In 1957, Arthur C. Clarke wrote a short story in which an astronaut on an orbiting space station happens to glimpse the dead wreckage of an alien spacecraft pass by.

In 1957, Arthur C. Clarke wrote a short story in which an astronaut on an orbiting space station happens to glimpse the dead wreckage of an alien spacecraft pass by. Nobody else sees the wreck and there is no chance the astronaut will see it again. The story encapsulates Clarke's science fiction: He loved outer space, and longed to be there; he dreamed of other civilizations in the universe, and wondered how we would encounter them; and he had a scientist's respect for evidence, weaving his fiction only from what is known or can be credibly speculated. Kingsley Amis said that the goal of a science fiction story is "to arouse wonder, terror, and excitement." Few writers attained that goal more often or more consistently than Clarke; few had as long a career, from his first paid story in 1945 to a 2007 novel (co-authored). In 1956 Clarke moved from his native England to Sri Lanka in order to spend his free time scuba diving, the closest he could get to the silence, weightlessness, and mystery of the great void. Arthur C. Clarke died in Colombo, Sri Lanka, on March 19. R.I.P.