Living in space

The first crew arrived at the International Space Station (ISS) 25 years ago. Since then, almost three hundred people from some 20 nations have visited the orbiting laboratory. If you were born after November 2000, for your entire life, there has always been someone living in space.

In our conversations astronauts Tim Peake and Nicole Stott share their experiences of life on the ISS.

“It felt like I was coming to a second home when I got there, almost immediately,” Nicole tells us. “Floating and flying and having that extraordinary view out of the window, it’s like nothing else.”

Nasa’s latest venture, Artemis II, is due for launch in the next few months. The ten-day mission will carry four astronauts further than any human has gone before, in a loop far beyond the Moon. It’s the latest stage of the US-led plan to eventually land humans on the lunar surface for the first time since 1972.

To discuss the future of space exploration, we bring together astronaut Mike Massimino, he’s flown to space twice and starred (as an astronaut) in The Big Bang Theory. We also hear from former Nasa researcher and AI expert, Kiri Wagstaff, and Les Johnson, he was a senior engineer at Nasa and is now the CEO of Infinite Frontiers Consulting.

Presenter: Luke Jones
BBC producer: Isabella Bull
Boffin Media producer: Richard Hollingham
Editors: Arja Haikonen and Harriet Oliver
An Boffin Media production in partnership with the BBC OS

(Photo: Astronaut Tim Peake Credit: Tim Peake)