Cardinal

This is a South Cardinal Class Two Solar Buoy. It's about 3 metres round the base and it weighs 6 tonnes. The inverted triangles on top and the yellow body over a black base show vessels that the safe passage is south of this marker.

A few hundred miles from here Tim Peake is getting ready to wander through to the ISS. Given that he set off from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 11:03 they've made good time. I was born before Sputnik was launched, the wallpaper in the bedroom I shared with my brother had a space rockets and satellites pattern. I remember watching Neil's small step and I've read any number of books about Project Gemini and then the Apollo programme. I remain in awe of the people and technologies which have made space exploration one of the defining endeavours of my generation. I blubbed like a bairn watching the lift-off this morning but I don't understand the parochial attitude of it being special because there is a Brit onboard - I'm pretty sure that the flights with Americans and Russians and anyone else were just as technically exacting. That said it's great that school children have an opportunity to look at this flight and think "I might be able to go onto space" - I think this is more likely than when Helen Sharman went to spend time on Mir despite the brilliant work she did with children upon her return.