StarStuff

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About Me

Hi, I'm Stuart Gary, I'm a journalist and broadcaster with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. I love science, especially the majesty and wonder of space, so I put together a weekly astronomy show for the ABC called StarStuff.

In my spare time I like to fly planes, practice karate and pistol target shooting and play around with my cars, a twin Turbocharged Falcon GT Interceptor and a DeTomaso Pantera GTS.

I’m vegan, a life member of the RSPCA and a supporter of several animal welfare organisations.

My other great passion is music which is understandable when you realise that I was a radio music jock long before I became a journalist. My record library contains tens of thousands of singles, albums, videos, CD’s and DVDs. These days that’s all stored in an 8 terabyte raid enclosure linked to a desk top PC at home. My tastes range from rock and grunge through to trance and new romantics. At the moment I’m listening to heaps of MGMT, William Control, Hawthorne Heights and Short Shack, but I have lots of time for the classics like Placebo and the early stuff from Silverchair, In fact Neon Ballroom is still my favourite album, and Emotion Sickness is still one of my two favourite songs (the other being William Control’s Death Club).

StarStuff is a great name for the show, but it works on more levels than just astronomy, it’s really cool for any science program because everything in the universe after the quark gluon plasma of the big bang is star stuff even the iron which makes your blood red was manufactured in the supernova explosions of stars. Carl Sagan said it best, we are all star stuff.


This blog is designed to allow me to publish all the things which can’t fit into StarStuff. There’s heaps of really interesting stuff out there and only a half hour window for the show, so each week becomes a battle to try and squeeze it all in. This blog lets me do that.

You can check out the show at the offical ABC StarStuff website:
http://www.abc.net.au/science/starstuff/

There's also an official ABC StarStuff Twitter feed: @abcstarstuff

And an official ABC Science website: http://www.abc.net.au/science/


The legal stuff: This is my personal blog. The views expressed in this blog are those of me only and not the Australian Broadcasting Corporation or its management. I do not claim ownership of any of the media in this blog. where possible credit and or source will always be given. If one of your photos or other media is submitted in this blog and you would like it removed please let me know.

Blogs I follow:

Theme by: Miguel
  1. Arianespace’s year-ending Ariane 5 flight is cleared for its December 19 liftoff Arianespace’s seventh and final Ariane 5 launch of 2012 has received its “green light” for liftoff with today’s successful launch readiness review performed at the Spaceport in French Guiana. The review is held prior to each Ariane 5 mission, ensuring that the heavy-lift launch vehicle and its payload are flight-ready, along with the Spaceport’s infrastructure and the network of downrange tracking stations. This approval clears the way for Ariane 5’s rollout tomorrow from the Final Assembly Building to Ariane Launch Complex No. 3 at the Spaceport – positioning it for liftoff on Wednesday, December 19 during a launch window that opens at 6:49 p.m. and continues to 8:08 p.m., local time in French Guiana. This flight will orbit a dual-passenger payload of the Mexsat Bicentenario telecommunications satellite for the Mexican Secretariat of Communications and Transport, along with the Skynet 5D secure military communications relay platform for the European operator Astrium Services, on behalf of the British Ministry of Defence. Skynet 5D was built by Astrium Satellites of Stevenage, England, and will be the 38th military payload lofted by the Ariane launcher family. Weighing approximately 4,800 kg. at launch and based on the Eurostar E3000 platform, it has an expected lifetime of 15 years and will be the 89th Astrium satellite launched by Arianespace. The spacecraft will be operated from a geostationary orbital position of 25 deg. East following its deployment. Mexsat Bicentenario was built by the Virginia, U.S.-based Orbital Sciences Corporation, based on its GEOStar-2 platform. This will be the fifth Mexican satellite launched by Ariane and the 23rd Orbital-built satellite to be transported by Arianespace. The spacecraft has a design lifetime of 16 years and weighs an estimated 2,935 kg. for liftoff. It will be positioned in geostationary orbit at 114.9 deg. West to provide communication services to Mexico and its surrounding waters. This year-ending Ariane 5 mission is designated VA211 in Arianespace’s flight numbering system, signifying the 211th Ariane family liftoff from the Spaceport in French Guiana. Its total payload performance is approximately 8,635 kg. – which includes the two satellite passengers and their integration hardware for Ariane 5’s dual-payload deployment system.

    Arianespace’s year-ending Ariane 5 flight is cleared for its December 19 liftoff

    Arianespace’s seventh and final Ariane 5 launch of 2012 has received its “green light” for liftoff with today’s successful launch readiness review performed at the Spaceport in French Guiana.

    The review is held prior to each Ariane 5 mission, ensuring that the heavy-lift launch vehicle and its payload are flight-ready, along with the Spaceport’s infrastructure and the network of downrange tracking stations.

    This approval clears the way for Ariane 5’s rollout tomorrow from the Final Assembly Building to Ariane Launch Complex No. 3 at the Spaceport – positioning it for liftoff on Wednesday, December 19 during a launch window that opens at 6:49 p.m. and continues to 8:08 p.m., local time in French Guiana.

    This flight will orbit a dual-passenger payload of the Mexsat Bicentenario telecommunications satellite for the Mexican Secretariat of Communications and Transport, along with the Skynet 5D secure military communications relay platform for the European operator Astrium Services, on behalf of the British Ministry of Defence.

    Skynet 5D was built by Astrium Satellites of Stevenage, England, and will be the 38th military payload lofted by the Ariane launcher family. Weighing approximately 4,800 kg. at launch and based on the Eurostar E3000 platform, it has an expected lifetime of 15 years and will be the 89th Astrium satellite launched by Arianespace. The spacecraft will be operated from a geostationary orbital position of 25 deg. East following its deployment.

    Mexsat Bicentenario was built by the Virginia, U.S.-based Orbital Sciences Corporation, based on its GEOStar-2 platform. This will be the fifth Mexican satellite launched by Ariane and the 23rd Orbital-built satellite to be transported by Arianespace. The spacecraft has a design lifetime of 16 years and weighs an estimated 2,935 kg. for liftoff. It will be positioned in geostationary orbit at 114.9 deg. West to provide communication services to Mexico and its surrounding waters.

    This year-ending Ariane 5 mission is designated VA211 in Arianespace’s flight numbering system, signifying the 211th Ariane family liftoff from the Spaceport in French Guiana. Its total payload performance is approximately 8,635 kg. – which includes the two satellite passengers and their integration hardware for Ariane 5’s dual-payload deployment system.

    2. 1 Notes
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