other media they have offered up, but there’s so much more to discover as well.

I’m a fan of the moon. Weird thing to say, I know, but I love that big grey rock up there just minding its own business and inspiring astronauts all over the world to want to step on it. I’ve been ignoring space travel news (other than the fictional For All Mankind style stuff) for a good few years and I guess it feels like an odd time to be getting back into it again, what with the planet we’re actually on burning up quicker and quicker every day - who are we to sink billions in the atmosphere between here and our nearest orbital neighbour?

This is a great resource book for kids and adults alike, delving into all aspects of space. There are breakdowns of each planet in our solar system as well as a view of what’s further afield. There are details about space travel, what has been discovered so far and what future missions might find. And there’s talk of the big bang, of the various types of stars, and quite a big section on constellations and looking up into the night sky. Great book to refer back to in the future.

This was a brilliant story of an incredible woman - Wally Funk who was part of the Mercury 13, a group of intrepid women who trained up in the same way as the men but never got to be the pioneers heading to the moon. Ever since then, her mission has been to get into space and she’s achieved it, although this book was written before the big event. This is all about the larger than life character that Wally is, written by a broadcaster who became her friend, and how although life wasn’t necessarily fair on her, she never stopped fighting for her dream. Amazing.

What a fabulous memoir this is. Gene Kranz talks of his early days but the bulk of the book is a play by play of every NASA mission he was involved with, from the very early days of Gemini, the tragedy of the first Apollo mission, and the success of returning Apollo 13 to earth. Through it all, Kranz is happy to admit where the teams did things right or wrong, and has that clear scientific analysis of each adventure. Occasionally, it’s a little too technical and I lost a sense of exactly what was going on, but you soon get pulled right back in when the drama and bravery of these incredible missions hits you.

This one’s been on our list for a while - you can’t really go wrong with Brad Pitt and space travel, can you? It was different to what I was expecting but I still enjoyed it. It’s not an all-out action sci-fi movie, it’s a more introspective drama, focusing on the relationships of a family, the effect of space travel and adventure on mental health and ultimately, sacrifice.

I am completely in love with the show For All Mankind. The sheer audacity of the whole thing is wonderful. It’s out there but also somehow grounded in reality. If you’ve not seen it, or read my thoughts on Series 1, the premise is an alternative history where Russia landed on the moon before the US, and everything that follows from that. I read a review of the show that explained how anything that tries to exploit the butterfly effect - small things creating exponential changes - is bound to start slow but gradually pick up speed. That describes the first season perfectly. It took me two attempts to get going with it, but once I did, I adored it.

Wow, what a ride. This movie is intense from the opening moments of blasting off with the crew into space, to the sudden realisation that they’re a team of four and not three, and then everything that follows! At heart, the moral dilemma is an excruciating one, almost impossible to know what the best thing to do would be.

I have to admit that I started listening to the audiobook of this read by the most excellent Rosario Dawson, but it just didn’t grab me at all. I wasn’t hugely keen on the character and couldn’t quite picture the scenes. I wanted to give it another go, though, and dived into the ebook instead. I’m glad I stuck with it because it was an entertaining read. It was always going to be difficult for Andy to follow up the incredible success of The Martian, but this was a great effort.

If you’re any kind of space nut you’ll have heard of this podcast already - it’s been around for two series now and is an outstanding piece of production that drags you right into the heart of space missions and doesn’t let you go until they’re over. 13 Minutes to the Moon is a BBC podcast that started with the story of Apollo 11, and specifically centred on that descent from the Apollo craft to the lunar surface.

Despite the title of this book, I hadn’t realised it was partly set in space. It’s not really a science fiction story though, despite the man being on a potentially one-way trip to Mars. Instead, it’s a story about humanity, about connection, about redemption and more than anything, it’s about listening, understanding, helping and just plain being kind.

When I first wrote about For All Mankind, it was out of duty rather than enjoyment really. This was a show about the moon with a sprinkling of feminism and couldn’t have been made more for me if it tried. I talked of how the first episode dragged and the second picked up and by the third I was hooked. Well, I should have sensed the pattern there because every single episode that went by was better than the one before and by the tenth episode, the season finale, I was enthralled. We binge-watched the last three episodes together and I’m glad we did because the [spoiler-alert] cliffhanger with the guy in the airlock was spine-tinglingly good.

I am intensely aware that my recent posts have been all Apple this and Apple that. With Arcade and Books and Oprah and Swift and more, it’s like everything has come out all at the same time. I’m loving the content on Apple TV+ but some of it has been harder work than others. Dickinson was a surefire hit, but For All Mankind took some perseverance. The first episode didn’t grab me at all. This show is an alternative take on the history of the moon landings, whereby instead of the US getting their feet on the lunar surface first, the Russians won the space race.

So many thoughts! First opinion is that this was an epic film on such a grand scale and just so moving. It captured me almost instantly, with that crazy stressful start to a movie and then it never let up. The biggest highlight is the insanely good cinematography that grabs you, thrusts you into the heart of the action, makes you look at things differently and from angles that only the real participants could have seen, and then leaves you to deal with the consequences. I genuinely thought I was inside every rocket that Armstrong was in, I felt that claustrophobic and breathy intensity, and I was more than invested in every step he took.

I was feeling a little guilty when I started reading this that I only really knew ‘Mass’ for his stint on The Big Bang Theory, but he mentions that in the book and it doesn’t come across as a bad thing. In fact, he’s got a great attitude that once you’re done flying, your best job is to generate awareness and excitement by inspiring the next batch of youngsters into the sciences, even if that is through a slightly nerdy sitcom.

I love that the three characters are strong and inspiring in their own unique ways. Katherine is so smart and eventually yells at her boss to get equal treatment. Mary is so determined she talks round a court judge to get the opportunity to learn. And my personal favourite Dorothy takes it upon herself to learn everything and prove to be indispensable, thus making the colour of her skin a non-issue. Her attitude towards the way technology changes the workplace was really interesting, and still applies to this day.

Mixed feelings about this one. Firstly, the space ship was amazing. Great set, impressive technology, fantastic CGI to make it a totally immersive experience. Chris Pratt and Jennifer Lawrence were both brilliant, good chemistry between them, and the perfect reactions to their situation, guilt, horror, loneliness, togetherness, all of the above. The bar and Michael Sheen’s stint as an android bartender were particular highlights of the whole film. He had some of the best lines and delivered them perfectly.

This video is so gorgeous. Watch it full screen if you can. What’s incredible is that we could very well be living through the moments that will be detailed in future history textbooks, when that billionaire changed the face of space travel as we know it. Incredible.

I recently stumbled across an old note I made, after listening to an episode of Inside Science from the BBC. It’s a fantastic space quote about setting up lunar fuel depots, discussing the prospect of solving the problem whereby you need to take off from Earth with all the fuel to get where you’re going. If you can break that barrier, more remote areas of space become possible. Credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio

I thought the casting was brilliant, Matt Damon had just the right balance of seriousness and humour, Jeff Daniels had the gruff boss thing going, Kristen Wigg was great if a little less-sweary than the Annie I was expecting. And all of the crew on board the Hermes were pretty much as I pictured them. The film had all the important bits of the story in it, it was beautiful shot, expertly crafted, and told really well - considering the source material is of a guy being stranded on Mars, talking to himself a lot, and doing a lot of maths and science to survive. Not easy to translate to the screen but handled masterfully.

My growing obsession with all things space and moon-like meant this book was an easy purchase. The story of Al Worden, one of the three astronauts that made up the Apollo 15 crew, it’s not an easy read. There’s controversy and bittersweet moments throughout, but that’s the life you lead when you’re doing something amazing like broadening humanity’s horizons.

It’s a big responsibility and an honor to work in that huge orbiting laboratory. Figuring out how to support life in the hostile environment of space has resulted in thousands of down-to-earth spin-offs, from temperature-regulating underwear to heart pumps that rely on Shuttle fuel-pump technology. The concrete benefits and by-products of the science we do in space have touched fields from agriculture to medicine to robotics. Data gathered on the Shuttle and ISS help power Google Maps; experiments with different dietary and exercise protocols have revealed how to ward off, permanently, one debilitating type of osteoporosis; the robotic machinery now used inside the parts of nuclear power plants that are too hazardous for humans is a direct descendent of Canadarm: the list goes on and on.

I love a good Ken Follett thriller, and this was one of those - not only a great spy chase but centred around getting a rocket up into space as well! Set in the heart of the space race, this book aims to tell the fictionalised behind the scenes story of why the Explorer 1 rocket launch was delayed twice, because of the weather (even though it was a sunny day in Florida).

It’s interesting, really, that these days there aren’t that many famous astronauts. It’s no less glamorous a job, or one sought after by kids gazing up at the night sky, but it’s definitely become a more mundane concept - there are people constantly orbiting the earth, living in space, what of it?

There was so much hype around Interstellar that it was impossible to ignore, but I was caught up in it anyway. Christopher Nolan at the helm of another epic premise, McConaughey on board and people heading off into space. Fab.

Continuing my space-mad theme at the moment, before I disappeared for two weeks, I was most excited to read this story about wifi on the moon! MIT have been experimenting with beaming things off multiple satellites in an attempt to reach the moon, and they reckon it’s possible, if a little tricky. Communicating at high data rates from Earth to the moon with laser beams is challenging because of the 400,000-kilometre distance spreading out the light beam. It’s doubly difficult going through the atmosphere, because turbulence can bend light-causing rapid fading or dropouts of the signal at the receiver.

My interest in science and space has grown exponentially over the last few years. Science was one of those subjects that was beaten out of me at school and it’s taken a long while for me to really give it the time of day. Since I have, though, I’ve been fascinated, particularly developing a fledgling obsession with the moon. Over on Sidepodcast, we live commented some of the launch and landings of the space shuttle and its successors, and who can argue with an astronaut making a Rocket Man video in actual space?

I picked this up on the back of a recommendation from a podcast, and it’s the first time in a long while I’ve been interested enough to buy straight away - rather than add to a wish list and peruse at a later date. I started reading and was instantly hooked.

After watching one of the early trailer/clips and establishing this might be a pretty epic film, Mr C and I stopped looked at any reference to Gravity, in case of spoilers. We anticipated the arrival of the film, and scheduled viewing time for the very same evening that it downloaded.

Almost as much as its adventures in space, the final mission of the Space Shuttle Endeavour - to get through the streets of Los Angeles to its final resting place - has captured the minds of a global audience. There’s so much about this that still manages to boggle my mind, and now we have some brilliant time lapse videos to see the movement in action. This second video is almost exactly the same, but does have a clip of them lifting up some electrical wires out the way. It’s amazing how they managed to pull off this feat of extreme travel, incredible to have the view of a space shuttle tail fin winding its way through a leafy suburb, and brilliant to watch the city be put back together again once the behemoth has passed through.

I’m sure it didn’t escape your notice that on Sunday Felix Baumgartner jumped from a capsule at the edge of space to freefall back down to earth, and then landed on his feet successfully. What did you do with your weekend? It was an absolutely inspirational thing to watch. I’ll admit I didn’t sit through the build up, and was a bit of a fairweather viewer - tuning in when he was just about half an hour from the impending jump.

After my rather foolish admission that I hadn’t necessarily paid much attention to those that went to the moon after the main three, Steven Roy recommended I watch this documentary film on 4OD - In the Shadow of the Moon. I watched, and I learned, and I made notes. I’ve posted the distilled version for Film Watch, but these are the full notes I made along the way - 90 minutes of brilliant space travel stuff, I highly recommend it.

I loved it! I think I was expecting it to teach me a bit more, perhaps be more educational rather than emotional, but it was brilliant throughout, and did give me a taste for the many different missions that went up to the moon. I loved hearing from the astronauts themselves, particularly right at the end when they talked about how their space travel had affected them, and what they think of the conspiracies.

The final stop on my Alphabet mini-tour (way back in May, how did that happen?) was the National Space Centre, just outside of Leicester. I’m developing an interest in all things space travel, and I was surprised that we have a space centre, given that we have very little in the way of a space programme. The website makes it clear that this is a destination designed for kids. At the moment, on the homepage, there’s a lego space shuttle, and three pictures of kids enjoying their day out at the centre. I was anticipating this when I went, and given my lack of any real space knowledge, I figured I’d do well to start with something aimed at the children. I was to be disappointed.

I don’t know enough about space, and wish I knew a lot more. What I do know is that when the shuttles are retired, we’re going to miss out on some fantastic sights.

Ohhhh, I love it so much more now that I understand it. I mean, I’m no rocket scientist, but it makes so much more sense. Since we watched this film, I have become completely obsessed with all things Apollo and Shuttle and NASA, and did you know that in real life it wasn’t 39 seconds, it was actually 14? I still hate NASA for it, but cooool. I can’t stop reading Wikipedia about astronauts and space, and hey, what do astronauts do when they’re not up there? Do they just sit and wait? Anyway, fantastic film. Fabulous ending.