Author Archives: Gray Rinehart

Venus and Eros in Space History

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Fifty years ago today — February 12, 1961 — the Soviet Union launched the Venera-1 probe from the Baikonur Cosmodrome.


(Venera-1. Image from NASA’s National Space Science Data Center.)

Venera-1, or the “Venus-1 Automatic Interplanetary Station,” was the first spacecraft to fly by Venus. Even though telemetry contact with the spacecraft was lost on March 4th, making the mid-course corrections impossible, around May 19th Venera-1 flew within 100,000 km (62,000 mi) of the cloud-shrouded planet.

From Venus to Eros …

Forty years later, on this date in 2001, the NEAR spacecraft — i.e., the Near-Earth Asteroid Rendezvous spacecraft — touched down successfully on the asteroid Eros (even though the vehicle was not designed as a lander). On its way to touchdown, NEAR sent back high-resolution close-up images of the asteroid’s surface.

The Roman goddess of love, and the Greek god of love — a good day in space history for this Valentine’s weekend!

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Codex Blog Tour: GARETH L. POWELL

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Today we begin a discontinuous set of posts as part of a “blog tour” featuring fellow members of the Codex Writers online community.

Our first featured author is Gareth L. Powell, author of the novels The Recollection (forthcoming from Solaris Books) and Silversands, and the acclaimed short story collection The Last Reef. He is a regular contributor to the wonderful British SF magazine Interzone, and his work has appeared in a number of recent anthologies.

Gareth has given guest lectures on creative writing at Bath Spa University, and has written a series of non-fiction articles on science fiction for The Irish Times. In addition to Interzone, his work has been published in magazines all over the world, including: Hub, Best SF, Concept Sci-fi, Infinity Plus, Fiction, Ennea, Nowa Fantastyka, Aphelion, Quantum Muse, Byzarium, Phantastes, Bli Panika, Tank, Outshine, and Efimero.

Gareth’s short story “Ack-Ack Macaque” won the Interzone Readers’ Poll for best short story of 2007. He can be found online at www.garethlpowell.com.


(The Recollection cover art. Click to enlarge.)

Gareth’s new book, The Recollection, combines contemporary action with far-future “space opera”:

In modern-day London, failed artist Ed Rico is secretly in love with his brother’s wife, Alice. When his brother disappears on a London Underground escalator, Ed and Alice have to put aside their personal feelings in order to find him. Their quest reveals to them terrifying glimpses of alien worlds and the far future.

Meanwhile, 400 years in the future, Katherine Abdulov must travel to a remote planet in order to regain the trust of her influential family. The only person standing in her way is her former lover, Victor Luciano, the ruthless employee of a rival trading firm. And in the unforgiving depths of space, an ancient evil stirs…

I really appreciate Gareth taking the time to answer a few questions about how he took the idea for The Recollection and turned it into reality.

How long was it between first conceiving this project and actually starting to work on it in earnest?

I conceived the core idea of The Recollection in 2003, shortly after I finished writing my first book, Silversands. I wrote some plot and background notes, and then put the idea to one side. At that time, I hadn’t had anything published, and I figured it would be a lot easier to generate some interest in Silversands if I had a few magazine credits to my name; so I spent the next few years concentrating on short fiction.

I made my first sale to Interzone in 2006, and that led to the publication of my first short story collection The Last Reef in 2008. After that came out, I decided the time was right to take the lessons I’d learned from short fiction and apply them to a novel-length project; and so I dug out my old notes and started work. Along the way, Silversands was picked up by Pendragon Press and published last year.

How long did it take to complete the book? How did the stages progress, e.g., research, writing, editing, etc.?

Not long after I started writing the book, I was introduced Jon Oliver, the Editor-in-Chief of Solaris Books, at a convention. He agreed to take a look at it, so I sent him the first 50 pages and a 3000-word synopsis, on the strength of which he commissioned the novel. After that, it was simply a matter of finishing the book.

I finished the first draft at the end of October and sent it out to a handful of friends for their comments. Then, having made one or two slight changes based on their feedback, I delivered the manuscript to Jon in November.

What major obstacles did you have to overcome while working on The Recollection? How did you overcome it them?

The obstacles I had were the same as those faced by anyone with a young family, a mortgage and bills to pay. I had to squeeze my writing time between my day job and my parental responsibilities.

Luckily, I have a patient and understanding wife. With her encouragement, I took a part time job which allowed me a free day during the week to write while the kids were at school. I also wrote in the evenings after they were in bed.

I found that by trying to write every night, I soon got in a routine and the words started to flow. I didn’t worry too much about hitting a daily target; if the words came and were good, I was happy. Even if I only wrote a paragraph in an evening, I knew that the next day I might write two or three thousand words, so it all balanced out; and every sentence was a step closer to my goal.


(Gareth L. Powell. Click to enlarge.)

What was the biggest surprise you got out of working on The Recollection?

I was surprised at just how much fun this book was to write. By the time I was halfway through, I was flying along. The characters and plot had come alive, and I couldn’t wait to dive in each day and spend some more time in their company.

Most of the short fiction I’ve written has been set on Earth in the near-future, so it was great to be producing an epic widescreen space opera. As a kid, I always loved those sorts of books. I dug the hardware. So it was fantastic to have the chance to pour my love of the genre into a book of my own.

What’s your next project?

I have other novels up my sleeves. There may even be a sequel or two to The Recollection. I am also considering a second short story collection, bringing together a lot of the stories I’ve had published in magazines and anthologies over the last couple of years, since the release of The Last Reef.

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Speaking of anthologies, Gareth’s work is featured in a number of recent anthologies, including Shine (Solaris, 2010), Conflicts (NewCon Press, 2010), Dark Spires (Wizard’s Tower, 2010), 2020 Visions (M-Brane, 2010), and Future Bristol (Swimming Kangaroo, 2009).

The Recollection will be released on September 1st, 2011, but can be pre-ordered now on Amazon.

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Atlantis and Destiny

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Ten years ago today — February 7, 2001 — the Space Shuttle Atlantis launched from Kennedy Space Center, on its way to the International Space Station.


(Destiny module being installed on the International Space Station. NASA image.)

STS-98 astronauts Kenneth D. Cockrell, Mark L. Polansky, Robert L. Curbeam, Thomas D. Jones, and Marsha S. Ivins transported the U.S. laboratory module “Destiny” and installed it on the ISS.

And, speaking of destiny, 20 years ago today the Salyut-7 space station was de-orbited after nearly nine years of operations. The main character in my story, “The Rocket Seamstress,”* bemoaned its loss:

Where are Salyut and Mir, Mother Russia’s glorious outposts? Rusting homes to fish instead of men.

May we one day have outposts in space that are not in any danger of falling from the sky.

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*The story appeared in Zahir in 2007, and is available now on Anthology Builder.

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Rocket Mail

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Eighty years ago today — February 2, 1931 — Friedrich Schmiedl launched the first official “rocket mail,” sending 102 covers (i.e., envelopes)* and postcards to Radegund, Austria.

Several old photographs of rocket mail attempts are found on this Scienceray page.

At least one source listed the official date as being in May, but sources such as The Rocket Mail Page (which includes a photograph of Schmiedl later in life) and this astrophilately site agree that Schmiedl’s launch occurred on this date in space history. (The Rocket Mail Page does note, however, that rockets were used to send mail from ships to islands in Fiji as early as 1902.)

Wonder how much a stamp would cost today, if we were still sending mail by rocket ….

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*Postal covers are envelopes or other outer wrappings that have been through the mail, usually with cancelled postage, and are often collected and valued for their historical significance.

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National Security Space History: Minuteman ICBM

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Fifty years ago today — February 1, 1961 — an SM-80 Minuteman-IA intercontinental ballistic missile was successfully launched, marking the first test flight of the full-up solid-fueled ICBM.


(Minuteman-I missile. USAF image.)

Of more interest to me, this Air Force fact sheet notes that in April 1959 “Boeing launched the first Minuteman mockup at Edwards AFB, California. Test flights of mockup missiles continued into May 1960, all of which were successful.”

Why does that historical tidbit interest me so? Because many years later my first assignment was to the Air Force Rocket Propulsion Laboratory at Edwards, where those test flights had taken place. What made them remarkable was that those test flights at the Rock were tethered, meaning that after the missile left the silo* it was still shackled to the ground. I wish I had one of the images to post, of the missile trying to get away while sturdy lines held it fast.

Many of my friends spent tours of duty as missileers and missile maintainers, on later versions of the Minuteman as well as other ICBM systems. To each of them, and others whom I don’t know, I say: I’m grateful for your quiet diligence and your deterrent power which kept (and keeps) us secure. I salute you all.

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*Which I visited many times, at Area 1-100.

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Space History: Once More to the Moon!

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Actually, twice more, a few years apart: once for the Soviets, once for us.

Today was quite a busy day in space history: 50 years ago — on January 31, 1961 — the reconnaissance satellite Samos-2 launched from the Navy’s Pacific Missile Range (now part of Vandenberg AFB) , while a few hours earlier Mercury Redstone-2 had launched from Cape Canaveral, carrying Ham the chimpanzee. Ham performed well despite enduring higher g-forces than planned and an accidental cabin depressurization.

But as for the lunar missions …

Five years later, on this date in 1966, the Soviet Union launched Luna-9 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome. Luna-9 was the first craft to successfully make a “soft landing” on the Moon, and sent back several panoramic images of the lunar surface.

But the main event on this day in space history occurred 40 years ago today — January 31, 1971 — when Apollo-14 launched from the Kennedy Space Center carrying astronauts Alan B. Shepard Jr., Stuart A. Roosa, and Edgar D. Mitchell.


(Alan Shepard, during the Apollo-14 mission to the Moon. NASA image.)

Roosa stayed aboard the Command and Service Module “Kitty Hawk” while Shepard and Mitchell descended to the surface in the Lunar Module “Antares”. They landed in the Fra Mauro highlands, where Apollo-13 was supposed to land, and spent over 30 hours there — including over 9 hours exploring the surface.

I could go into various personal science fictional tie-ins to today’s space history, but I get tired of self-promotion. So I think today it’s best to let the day’s accomplishments stand on their own.

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A Space History Tragedy

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The date may not register with all of us every year, but few space enthusiasts — and probably few U.C. citizens — over thirty will ever forget the mishap that destroyed the Space Shuttle Challenger.

It’s hard to believe that it was 25 years ago today — January 28, 1986 — that the Challenger lifted off from Kennedy Space Center on mission STS-51L, and exploded a little over a minute into the launch profile.

To this day, I find it almost painful to watch the video of the explosion. Indeed, I find it hard to compose this post, even though I’ve known it was coming for a long time.

So I will just post this picture of the Challenger astronauts — Francis R. “Dick” Scobee, Michael J. Smith, Ellison S. Onizuka, Judith A. Resnik, Ronald E. McNair, Sharon Christa McAuliffe, and Gregory Jarvis — the way I like to remember them:


(STS-51L crew, leaving the Operations & Checkout Building. NASA image.)

Hopeful. Enthusiastic. Fearless.

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Is Science Fiction Becoming More Conservative?

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I don’t know that the question has a single “true” answer, but in this Pajamas Media article, SF legends Orson Scott Card* and Jerry Pournelle, along with relative newcomers Tom Kratman and Larry Correia, provide some interesting insights.

It was no surprise that Baen Books (for whom I read slush) should be mentioned so prominently, but I particularly liked this bit, from OSC:

Back when I cared, most of the writers of my generation were so extremely leftist in their formal opinions, and so extremely elitist in their practices, that it would be difficult to discern where they actually stood on anything. It’s as if the entire Tsarist aristocracy fervently preached Bolshevism even as they oppressed their peasants. But that view is based on observations back in the mid-1980s. Since then, my only exposure to their views has been the general boycott of mine. In short, I’m their Devil, but I have no idea who their God is anymore.

The last sentence is hyperbole, as I think Kratman, John Ringo, and a few other Baen authors may have better claim to being the real bugaboos of the SF left.

One last thought, speaking of becoming more conservative … or at least seeming more conservative: I thought last night’s State of the Union speech was quite good. I appreciated the tone and the balance, and look forward to seeing whether both continue.

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* Full Disclosure: OSC is a former employer of mine. I attended his “Literary Boot Camp” and later had the pleasure of reading slush for his magazine, Intergalactic Medicine Show.

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A Voyage[r] to Uranus

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Twenty-five years ago today — January 24, 1986 — the Voyager-2 spacecraft made its closest approach to the planet Uranus.


(Oberon, one of Uranus’s moons, photographed by Voyager-2. NASA image.)

Its flyby carried Voyager-2 to within 50,600 miles (81,500 km) of Uranus. In addition to taking images of the planet’s rings and known moons, Voyager-2 discovered ten previously unseen moons and two previously unknown rings.

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