![]() The AX-2 mission is one in a lineup of missions that Axiom Space and NASA hope will continue to spur private sector participation in spaceflight - particularly in low-Earth orbit, where the space station lies. Saudi astronaut Rayyanah Barnawi (far left), former NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson, investor and pilot John Shoffner, and Saudi astronaut Ali AlQarni wave before being brought to the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with the Crew Dragon spacecraft for launch from pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center on in Cape Canaveral, Florida. The spacecraft should dock with the orbiting laboratory at 9:24 a.m. The crew is expected to spend the next 16 hours aboard Crew Dragon as it free flies through Earth’s orbit, making careful maneuvers to align itself with the International Space Station. Weather officials ultimately gave the all-clear for launch, however, and SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket roared to life, carrying the Crew Dragon capsule and its four passengers toward orbit. Florida is entering its summer wet season, making pristine conditions for rocket launches slightly more challenging to find. ![]() The crew boarded the SpaceX rocket Sunday afternoon as weather officials kept a close eye on thunderstorms. Called AX-2, the mission is making history as stem cell researcher Rayyanah Barnawi becomes the first woman from Saudi Arabia to travel to space. Their journey, put together by the Houston-based company Axiom Space, marks the second all-private mission to the orbiting outpost. The crew is embarking on a weeklong stay aboard the International Space Station. Now, I’ve compiled a list of some YA space opera recommendations! Each one is tailored to different types of readers/tastes, because I firmly believe there’s something for everybody, even if sci-fi isn’t normally your thing.A SpaceX rocket carrying a decorated former NASA astronaut and three paying customers took off from Florida Sunday afternoon. (Doesn’t mean I’ll love it–there’s good and bad books in every genre, of course–but I’ll certainly read it.) So now, if you say “space opera,” there’s a good chance that I’ll immediately want to read it. Now, I know full well that it’s not exclusive to space opera, but everything from Star Wars to Aurora Rising has a cast of strange and distinct characters that come to see themselves as a family, and I’ve always loved the theme of finding your tribe of weirdos. And as someone who’s been something of an outcast for the better part of my life, I’m drawn like a magnet to any kind of found-family tropes. Even though fantasy has virtually no limits as far as making up universes goes, there’s just something about about flying through the vast reaches of space and traveling to strange worlds that has always appealed to me. There’s a multitude of reasons why I’m drawn to it. And I was raised on a steady diet of Star Wars, so it was bound to happen eventually. Sci-fi has only become my favorite book genre in the past…six or seven years for a while, I was mostly drawn to fantasy, but after reading Tony DiTerlizzi’s Search for WondLa trilogy, there was no going back. Guardians of the Galaxy is another widely-known example of space opera, and from= the world of literature, Dune and Foundation are some of the most well-loved space opera classics. (What more could you possibly want?) Although it’s probably not *the original* space opera, it’s influenced a huge chunk of space opera/sci-fi media for the last 40-ish years. Star Wars is often used as the quintessential example of a space opera–dogfights in space, romance, strange worlds, and (amazing) lightsaber duels. And, as you probably can figure out, it’s usually set in space or on a distant planet. (Commonly referred to in many of my posts and reviews as “ space misfits.”) More often than not, there’s some light elements of fantasy, sometimes as placeholders to explain the workings of the universe. A lot of space opera media that I’ve consumed tends to throw in a ragtag bunch of characters with nothing in common together, and then throws them into an adventure of epic proportions. There’s often adventures at a breakneck pace, intergalactic war or conflict, strange planets/other locations, and drama between a set of characters. It tends to focus less on the heavy science/physics of the universe it’s in, and more on aspects such as plot and characters. In all forms of media, space opera is a subgenre of science fiction. ![]() So first off, what is space opera anyway?
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