2008: Sir Arthur's final orbit

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So farewell Arthur C Clarke, the pioneering and prolific writer and futurist who has died at his home in Colombo aged 90. He was the last of Sci Fi's Big Three after Isaac Asimov and Bob Heinlein.

The Times obituary is here.

In a video message to mark his "90th orbit" last year, Sir Arthur said that he had no regrets and no more ambitions. His three final wishes were left unfulfilled: for peace in his adopted homeland, for mankind to kick its oil habit and for ET to pick up the phone.

As a writer, he was most famous for 2001: A Space Odyssey, both the novel and the 1968 film. He continued writing until the end, finishing his final book only a few days ago.

As a thinker, Clarke was credited with transforming the world telecommuniciations through his proposal back in 1945 that man should use geosynchronous satellites, satellites orbiting above a single spot on earth, as relay stations. It was an idea before its time.

Myriad weblogs are posting tributes today. "His name will be remembered as long as ply the lanes of space," says the Bad Astronomy blog.

The BBC website has a fine obituary: "He wrote story-lines for the comic-book hero, Dan Dare, inspired Gene Roddenberry to create Star Trek and posited Clarke's Law: "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." The Times obituarist recalls the three things of which Clarke was most proud: the anticipation of the satellite age, the 2001 book and film and the fact that he helped inspire Gene Roddenberry to create Star Trek.

Also worth a look are Clarke's own predictions for this century (until "history begins in 2100"), published by Reader's Digest in 2001. Among them: "2013 Prince Harry becomes the first member of the British royal family to fly in space."

And for a taste of his prose, a short story from 1949.