I learnt to fly a spaceship in just nine weeks

After the Columbia Space Shuttle disaster, American astronaut Edward Lu had just nine weeks to learn how to fly the Soviet-era Soyuz spacecraft. That's no mean feat: most people take at least a year to accomplish this. And he had to do all his training in the Russian language.

Once he had made it to the International Space Station, how did he cope living in a confined, highly unusual environment with just one other human for six months? What was it like being someone’s best man when the bride and groom were separated by hundreds of kilometres? What did really happen with that ‘Space Shuffle’ card trick? And why did seeing the craters on the Moon prompt Ed to become an asteroid hunter?

Presenter: Asya Fouks

Producer: Radek Boschetty

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(Photo: Astronaut Edward T. Lu is pictured wearing a white Extravehicular Mobility Unit (EMU) spacesuit in the Quest airlock on the International Space Station. Credit: NASA)