The era of mass space tourism is about to begin. Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo is about to launch. It is based upon SpaceShipOne, which was an experimental spacecraft which won a $10 million dollar prize for being the first privately built spacecraft to travel to an altitude of 100 km. This, as you may remember from my… Continue reading The Virgin Galactic Experience
Author: Steve Hurley
Hi I am Steve Hurley. Although I work in the IT industry. I studied for a PhD in astronomy in the 1980s. My real passion is explaining scientific concepts to a non-scientific audience. My blog (explainingscience.org) covers various scientific topics, but primarily astronomy. It is written in a style that it is easily understandable to the non scientist.
Publications and videos
For links to my books and videos please visit www.explainingscience.org
Space Tourism
This post is about space tourism, which means ordinary people travelling into space for leisure purposes and paying to do so. This is a subject which has always been of great interest to me and although the market is very small at the moment I think it will grow over the coming decades. With the… Continue reading Space Tourism
First Humans on the Moon
Originally Posted July 2014 -Updated April 2026 On 20 July 2014 it was the 45th anniversary of the first crewed Moon landing. To commemorate this. I thought that I'd re-post an earlier article which discussed the first Moon landings. My next article, which I will post next week, will be on the subject of space… Continue reading First Humans on the Moon
Archimedes and the Eureka Moment Explained
.Revised and updated 23 November 2025 Definition of Eureka The Cambridge online English dictionary defines eureka as An exclamation used to show that you have been successful in something you were trying to do. and gives this example "Eureka!" she shouted as the engine started Background Your will recall from my post Understanding the acid test its scientic roots that gold… Continue reading Archimedes and the Eureka Moment Explained
Living on the Moon.
For centuries novelists have written about humans living and working on the moon. One of my favourite science fiction novels is "A Fall of Moondust" by the British author Arthur C Clarke (1917-2008). It was written in 1961, before man had ventured into space and when we knew very little about the Moon's surface, but set in the… Continue reading Living on the Moon.
Explaining Science 