Following on from reminiscing about my childhood I thought I would tell you what I remember about the space race. Nothing.....!

Not strictly true, but being born in 1967 I was a little young to take anything in really. I have vague recollections of the last Apollo missions, 16 an 17 I guess, but even then I was only 4 or 5 so it may be that I remember the "wash up" news items if you will. The final reporting on what had been achieved etc. What a shame for kids like me that the program was cancelled.

I do recall my eldest brother (11 years my senior) having a massive wallchart on his bedroom wall onto which he stuck pictures cut from a weekly comic he took called "Countdown". I can still feel the thrill of gazing at the huge illustration of the Saturn V and the highly detailed descriptions of the stages. Collecting PG Tips tea cards, for the "Race Into Space" series they produced, also fired my imagination and allowed me to catch up on a little bit of what I had missed. Sputnik, Yuri Gagarin, Alan Shepard, John Glenn and then the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo progams.

My first real thrill about what NASA were doing came in 1981 and the first manned earth orbit of the space shuttle Columbia. I can still see now that moment when they touched back down after 2 days. I believe the BBC ran the coverage live and I still recall the lump in my throat.

I must pause here to pay my respect and remember the seven crew members who tragically died when shuttle Challenger was lost on January 28th 1986 and the seven when shuttle Columbia was lost on February 1st 2003. Both these tragedies brought home to me just how dangerous their work, and those who continue to work on the exploration of space, really is.

In the years since I have dipped in and out of what was happening but I don't think anything could capture the excitement of those who lived through the early days of the race. Oh, to have been watching live when Neil stepped down from that ladder. Books, film and TV have helped me fill in more of the gaps in my knowledge, and I just love watching that NASA footage, but I still wish I had been born a little earlier.

It seems as if now we shall have to carry on dreaming about a return to the moon. For a while there my imagination ran riot at the thought of the photos, footage and samples they would bring back this time. Especially given how far technology has advanced since those early days.

Here's to all those that made our understanding of what was "out there" so much clearer and gave us a heck of a story whilst doing so.