For my birthday, I was lucky enough to receive a Star Trek box set containing the best Borg episodes from all seasons as voted for by Trekkies themselves.

One of the first I watched (resisting the urge to watch chronologically) was an episode called Endgame, the final episode (or 2 if you watched it on TV and they split it up) from the entire Voyager series.

Now I happen to think that this is pretty much the best you’re going to get – an absolutely classic and undoubtedly awesome piece of television which wraps up my favorite Star Trek series of them all. Some would argue it is too abrupt an end, but I think it is a good compromise.

I mentioned Voyager so gratuitous pictures of Seven of Nine are authorised

Anyway, back to the point of the post – after I proclaimed how much I liked the episode, a lot of other people piped in with their suggestions for what they thought constituted the best-ever episode of Star Trek. Here’s a run-down of the suggestions. (It’s well worth reading to the bottom).

There’s something really spectacular about a Shuttle launch at the best of times. A night launch, however, is particularly good to look at.

The last launch to the International Space Station, STS-130, lifted off last week. It featured the Space Shuttle Endeavour taking Node 3 (“Tranquility”) to the ISS, along with a cupola window for the astronauts to get some spectacular views of Earth (as well as making missions with the Canadarm 2 considerably easier).

This mission has also featured a first, where Twitter users were able to send questions to the astronauts which they then answered in a video conversation with Mission Control. Twitter is now truly out of this world!

Earlier on this month, the Space Shuttle Atlantis lifted off on STS-129, a mission to the International Space Station.

Its main goals were to provide numerous spare parts to the station; with the Shuttle fleet retiring in 2010, the ISS needs to be stocked up on replacement parts that are too large for other currently-available launch vehicles to carry.

Earlier this morning, I discovered a video on Vimeo compiled by the Space Shuttle Systems Engineering and Integration team. It features highlights of the launch of Atlantis, with video and photos taken from the ground, the Shuttle’s fixed cameras, and cameras mounted on the Solid Rocket Booster (SRB, the long white engines that are jettisoned during launch) and the external fuel tank (large orange construction that is ejected later and burns up in the atmosphere).

I have embedded the video below, along with some extra photos and the HD launch video broadcast live on NASA TV.

So earlier this week you may have seen my tweets or on the news about NASA’s launch of the Ares I-X test vehicle. I thought it would be great to have a look at the event now some of the telemetry is being processed.

An artist's concept of the future Ares I launch pad

I was hoping that NASA would come up with an HD video of the launch, but it seems we’ll have to wait a few more days for those. In the mean time, the Boston Globe has done one of its “Big Picture” features on the launch. The features are always excellent and this one is particularly good.

NASA recently announced that it has made available a free iPhone application for users to download. Not one to pass up on the latest hot app or on the latest space information, I had to give it a go.