Ladies and gentleman, welcome to our space travel museum. Most of you, like myself, have been brought here today by your fascination of space exploration and to see what the future holds in store. Humans have dreamt about spaceflight since antiquity. The Chinese used rockets for ceremonial and military purposes centuries ago, but only in the latter half of the 20th century did we develop rockets powerful enough to overcome the force of gravity and propel us outside of the Earth’s atmosphere to open up the world of space exploration.

Practical work on rocket engine designs occurred simultaneously in three countries during the early 20th century; in Russia, the US and Germany. The 30s and 40s saw the development of long distance rockets in the form of weapons by the Nazis. This event was followed by missile programs being launched in the United States and Russia, with Russia sending the first artificial satellite, Sputnik 1, into space on 4 October 1957, and four years later Russian Lt. Yuri Gagarin became the first human to orbit Earth in a flight that lasted 108 minutes, the same year an American, Alan Shepard, completed a mission of flying into space. On 20 July 1969, Astronaut Neil Armstrong took ‘a giant step for mankind’ as he stepped onto the moon, a historical event which is recognised by all, all over the world, despite many skeptics and controversial theories surrounding the event.

By the early 1970s orbiting communications and navigation satellites were in everyday use, orbiting and mapping the surface of Mars, later followed by detailed images of Jupiter and Saturn, their rings and their moons.

Satellite communications expanded to carry television programmes in the 80s and even discovered a hole in the ozone layer over Antarctica, pinpointed forest fires and gave us photographs of the nuclear power-plant disaster in Chernobyl (1986).

Numerous space journeys took place at the end of the 20th century and beginning of the 21st. Satellites were used to some nations’ advantage during modern conflicts, providing information on enemy troop formations. Space systems will continue to become increasingly integral to homeland defence, weather surveillance, communication, navigation, image and remote sensing for chemicals, fires and other disasters, but this is not all.

As a young lad, having learnt all about Neil Armstrong at school, I became fascinated, I wanted to become him and to see what he had seen as did many other little boys and girls. Not being an astronaut, this, I admit, could be a little tricky, but at this very moment, as you are listening to me, there are multiple companies creating space rockets for a new purpose; that of ‘space tourism’. Ok, so for the moment only the richest of the rich can afford a day trip into space, but if this is what is being created now, just try to imagine what will happen in the future! Day trips to the moon will become as commonplace as an afternoon spent bowling. A holiday on Mars will be as exotic as a break in the Caribbean. A second home on Venus? Yes please! Just as the prices of plane tickets have become affordable to all, unlike when they first came to the market, so will space tourism. What are you waiting for? Our dreams of being amongst the stars will soon become a reality!

Thank you for listening, and I’ll see you in space.