Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay
With the new regime, I don’t have a lot of time to go into detail, but I think you have the gist of things by now. Simply choose one of the topics, and then brainstorm. Fiction and non-fiction; topical and evergreen.
This week’s prompts are all about space.
Yuri Gagarin
Sixty years ago next year, on 12 April 1961, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin was the first man in space.
Write an article about this historic event, or set a short story against it. Write about Yuri Gagarin or his home town. Write about the history of space travel. Do you have any memories of this event? If so, write about those and how amazing it was – and still is.
The space shuttle
Forty years ago next year, on 12 April 1981, the space shuttle Columbia was launched for the first time. Apparently, only two days later, on 14 April, it returned to earth. And it didn’t burn-up on re-entry. Or not this time, at least.
I remember seeing the space shuttle having a piggy-back ride on the back of an aeroplane. It visited Birmingham airport for a few days. In those days, we still called it Elmdon airport.
The RAF used Elmdon airport during the war, and apart from the space shuttle, Concorde also used to visit. I believe that it dropped by on its farewell flight as well. We could often go and see the Red Arrows there too.
So, you can see, just this one topic has reminded me of a few things. What does it prompt you to remember? Did you see the space shuttle having a piggy-back ride at all? What about the space shuttle disasters? What can you find out about those?
Apollo 16
Fifty years ago next year, on 16 April 1972, Apollo 16 departed the earth, destination the moon.
Do you remember this event? Do you remember any of the other Apollo spacecraft? What could you write about this?
Apollo 16 was apparently the 10th crewed mission in the US Apollo space program. How many missions have resulted in disaster? How many have been successful? What about the other nations involved in space exploration? What have they done?
Write an article about Apollo 16, about the Apollo space program, or about space exploration in general. Write something dystopian, set in the future.
You can write fact or fiction about space travel. And you can look at the history of space travel too. Or what about the future? What will we be witnessing then?
Over to you …
… and don’t forget to come back and let me know if and what you did, and how it fared.
