The Expanse wins the Space Rocks Inspiration Award

If you've been paying attention to Space Rocks you'll know we've been over the moon to work closely with actor Steven Strait, aka James Holden of the Expanse among many, many other roles.

Earlier this year Steven, who also worked as a producer on the Expanse, was invited to the European Space Agency's Parabolic Flight training facility in Bordeaux for a day of training in microgravity -- a great way to explore the realities of spaceflight vs. the ways they're often depicted on TV, and we produced a nine-webisode series which you can watch right here.

So we were even more delighted to see Steven joining the Space Rocks stage at ESA's ESTEC Open Day, where he took to the stage twice: first, for a one-on-one with one of his biggest fans who is also an astronaut: Andreas Mogensen of the recent Huginn mission aboard the ISS. 

It was to our great delight that Andreas kindly presented Steven with the Space Rocks Inspiration award on our behalf. This is the second award we've given out, and as both an actor and producer on The Expanse there is no one better to accept an acknowledgement of The Expanse -- as both a book series and hit TV show -- and how it has elevated scientific awareness with its celebrated commitment to getting the science right wherever possible. 

It set the scene for a second session -- an exploration of the Science of the Expanse with ESA's Parabolic Flight Coordinator Neil Melville and theoretical astrophysicist Sera Markhoff, a member of the Event Horizon Telescope team that produced the first-ever image of a black hole. You can watch the full session here.

Congratulations Steven, or should we say: beltalowda!