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Should the urge take you, you could have popped in and watched the scientists at work in the Lander Operations Control Centre (LOCC) at the National Space Centre. Frantically running through all of the commands to be sent to  Beagle 2 using a Ground Test Model of the Beagle bot.

I just hope you didn't try and pop in to the LOCC when the really exciting stuff was supposed to be going on.  As Beagle touched down on the surface we couldn't be there because, as you might expect, the "worlds first publicly displayed control centre" was closed on Christmas Day and Boxing Day!   Mind you given the gnashing of teeth and the stamping of feet it's probably just as well we couldn't get in - scientists in a strop are not a pretty site!

But don't be too hard on the Beagliers -  getting a space ship to Mars isn't easy.  The United States and Russia spent billions trying to land a space probe on Mars. Now the two countries are gearing up for a new space race - who will be first to get people on Mars?

City Council to Help Space Centre Take Of

The National Space Centre is hoping to attract more visitors by building a manned space flight gallery next year.  So far funding for the new gallery has been promised from a private donor who has offered to pay a third of the £3.6 million cost; the Millennium Commission offering £1.2 million of lottery cash; and Leicester City Council who - despite being strapped for cash - are giving the Space Centre almost half a million pounds and loaning them another £100,000 or so.

See why the Centre needs improving on this incredibly low-tech BBC Virtual Tour of the Space Centre

Space School
Aged between 11 - 18 and got £260 to spare?  Then you could go to Leicesters very own Space School.  Held during the Easter and summer breaks, Space School is a week-long residential course based at Leicester University.  Classes includes space/astronomy talks and practical workshops.  It's your chance to find out how to become an astronaut in the space programme.

Close to the Edge
Travel to the edge of space where the sky is black above and blue below in the legendary MiG-25 "Foxbat"

Experience Zero-Gravity in the IL-76 MDK "Flying Laboratory."  Spend a day inside the Cosmonaut Training Centre at Star City using the simulators used by cosmonauts to prepare for space. 

Do all of the above and more with Incredible Adventures .  And while you're saving up you can fly a paper MIG (but probaby not to the edge of space unless you've got a really good throwing arm).

Visit the International Space Station
In April 2001 and 2002, Space Adventures' clients Dennis Tito and Mark Shuttleworth became the world's first privately-financed space explorers.

Now Space Adventures have secured a contract with the Russian Aviation & Space Agency (RASA) to fly two privately-funded explorers to the Space Station aboard a new Soyuz TMA spacecraft.   It will cost any prospective passengers a serious amount of money though.   Space Adventures have announced they will be charging $20m a person for the roughly 10-day trip.

Win a Trip into Space Enter UK company Starchaser Industries competition to win a sub-orbital flight into space. The lucky winner will join an experienced crew on board a Starchaser rocket entered into the international X Prize competition

Fly Me to the Moon
Can't get there alive?  Then just wait till you're dead.  For $995 Celestis Services will launch one gramme of your cremated remains into orbit around the Earth.  Or if your life insurance has a really big payout you might lke to consider the Lunar Service: send a sample of your remains into Lunar orbit, or land your ashes on the Moon for $12,500.

	Defenders of the Earth
Here in Leicester is what has been described as the most bizarre branch of the British state - the Near Earth Objects Information Centre - the UK government office dedicated to warning the public about the threat posed by asteroids and comets.

In a recent Spiked article Near Earth But Far Out Joe Kaplinsky argues that the thing most likely to generate popular myths about asteroid cover-ups, is the eccentric mission of the NEO Information Centre. And that trying to figure out why such an obviously unnecessary body exists might easily drive people to conspiracy theories....

The Final Frontier

Leicester lad Dominic Keating is boldly going where no-one has gone before in the new Star Trek series, Enterprise. Keating plays Lieutenant Malcolm Reed, the ships slightly weird loner (naturally - he is a Brit) weapons and tactical expert.  Master of British understatement, It was Reed who presented Captain Archer with the crew's new hand weapons explaining, "They have two settings, stun and kill. It would be best not to confuse them...."

The Outlanders - Leicester based Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Group meet on the first Friday of every month at "The Globe" on Silver Street in Leicester to have discussions, talks, readings, socialise and exchange ideas....they probably have a beer or two as well....

Moon Landings
Heroic images or NASA fraud?  At last conclusive proof from Stuff U Can Use.  Looks like the complex web of NASA lies is about to unravel!

UK Space Policy
"As our understanding of space grows, the commercial opportunities that it presents are becoming more widely recognised".  Oh yes - space, the final opportunity to make wads of cash....

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