The absence of posts to this blog over the last few weeks is not due to my having been floating around in space but I just happened to catch the arrival of three new astronauts at the international space station this evening and here they are gathered together in the Russian kitchen for a welcoming photo session with the three others who were already on board.

It is unfortunately a little bit out of focus ( I've got one that's even worse) but they were goodness knows how many thousands of miles away and I took the picture from Earth thanks to an excellent event organised by the Edinburgh Science Festival at the museum.

Here's the crowd in the big hall watching the big screen.  We were treated to a video of this morning's launch and amazing shots from inside the Soyuz and then some of the tricky docking procedure, made trickier on this occasion because the automatic system didn't work so they had to guide it into place manually.  An astronaut who had already spent time in the station, Samantha Cristoforetti, was on hand in the museum for an interview and two ladies from the European Space Agency answered lots of  questions as we watched the live broadcast from the station waiting for all the multitude of techie things that needed to be sorted out before the hatch separating the Soyuz from the station was opened and the three new crew members swam weightlessly into view.  It was brilliant.

Much of the audience left at this point but those who stayed on, of whom I was one, then saw a film called The Martian about an astronaut being marooned on Mars, his struggle for survival and eventual rescue.  It wasn't a bad film but I'd have enjoyed it more if the acoustics in the grand hall had not distorted most of the dialogue.

At least it was not as grim a story as Sunset Song which I saw in the afternoon.   It's decades since I read the book but I don't remember the story being as relentlessly dreich as this was.  The book is still on my shelves so maybe I should revisit it to check.

So if I haven't been out in space or spaced out what explains the lack of posts.  Lack of dedication.  I resolve to do better.