IT HAS been a good week for space.

There’s Major Tim Peake, being all daring and astronaut-y, blasting off to the International Space Station, reminding us all how thrilling and terrifying the whole notion of travelling into the deep, black, scary universe actually is.

His mission, following in the footsteps of chemist Dr Helen Sherman who, back in 1991, was the first British person in space, has re-ignited interest in Britain’s role in the space race.

There were parties all over the country on Tuesday to celebrate what some clever wit called The Great British Take Off, when a beaming Major Peake and his fellow astronauts completed the six hour journey on board the Soyuz rocket.

Space comedian Dara O’Briain and his expert partner ~Professor Brian Cox whipped up the viewing public into a frenzy with live shows and science centres all across the country, including our own in Glasgow, held packed programmes of activities and events.

It was exciting and fun and I bet astronaut has leapfrogged to the top of children’s career-choice wishlists again (so much better than ‘reality TV star’ or ‘full-time blogger’). It’s funny to think the children who watched Tim Peake this week might be the ones who finally make it to Mars.

And then, of course, there is Star Wars. The much-talked about twenty-third film in the long-running series that’s been going since the dawn of time (or it might just be the seventh) finally had its premiere in Los Angeles and by all accounts, it’s brilliant.

A ‘classic’, a ‘triumph’, ‘invigorating’, ‘exhilarating’ were just some of the words tearful critics, blown away by the mix of nostalgic drama and full-on action, bestowed upon the movie, which opens here this weekend.

I wasn’t much into space films when I was wee, although I did like Leia – here, finally, was a girl, saving the galaxy. AND she was princess.

My own boys are almost as excited about going to see Star Wars as they are about Christmas, and it will be as much fun to watch them discovering it all for the first time as it will be for us grown-ups to see what the film-makers have done with the storyline.

I reckon nostalgia will play a big part in who goes to see this – can it really be as good as the first one? (I mean the actual first one, which was, of course, really the fourth one, because the first one, which was the fourth to be shown, wasn’t very good. Oh, for heaven’s sake, keep up.)

Anyway, by all accounts, Chewbacca hasn’t aged a bit.