Fly me to the moon

Here's a photo competition for you ... what is this?
Well, it's not much of a competition, because I'm now going to tell you the answer. So if you want to have another think about it, don't keep reading ... If you've got this far, I'm guessing you're not that fussed about spending valuable time coming up with the answer (and, let's face it, why would you?!). Yes, this is (drum roll) the view from my spaceship earlier today.
And here's Captain Courageous...

Just tinkering with the controls to make sure we actually get somewhere. I know it might look like he's sitting on my foot, but he isn't really - it's just that the branch I'm traveling on is almost horizontal, so I'm resting my foot on a nearby branch! You're probably wondering where we were heading - so was I! Turned out that, according to Captain C, our destination was "The ... place ... with the pirates", which I then abbreviated to 'pirate planet', which he conceded was a good name for it.
The thing that surprised me most (let's face it, I'm not in the habit of jetting off to far-flung planets, and my inexperience really showed on this particular outing) was that when we actually arrived at our destination, we weren't inundated by pirates. In fact, I don't remember sighting a single one. Rather, we were almost overcome by a rather terrifying swarm of aliens. (What's the collective term for aliens?) I wouldn't be able to describe them, other than to say that they were persevering - they seemed to keep coming despite the fact that we were zapping them with our laser twig... (I'm no alientologist, that's for sure!)
Unfortunately, while we were on our journey, this fell off the ship:
There were two major issues with this. First of all, when it fell off, it hit my head on its way down. Thankfully, no medical attention was required (a relief, given that the chief medical officer was me, and my junior medic was the football we'd taken along for the ride) Secondly, whilst it might look to you much like any other branch one might find on a space ship, it was, in fact, a vital component, which required some attention before our return to earth could be attempted. (Thus the delay in leaving, necessitating much zapping of alien hoards)
Anyway, to cut a long story short, Captain Courageous lived up to his name, and had us back in the air in no time, and it seemed only a matter of seconds before we were back home. This was a big relief given the state of the weather.
It's all calmed down a bit now, we even went for a walk later (yes, at Calke Abbey again - they've done loads of clearing of crops in the garden). Captain Courageous has bathed and is now tucked up in bed. I'll leave you with a self-portrait he took after his bath. I might send it off with our 'Pirate Planet' press release...