Sir Patrick Moore (1923 – 2012)
All at SF Gateway were saddened to hear of that the legendary astronomer and broadcaster Sir Patrick Moore passed away at the weekend, at the age of 89. Best known as the presenter, for more than half...
View ArticleLiving in an SF Novel
Your humble SF Gateway scribe tries hard to stay abreast of current events and generally considers himself to be reasonably well-informed. Sometimes, though, things slip by. You know how it is:...
View ArticleRobert Silverberg’s Reflections: May 2013
‘Where Silverberg goes today, the rest of science fiction will follow tomorrow’ Isaac Asimov Reflections is a regular column by multi-award-winning SFWA Grandmaster Robert Silverberg, in which...
View ArticleSF Masterwork of the Week: Tau Zero
May’s first Masterwork of the Week is Poul Anderson‘s Hugo-shortlisted Tau Zero. The epic voyage of the spacecraft Leonora Christine will take her and her fifty-strong crew to a planet some thirty...
View ArticleSpace is Really Big
As we’ve noted before in this very blog, we here at SF Gateway are big fans of NASA‘s excellent Astronomy Picture of the Day site. If there’s a better diurnal dose of delight out there on the...
View ArticleThat’s One Small Step For Man …
Tomorrow is the 44th anniversary of the Apollo 11 lunar landing. A day later Neil Armstrong took the first steps taken by a human on another world. From this . . . . . . to this . . . . . ....
View ArticleThe Founding Fathers of Rocket Science
The name most frequently associated with modern rocketry is that of Wernher von Braun (1912-1977), the German rocket scientist who moved to the United States at the end of the Second World War, known...
View ArticleHappy Sputnik Day!
On October 4th, 1957, the Space Race burst into life, with early honours for the Soviet Union. The launch of Sputnik, the world’s first artificial satellite, was a landmark in our species’ history –...
View ArticleOn This Day: Johannes Kepler
On this day in 1630, the German mathematician and astronomer Johannes Kepler died in Regensburg, Bavaria. He was, at one point, assistant to the great Danish astronomer, Tycho Brahe, and later served...
View ArticleRemembering Sir Patrick Moore
It is a year ago today that we lost one of the most enduring, best-loved and eccentric popularisers of science of the television era. Before there was Professor Brian Cox, before the excellent Neil...
View ArticleThe Science Fictional World: 16th May
Hey, everyone! It’s May 16th – and you know what that means! Er . . . no? No, nor do we, really, but one of the very interesting things about science fiction is that it is now so culturally...
View ArticleThat’s One Small Step for Man . . .
It’s amazing what we can achieve when we direct our resources and imagination towards goals other than the most efficient methods of killing each other and/or extracting every last penny from the...
View ArticleHappy Birthday, Buzz Aldrin!
Having suffered the indignity of overlooking a milestone birthday of one great figure, we have no intention of making it two-for-two so early in the year. As one of the most intellectually limited...
View ArticleHappy Birthday, Rocket Boy!
On this day, in 1943, Homer Hadley Hickam Jr was born. His is probably not a name that will be familiar to a great many of our readers, but we’d argue (politely but firmly) that it should be. Homer H....
View ArticleOn This Day: Sir Patrick Moore
On this day in 1923, Patrick Alfred Caldwell-Moore was born in Pinner, Middlesex. He developed an interest in astronomy from an early age, joining the British Astronomical Association at the age of...
View ArticleSpace Probes
Gateway is on record as being an ardent admirer of NASA and its wonderful Astronomy Picture of the Day site. Wanna know why? Because this: To boldly go . . . Share This
View ArticleIt’s a Science Fictional Day
Today is one of those days when the science fictional world spills over into the real world. First of all, today is Asteroid Day, a global event dedicated to increasing the awareness of asteroids and...
View ArticleOn This Day: Dr John Dee
We find ourselves in conflicted times – Manichean days, where battle lines are routinely drawn and in all walks of life, it seems, we must choose: are you with us, or agin us? Are you Left or Right?...
View ArticleOn This Day: NASA was Born
On this day in 1958, the creation of the National Aeronautic and Space Administration was authorised by US congress. Eleven years later – almost to the day – they did this: Share This
View ArticleOn This Day: Mariner 2 Was Launched
On this day, in 1962, Mariner 2 was launched by NASA. In December of the same year it flew past Venus, becoming the first space probe to make a successful fly-by encounter with another planet....
View Article
More Pages to Explore .....