Human have looked at the night sky for as long as we have existed

　　If we have to pick one date for the Space Race to be born it was 4 October 1957

　　When the Soviet Union launched Sputnik One – the World's first satellite

　　Sending a satellite is one thing but humans want to go beyond that final frontier

　　When Yuri Gagarin launched in 1961 he almost instantly became a worldwide hero

　　What is really sobering is that going into space – even although we have been doing it for nearly half a century

　　We are still pushing our science and engineering to its very limits

　　Since 1961 the number of people who have ever been into space would fit inside one Boeing 747

　　Less than 570 people – and of those 18 have died in the process

　　It is still amazingly challenging

　　There was a whole generation that were inspired by it

　　The children of Apollo

　　It is that whole spirit of exploration that inspires

　　And ultimately that is what we have tried to harness in the National Space Academy programme

　　When we think about space science there are actually a number of different parts to it

　　There is astronomy - which is looking out there

　　There is exploration– which is going out there

　　Then there is the critical part which is space application – looking back at Planet Earth

　　What people don't realise is that there are so many applications of space science that are fundamental to our 21st century ways of life

　　Questions

　　1.When did the Spacerace start? 4 October 1957

　　2.What happened that day? Soviet Union launched Sputnik One

　　3.Who was the first man in space? Yuri Gagarin

　　4.How many people have been into space? 570

　　5.What do people not realise? That there are so many applications of space science that are fundamental to our 21st century ways of life

　　Track Two

　　The fact that we can do climate change modelling

　　The fact that we can do weather forecasting

　　The fact that we have a global telecommunication industry

　　The global village has become a reality only because we have telecommunication satellites

　　When you look at the way that space has permeated all of our lives

　　It is not just inspirational it is absolutely critical for us to keep pushing forwards

　　If we are going to do that we need to inspire the next generation of scientists and engineers

　　That is what the Academy is all about

　　Telecommunications– Telstar – when we had the pictures sent across from America – that was a revolution

　　Now we can do everything through Space

　　When Telstar was launched in 1962

　　Even then – if you had told the people who launched Telstar that within their lifetimes they would see hundreds of these satellites orbiting 36,000 kilometres above the Equator

　　That we would have the Global Village where we could get almost instantaneous news coverage from around the world

　　Even they would have been amazed because not only have we pushed forward in our space technology

　　We have also pushed forward in our communications and computer applications

　　What you can fit onto a satellite now is orders of magnitude more than even a satellite ten years ago

　　All of this is improving our everyday lives in so many different ways

　　Questions

　　1.What are some of the things we can do today thanks to space research? Climate modelling, weather forecasting, global telecommunications

　　2.What is absolutely critical? To keep pushing forward

　　3.Who needs to be inspired? The next generation of scientists and engineers

　　4.What was the first telecommunications satellite? Telstar

　　5.What can the Global Village receive through space satellites? Almost instantaneous worldwide news coverage