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The English Astronaut
The English Astronaut - Simon Armitage
I've always been very interested in things that the British do very badly, its not a small category once you start looking into it. One of the things I think we are particularly rubbish at, is space travel. When I was young I was of that generation that wanted to become an astronaut and had great hopes for the British space programme, and that I might be part of it, but every time we launched a rocket it seemed to blow up on the launch pad. It was more like watching somebody setting a firework off, in a back garden, in Lincolnshire. There is, I think, somewhere in England - I've seen signs for it on the motorway - a 'National Space Centre'. What ...
I've always been very interested in things that the British do very badly, its not a small category once you start looking into it. One of the things I think we are particularly rubbish at, is space travel. When I was young I was of that generation that wanted to become an astronaut and had great hopes for the British space programme, and that I might be part of it, but every time we launched a rocket it seemed to blow up on the launch pad. It was more like watching somebody setting a firework off, in a back garden, in Lincolnshire. There is, I think, somewhere in England - I've seen signs for it on the motorway - a 'National Space Centre'. What can possibly be in there? Space, I guess.
The English Astronaut
from Seeing Stars (Faber, 2011), © Simon Armitage 2011, used by permission of the author and the publisher.