Light Blogging

China is set to launch it's first three-man crew space mission this month.

The launch of Shenzhou VII is now expected to take place between September 17 -- the end of the Beijing Paralympics -- and China's National Day on October 1, Hong Kong newspaper Wen Wei Po said, citing unnamed sources.
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Three "taikonauts" or astronauts will be on board the flight, with one of them conducting China's first space walk, China's official Xinhua news agency said in an earlier report, quoting a spokesman for the mission.

China successfully launched its first man, Yang Liwei, into orbit in 2003, making it the third country after the former Soviet Union and the United States to put a man in space.

It sent two more astronauts into orbit in 2005 on a five-day mission.

The half-hearted UK space programme that could have been a contender. Still could, if they could summon up the enthusiasm, and the cash. The ESA (European Space Agency) seems to be more like Eventually Some Activity.

A visit to London’s Science Museum is both awe-inspiring and a somber experience. The first exhibit that strikes the visitor is the hulk of the final and successful Black Arrow rocket that launched the Prospero satellite for Britain at the turn of the 1970s. Looking closer at the other associated pieces in this collection, it is extremely hard to avoid the feeling of unfinished business. Bewilderment could strike any visitor regarding why this technology was not part of a continuum running through to the latest space-exploring and space-exploiting vehicles of today. Indeed, this is encapsulated in one exhibit legend that states that Britain remains the only country to gain and then abandon an indigenous launch capability.

As opposed to Australia, which has gained and then abandoned and indigenous payload capability. Twice. *SIGH*

Love Triumphs Across the Line - an article on other Australian couples like us.

Talking to these couples, it is apparent their relationships are especially close. Their survival suggests that sex or sexual attraction is overrated in some marriages as the glue that holds couples together, and that even gender is less crucial than an appreciation of a partner's essential self.

Well, yes, now that you mention it.