REVIEW: Tim Peake’s stories of life in space entertain and inspire – Grampian Online

British astronaut Tim Peake took to the stage in Aberdeen's Music Hall and provided a fascinating insight into his life journey that ultimately saw him fulfil his ambition of travelling to space.

Peake was in the north-east on Wednesday evening and delighted a near sold-out audience with his stories of travelling to and living on the International Space Station (ISS) and the challenges that were overcome to get there.

Tim Peake My Journey to Space is his first UK tour and the crowd of all ages were treated to astounding photos from his time orbiting Earth, never-before-seen footage and unprecedented access on what it takes to become an astronaut for the European Space Agency (ESA).

His presentation chronicled his life from growing up in Chichester as a child and young man with ambitions, his career in the Army and as a test pilot, his mission that took him to the ISS and what the future of space travel will hold.

Dressed in his distinctive ESA blue suit, Peake outlined that growing up he thrived in the environment of the Army cadets and knew that he wanted a career that would take him to the skies as a pilot.

He joked that some of his life has been similar to that of the early Tom Cruise movies with the first being Cocktail when he worked in a bar to help pay for a trip to Alaska. That expedition proved to be the spark for the adventures that were to come.

He then undertook his training for the Army at Sandhurst and became a pilot and later instructor during his time in the armed forces. He served for 17 years reaching the rank of Major. After leaving the army he became a test pilot.

It was during this time that he explained that Top Gun was the Cruise film that best reflected his life.

He was then successful in gaining a place in ESA's astronaut training programme beating thousands of applicants.

His training took him underwater and to caves in Sardinia which he said were ideal conditions to study how humans react to living in extreme conditions with complete isolation and gave them a taste of what they could expect on the ISS.

On his launch day on December 15, 2015, Peake said his biggest worry was leaving his wife Rebecca and sons behind and if he would return to them.

He showed on board footage of himself and crew mates Yuri Malenchenko and Tim Kopra as the Soyuz rocket took off from Kazakhstan.

He gave insight into how they came across the first significant problem during the mission when the docking navigation system failed and they had to do it manually to finally reach the ISS.

Peake said when he got on the space station he was surprised to see a bacon sandwich and cup of tea waiting for him and was if he had just arrived home.

He explained what life aboard the ISS was like, the work schedule, the fun moments, how he went to the toilet and slept and how he managed to complete the London Marathon.

His highlight of the mission was the spacewalk.While carrying it out he said they arrived early at the circuit breaker they had to fix and mission control told them to hang around for 10 minutes. As he looked out into space he said it was the most remarkable 10 minutes of his life.

However, it was not without its issues as water leaked into the helmet of his crewmate Tim Kopra and they were called back into the space station.

He explained it was mixed emotions when he had to leave the ISS after six months as he was leaving such a remarkable and interesting place but was soon to be reunited with his family.

He detailed the highly dangerous part of the mission that is re-entry into earth's atmosphere and the extreme heat that their capsule experienced. He joked that he was smiling on the news reports when he landed but was feeling awful inside as the gravity pulled down on his body again.

He then had to get used to living on Earth again and reconnected with nature after living in the confines of the ISS.

The future of space travel was touched on with astronauts returning to the moon and he believes space travel to Mars is closer than we think.

Peake's presentation was full of information and his personal stories and humour added a human element to complement the technical aspects.

A collection of photos that he took from the ISS were featured which included the orange hue of the Sahara Desert, the striking green of the Northern Lights and the white tops of the Himalayas.

Peake informed and entertained during the evening and he is bound to have inspired the many young budding astronauts in the audience wearing NASA T-shirts with dreams of following in his footsteps.

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REVIEW: Tim Peake's stories of life in space entertain and inspire - Grampian Online