STARBASE LOG +1808.671728 Ms FSE

First Step Epoch: a real-world stardate

Humanity’s first step on the Moon began a new chapter in our history. First Step Epoch is my proposal for a stardate-inspired timekeeping system that counts every second since that moment.

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“Captain's log, stardate 41153.7. Our destination is planet Deneb Four, beyond which lies the great unexplored mass of the galaxy...”

Jean-Luc Picard, Star Trek: The Next Generation, “Encounter at Farpoint” (opens in a new tab)

A captain, a destination, and a timestamp from the future. Each log entry felt like a page from a history we hadn’t lived yet.

For our Starbase 430 Mission Log entries, I wanted some of that same feeling. I found my starting point in The Dragon De Monsyne’s explanation of After Epoch Astronauticum, or AEA (opens in a new tab). I’ve built on their idea with my own proposal: First Step Epoch.

From AEA to First Step Epoch

An epoch gives a timekeeping system its starting point. Choosing that point was the first decision I needed to make.

The Dragon De Monsyne drew inspiration from Apollo 11 but counted AEA from January 1, 1970 at 00:00:00 GMT, the Unix epoch.

I considered several milestones for FSE: the first atomic bomb detonation, Sputnik’s launch, Laika’s flight and tragic loss, Belka and Strelka’s safe return, or Yuri Gagarin’s historic orbit.

In the end, my choice was personal. I was born a few months before Apollo 11 launched and grew up as an American kid idolizing the Apollo crews. Armstrong’s first step captured the optimistic future I wanted Starbase 430 to reflect.

I set First Step Epoch’s zero to July 21, 1969 at 02:56:15 UTC, marking Armstrong’s first step onto the Moon (opens in a new tab).

Apollo 11 mission insignia: an eagle carries an olive branch above the lunar surface, with Earth in the black sky and APOLLO 11 across the top. Read about Apollo 11 on Wikipedia. (opens in a new tab)
Apollo 11 mission insignia. Image: NASA, via Wikimedia Commons (opens in a new tab). About the Apollo 11 mission (opens in a new tab).

Getting a feel for the units

FSE counts seconds (opens in a new tab). To make the numbers more manageable, I used metric prefixes (opens in a new tab), the same idea as grouping a thousand meters into a kilometer:

  • 1 kilosecond (ks): 1,000 seconds, or 16 minutes and 40 seconds.
  • 100 ks: about 27.8 hours.
  • 1 megasecond (Ms): about 11.6 days.
  • 10 Ms: about 115.7 days.
  • 1 gigasecond (Gs): about 31.7 years.

These comparisons helped me get a feel for the scale. A megasecond is about a week and a half, while a gigasecond is roughly a generation. I chose megaseconds for the Log labels because the longer whole-number count feels closer to the science-fiction timestamps that inspired them. Six decimal places let each label record individual seconds.

The units don’t depend on Earth’s rotation or orbit, so they would still be useful somewhere with a different day or year. We’re counting familiar seconds, just grouping them differently.

Reading a Starbase Log label

The Pablo retrospective carries this label:

STARBASE LOG +1808.227499 Ms FSE

  • + places the timestamp after our epoch; earlier dates get a minus sign.
  • 1808.227499 is the elapsed count, equivalent to 1,808,227,499 completed seconds.
  • Ms means megaseconds: units of one million seconds.
  • Six decimal places give the count one-second resolution.
  • FSE identifies the starting point: Armstrong’s first step onto the Moon.

For Pablo, that means November 7, 2026 at 11:20:45 a.m. in New York, or 16:20:45 UTC. I kept the familiar calendar date in the byline so readers don’t need to do any arithmetic.

Working with the numbers

Finding the interval between two entries

To find the time between two entries, I can simply subtract their FSE timestamps. The website-development entry has +1808.058619 Ms FSE, and the Pablo retrospective has +1808.227499 Ms FSE:

1808.227499 − 1808.058619 = 0.168880 Ms

Multiplying by a million gives 168,880 seconds, or 46 hours, 54 minutes, and 40 seconds, between their publication timestamps. Both labels use the same time scale and starting point, so there are no month lengths or time-zone changes to account for.

Counting every second

I wanted FSE to count every elapsed second, including leap seconds. That meant I couldn’t simply subtract two ordinary Unix timestamps (opens in a new tab), because Unix time leaves leap seconds out of its count.

Instead, I used International Atomic Time, or TAI (opens in a new tab), a continuous time scale based on atomic-clock measurements. UTC, the reference behind our everyday calendar dates, has included leap-second adjustments to stay close to Earth’s rotation. TAI gives FSE a continuous count through those adjustments.

The calculation is:

FSE seconds = TAI at the event − TAI at our chosen epoch

To calculate an FSE timestamp, I:

  1. Convert the event’s time and our epoch to TAI.
  2. Subtract the epoch from the event’s time to get elapsed seconds.
  3. Divide by 1,000,000 to express the result in megaseconds.
Worked calculation and historical precision

Here’s how the Pablo retrospective’s publication date became its FSE label.

  1. Start with the publication time. Pablo’s timestamp is November 7, 2026 at 11:20:45 a.m. in New York, equivalent to 2026-11-07 16:20:45 UTC.

  2. Express both instants in TAI. At Pablo’s publication time, TAI was 37 seconds ahead of UTC, giving 2026-11-07 16:21:22 TAI.

    Our epoch, July 21, 1969 at 02:56:15 UTC, becomes 1969-07-21 02:56:22.575311250 TAI. This is the same instant expressed on a different time scale, not a change to our starting point.

    The offsets differ because UTC’s relationship to TAI changed over time. Before 1972, it included fractional offsets and rate adjustments. I used the IERS historical conversion data (opens in a new tab) for both instants rather than just adding up later leap seconds.

  3. Subtract the epoch. The interval between those two TAI instants is 1,808,227,499.424688750 seconds.

  4. Convert to megaseconds. Dividing by 1,000,000 gives 1808.227499424688750 Ms.

  5. Format the label. Dropping the digits after the sixth decimal place, without rounding, gives STARBASE LOG +1808.227499 Ms FSE.

The calculation retains fractional seconds internally, but the label displays completed whole seconds. That is its display resolution, not a claim that we know the time of every historical event that precisely.

For timeline dates known only to a day or minute, I treat that whole interval as a window of uncertainty. I round the FSE value only as finely as gives the same result throughout that window, then mark it with ≈ and italics. Documented second-level times keep six decimal places without an approximation mark.

On the wide timeline, five-year labels show a uniform elapsed-time scale. A day-only marker sits at the center of its calendar day for placement; that does not imply the event happened at noon. I use a UTC calendar-day comparison window, which does not establish the original event’s time zone. On smaller screens, the cards stay in chronological order but their spacing is adjusted for readability.

Belka and Strelka’s return predates the historical UTC conversion data I use for publication dates. Its timeline value uses the NASA historical Delta-T estimate (opens in a new tab) to reconstruct an approximate atomic-rate time coordinate. I round these pre-1961 estimates to whole megaseconds; they are never used for precise Log labels.

This gives FSE the continuous count I wanted, using an Earth-based time reference. A clock traveling elsewhere could accumulate a different elapsed time, so I’m not treating it as a universal clock for every observer.

A timeline of scientific discovery

These milestones give the FSE count a human scale, tracing exploration and scientific discovery from the early space age to today. Familiar achievements become reference points for reading the numbers.

Each card starts with its FSE timestamp and ends with the familiar calendar date. Italic values marked ≈ are approximate; their precision reflects what the historical sources document.

On wider screens, the timeline shows elapsed time proportionally. On smaller screens, the cards form a compact chronological list, with spacing adjusted for readability.

  1. Approximately -281 Ms FSE

    First animals return safely from orbit (opens in a new tab)

    Belka and Strelka return alive from Earth orbit, demonstrating that animals could survive the journey into space and back.

  2. Approximately -261.089 Ms FSE

    First human in space (opens in a new tab)

    Yuri Gagarin orbits Earth aboard Vostok 1, opening the era of human spaceflight.

    Launched

  3. Approximately -128 Ms FSE

    The Big Bang’s afterglow discovered (opens in a new tab)

    Penzias and Wilson identify the cosmic microwave background, providing powerful evidence that the universe began in a hot, dense state.

    Published

  4. +0.000000 Ms FSE

    First step on the Moon (opens in a new tab)

    Armstrong steps onto another world, setting FSE’s zero point.

  5. Approximately +107 Ms FSE

    Most recent person to walk on the Moon (opens in a new tab)

    Gene Cernan reenters Apollo 17’s lunar module after the final moonwalk of the Apollo era.

  6. Approximately +169 Ms FSE

    Lucy sheds light on human origins (opens in a new tab)

    A 3.2-million-year-old skeleton discovered in Ethiopia provides remarkable evidence of how our early relatives walked upright.

    Discovered

  7. Approximately +284 Ms FSE

    First child born through IVF (opens in a new tab)

    Louise Brown’s birth demonstrates that fertilization outside the body can lead to a successful pregnancy, opening a new chapter in reproductive medicine.

  8. Approximately +340.8 Ms FSE

    Smallpox declared eradicated (opens in a new tab)

    Vaccination, surveillance, and international cooperation eliminate a devastating human disease, demonstrating what a worldwide scientific effort can achieve.

    Declared

  9. Approximately +499 Ms FSE

    Antarctic ozone hole findings published (opens in a new tab)

    British Antarctic Survey scientists reveal severe seasonal ozone loss above Antarctica, helping set the stage for international action to protect Earth’s atmosphere.

    Published

  10. Approximately +634.180 Ms FSE

    First close-up exploration of Neptune (opens in a new tab)

    Voyager 2 reaches Neptune, revealing intricate rings, powerful storms, and an unexpectedly active moon, Triton.

    Closest approach

  11. Approximately +709 Ms FSE

    First planets confirmed beyond our Solar System (opens in a new tab)

    Aleksander Wolszczan and Dale Frail report planets orbiting a pulsar, establishing that our Solar System is not the only planetary system.

    Published

  12. Approximately +851 Ms FSE

    First mammal cloned from an adult cell (opens in a new tab)

    Dolly’s birth demonstrates that the genetic material in a specialized adult cell can support the development of a whole animal, changing our understanding of cellular development.

    Born

  13. Approximately +1046 Ms FSE

    Exoplanet discoveries reach 100 (opens in a new tab)

    Astronomers announce a planet orbiting Tau¹ Gruis, bringing the reported tally to 100 and revealing a growing diversity of planetary systems.

    Announced

  14. Approximately +1060 Ms FSE

    Human Genome Project completed (opens in a new tab)

    An international collaboration completes a landmark human reference sequence, opening new ways to investigate biology, disease, and our shared ancestry.

    Announced

  15. Approximately +1150 Ms FSE

    First comet samples returned to Earth (opens in a new tab)

    Stardust delivers dust collected from comet Wild 2, bringing material from an ancient Solar System body into laboratories on Earth.

    Returned

  16. Approximately +1287.3 Ms FSE

    Ancient DNA reveals our Neanderthal connections (opens in a new tab)

    Researchers reconstruct a draft Neanderthal genome, revealing evidence of interbreeding with modern humans and opening a new way to explore our shared past.

    Announced

  17. Approximately +1397 Ms FSE

    Exoplanet catalog reaches 1,000 worlds (opens in a new tab)

    The Extrasolar Planets Encyclopaedia lists a thousand worlds, showing how rapidly exploration beyond our Solar System has expanded.

    Reported

  18. +1456.383298 Ms FSE

    First direct detection of gravitational waves (opens in a new tab)

    LIGO detects ripples from merging black holes, opening a new way to observe the universe.

    Detected

  19. Approximately +1569 Ms FSE

    First image of a black hole released (opens in a new tab)

    A worldwide network of radio telescopes reveals the shadow of the black hole in galaxy M87, turning an extraordinary prediction into an observable image.

    Released

  20. +1678.393118 Ms FSE

    First asteroid-deflection demonstration (opens in a new tab)

    DART impacts Dimorphos, demonstrating a technique for changing an asteroid’s orbit.

    Impact

· Timeline reference date · +1808.600654 Ms FSE

Following the trail

The Dragon De Monsyne’s page started this journey, and I’m grateful that the archived explanation of AEA (opens in a new tab) is still available. FSE is my own variation, but their idea gave me a different way to think about time.

If you’d like to explore further:

The BIPM references earlier in this article explain the units and time scale, and each timeline heading links to its historical source.

For me, FSE connects an everyday habit with something that still inspires me. Every Log entry counts forward from humanity’s first step onto another world. I like having that reminder of what curiosity and determination can accomplish.