Touch Down

The challenge came to an end on Saturday!

Hopefully you got to finish and are enjoying your funky frisbee.

Over 7000 children from around Leeds took part this year.

If you enjoyed it, please let us know. There's an email address in the Contact Us section, we'd love to hear from you.

Time is running out!

You only have until 5pm this saturday to complete your mission, but don't worry thats plenty of time.

Don't forget if you finish the challenge you'll not only get your medal and certificate to say you've done it, you'll also get a fantastic Space Hop pop out frisbe and you'll be entered into a prize draw to win a family ticket to Lightwater Valley.

On this day in 1975 Nasa launched the Viking 2 Spacecraft. It took 333 days for the Viking 2 probe to reach Mars and once there it seperated into a Lander and an Orbiter.

The Orbiter module orbited Mars about 700 times over the next 2 years and sent back about 16,000 photos.

The Viking Orbiter provided aerial photos of the whole of Mars' surface

The Lander went down to the surface and spent 1281 Sols (a day on Mars, which is about 40 minutes longer than one of ours) collecting information about the planets surface, taking pictures and analysing the atmosphere and the rocks around it.

A view from the Viking Lander

You can find out more about the Viking probes here

Over 250 rockets were made and launched yesterday at the Breeze on tour event at Kirkstall Abbey yesterday. You can find out what else is happening on the Breezeleeds.org website

On this day in 1999 the final crew of the Russian space station Mir departed the station to return to Earth. Russia was forced to abandon Mir for financial reasons after 13 years of service.

The Mir Space Station was at the time the largest artificial satellite orbiting the earth. It re-entered the earths atmosphere in March 2001, the majority of it burnt up with a few pieces splash landing in the Pacific Ocean

You can find out more about Mir by visiting here

Time is running out...

Only 19 days left to complete your mission, better get reading.

Don't forget, those who finish the challenge have the chance to attend the end of challenge party and may also win the Family Ticket to Lightwater Valley.

What chocloate bars do you eat in space?
Mars bars and Milky ways

How do you get a baby astronaut to sleep ?

You rock-et !

How do spacemen pass the time on long trips ?

They play astronauts and crosses !

First Spaceman: I'm hungry.

Second Spaceman: So am I, it must be launch time !

What do you call a loony spaceman ?

An astronut !

Where do Martians drink beer ?

At a mars bar !

Can't Decide?

Have a look at our book reviews page to see what other people thought of the books they've read.

If you've read a good book then let us know.


9 Years ago astronomers announced the discovery of the first solar system outside our own. They had discovered two planets orbiting a star in the Big Dipper.

The Big Dipper is a group of stars that are easily recognised in the night sky, you can find out more about the Big Dipper (or Ursa Major as it's known)  by clicking here

Some of the many picture reviews being handed in to us.

Don't forget to check out the Book Reviews page, and if you have anything you want to display on here then you can email it to me from the contacts page.

On this day in 1960 the USA launched the first ever communications satellite, it was a large metallic balloon called Echo 1 (although it's creators nicked named it Satelloon).

Echo 1 is what is know as a Passivve Communication Satellite, which means it just reflects the signals. In effect the satellite was like a giant mirror ball orbiting the earth that people could bounce signals off.

You can find out more about Echo 1 at NASA's website here