• Mood: awake

So what if you're a rocket scientist?

I was fortunate to visit the Astrium, the company that produced ST-1, the telecommunications satellite jointly launched by Singapore and Taiwan in 1996.



Astrium, Europe’s No. 1 space company and an industry world leader, has an impressive track record across the spectrum of the space business: Earth observation, space science programmes, telecommunications, ground systems, navigation and military programmes. The lot of us had the opportunity to learn about how the satellites were manufactured, deployed and how they worked. In addition, we were given an on-site tour of the entire factory. How I envy those space satellite scientists. It'd be nice to walk up to a babe and introduce myself like

"Oh, I'm just a space satellite scientist. Nothing spectacular".

Anyway, in about a week's time, Mars Express and Beagle2 will be launched. If successful, Beagle2 will land this Christmas and will be able to collect DNA sample from Mars.