Michael Foale talked to the children from the space station

He fielded questions from 10 and 11-year-olds who watched as he demonstrated weightless cartwheels on a screen at Sheffield Hallam University.

The children's questions ranged through experiments he was doing to his eating and sleeping arrangements.

Mr Foale also had to explain how he deals with his bodily waste.

The question was broached by 10-year-old Bethany Homar from Pye Bank School in Sheffield.

It was so good that I really want to be a space mechanic now Lee Bell

Mr Foale told her it was put in a disposal can and ejected into the Pacific Ocean.

Bethany said: "Just being able to talk to somebody in space is very exciting."

Lee Bell, 10, from Mallard Primary School, in Doncaster, asked Mr Foale: "When you were at school did you always want to be an astronaut?"

Mr Foale, who is originally from Louth, Lincolnshire, said he had wanted to be one since he was six-years-old.

Lee said later: "I thought it was amazing. It was so good that I really want to be a space mechanic now.

"Before I just wanted to be a normal mechanic."

National network

During his 20 minute live link on Thursday, Mr Foale also reported that he had just been watching a large oil fire in Iraq.

The video conference was organised to mark the launch of England's new national network of Science Learning Centres.

This is a �51m initiative by the Department for Education and Skills and the Wellcome Trust to improve training resources for the country's science teachers.

Mr Foale, who was born in 1957, started working for the United States space programme in Houston after studying physics at Cambridge University.

He is one of NASA's leading astronauts and one of their most experienced space walkers.