Tuesday 19 July 2022
Yesterday was another busy day (a typical COSPAR Assembly day, in fact), starting early with the Interdisciplinary Lecture given by Thérèse Encrenaz on planetary atmospheric evolution. If you missed it, don’t worry, you’ll be able to watch it in a few hours on the Assembly platform.
Exceptionally, there were two interdisciplinary lectures yesterday, the second one being at lunch-time on the SmallSat Revolution, given by Amal Chandran (LASP, University of Colorado, Boulder)—with a surprise film that you can now see on our YouTube channel.
So much excitement at the Opening & Awards Ceremony! We were treated to a wide-ranging programme, starting with a film tracing the history of astronomy in Greece, and then the legendary Maria Farantoúri singing Mikis Theodorakis.
There was a tribute to Vangelis, and we even saw Brian May, guitarist of the rock group Queen (his day job), who had recorded a special message for us and shared a new song. All this, and the Awards too, with very personal acceptances, including “double happiness” for Wu Ji, recipient of the International Cooperation Award and grandfather for the second time!
And during the Opening Reception, some of us enjoyed cheese & olives in the courtyard, or wine & Webb in the Exhibition area. 
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