Tim Peake and a Space Make Blue Peter

Today's Blue Peter is all about... HE CHUCKLES

Sorry, as I was saying, today's Blue Peter is all about...

-Whoa! This is so cool.

-Barney, I'm trying to introduce the show.

I know what it is. It's all about space and it's awesome.

-I was going to...say that.

-Hey, Lindsey, look at this!

-HE CHUCKLES What?

-I found some space pants.

HE CHUCKLES

-Hello!

-Hi!

And welcome to our out-of-this-world Blue Peter space special

from the Science Museum right here in London.

-I'm taking that home with me.

-You can't.

-OK.

Today's show, it's ASTRONAUT to be missed.

Ooh, I knew you were going to do that.

I couldn't have PLANET better myself.

-Planned it?

-No, you need a D in it.

-It doesn't work otherwise. Let's move on.

-Mm, let's.

Over the last year, Blue Peter has been on an intergalactic mission

to bring you all things space.

We've taken all the best bits and put them together

to make a sort of specially spacey sort of show,

-and it's going to be exciting, so...

-That's right.

So, first, let's have a look at a spacey challenge

-I took on last year.

-It's not the one where you're upside down,

-is it?

-It is.

-That's my favourite.

In 2015, astronaut Tim Peake blasted off into space

to live on the International Space Station.

Hello, Barney, and hi to Blue Peter.

For six months, he was living, sleeping, eating,

working and performing experiments in conditions of weightlessness.

So, to experience what life is like for Tim,

I'm going to need to spend some time in space.

Problem is, I'm struggling to find the International Space Station.

'And...cut!'

It's not really working, is it?

No.

OK, I can't go into space, but there is a way of experiencing

a big part of it without even leaving the Earth's atmosphere.

To do it, I've had to travel to France

because this special plane

can recreate weightlessness.

We've all seen Tim and other astronauts floating in space,

but what causes this to happen?

Well, it's all to do with falling.

Here comes the science.

The Earth's gravity pulls everything towards its surface,

including the International Space Station.

But because the Space Station

is travelling so fast around our planet,

its fall matches the curve of the Earth,

and that's what stops it dropping to the ground.

Just like the Space Station,

the astronauts inside are falling at the same speed,

and this makes everything appear to float.

And that's where this plane comes in.

It's going to perform a series of steep climbs and descents.

Every time the plane goes over the peak of the curve,

everyone and everything on board will start to float,

just like Tim does.

From the outside, it looks like any other plane.

Just like on the inside,

until you realise that the other half of the plane

is a massive padded room,

and it's through there that I'll get to experience weightlessness.

I am so excited.

But, before I get to fly, there's some important work to do.

Weightlessness can cause big changes to astronauts and their kit,

so this plane is used to find out how space affects them.

So, I'm going to be joined by this group of scientists

who are all busy preparing all the experiments

that they need to take up and test during the flight.

Ulrich's team are the only ones on board

who are going to be conducting a test

on the human body during the flight.

-We are doing an experiment on the heart...

-Ah.

..because the heart and the vessels do not work the same way in space

as they do on ground.

Christina's team are testing a new robot.

We'll take soil from an asteroid and keep it in a canister,

so scientists can bring the canister back to Earth to study it.

With the experiments prepped, it's time for me to get ready.

Before we take off, there's one final thing left to do,

because this isn't going to be like any other flight.

Some people call it the vomit comet,

and that's because I think it can make you pretty sick.

So, I've come to visit the medical team.

They've got a little injection they're going to put in my arm,

and, hopefully, that will mean I won't throw up.

Wish me luck.

Ooh!

When you become a Blue Peter presenter,

these are the days, these are the moments

that you actually dream about.

This is what it's all about, because, very soon,

I'm about to feel exactly what Tim Peake feels

when he's up there in space.

It's so special, and I cannot wait.

Do you know what? That is one of the coolest things I've ever done...

-So jealous.

-..in my life. It was so cool.

Part two coming later in the show,

-so make sure you keep watching, cos I go upside down.

-Amazing.

Now, though, it's time for the badge wall,

except it's a bit of a different badge wall because, well,

-we don't have the badge wall with us.

-No.

What we do have, though, is your post

all floaty, like it's in space.

-Or on a washing line.

-And guess what?

-Radzi's joined us.

-Aw!

-Hey, Radz.

-Hey, Radz.

-Good to see you, mate. Missed you.

-Good of him to come.

-Have you done something with your hair?

-Let's head down this way.

I want to show you this bit of post from Aidan.

Aidan's six, and if you have a look really closely,

-he's made his very own solar system.

-That's very clever.

Aidan, I can't think how long this took you, but it's amazing,

so you've got your very own BP badge.

And if we move this way down the spacey washing line,

this is from Nikita, who's nine,

and she's done this incredible picture of the Earth.

There's a little rainbow. There's even the moon up there.

And she says, on the back, that she likes to keep

the environment nice and clean

and she wants to save our planet from pollution.

Well, you have got a Green badge on its way to you. Well done.

Badges are on the way to the canvas brothers. Look at these.

-Is that their names?

-It is now. How good are they?

I love this one with the ship and the moon.

-Oh!

-That's amazing, isn't it?

We should hang these in the BP office, shouldn't we?

That's happening. They're brilliant, boys. Well done.

Blue Peter badges on the way. We've got all sorts here.

-We've got poems. Anna sent us one there.

-Wow!

And I have to show you this one.

In fact, I'm going to take it off our spacey washing line to show you.

-Ooh, it must be special.

-So, every week on the show,

we show you how to make something.

It's called a Blue Peter Make, and Luke has been inspired by that.

As you can see, he's on the back.

There's a nice photo of Luke. Hi, Luke.

He's made his very own space scene,

and he talks you through it step-by-step.

This is a booklet - How To Make A Space Scene.

-Here's what you're going to need.

-That's even what we do on the show.

-And inside, all the pictures of how you put it together.

-Oh, stop it.

Luke, it's genius. You need to be a TV presenter.

-Come work for us.

-Blue Peter badge on the way to you.

You could be the fourth presenter.

Thank you for getting in touch and sending us your stuff.

Now, over the past year,

we've been following the story of a very special person.

-Thank you so much, Barney. Thank you.

-Yeah, not you.

-Oh.

This guy's even more special.

You ARE special, but he's been to space.

It's Tim Peake, the British astronaut.

Here's a look back at his story. What a ledge.

In September 2014, we launched a competition

to design a patch for Tim Peake to wear in space,

and Troy was the winner.

Oh, wow! That's... I love the apple. That's amazing.

Before Tim went up,

I travelled to the European Astronaut Centre

in Germany to see how he prepared for the mission.

-Wow. It's like the ultimate den, isn't it?

-It certainly is, yeah.

So, welcome to Node 2. The Space Station flies that way.

-That's forward.

-Yeah.

-And that's Earth-facing. That's down.

So, the most important thing about Node 2, of course -

-it's where we sleep, so let me show you the crew quarters.

-Amazing.

-So, you wear it like a jacket, really?

-That's right, yeah.

You normally Velcro it to the wall and step in it.

If you don't strap yourself in,

you'll just float around the place while you sleep.

Yes, and your arms will naturally float up in front of your face.

In fact, some astronauts have reported being woken up

by their own arm hitting them in the face

because it's just floating around.

-What about food? Where does that come from?

-Yes.

Food is mostly tinned food. Fresh food's very hard to come by.

Whenever we get a supply vehicle, maybe there'll be a small amount

of fresh food on there if we're lucky.

Tim, I'll let you get back to your training.

You've got so much to do before you launch,

-but thank you so much for talking to me.

-Thanks very much, Barney.

And then, a few months later,

at 11.03 on the 15th of December 2015,

Major Tim Peake blasts off,

complete with his mission patch designed by Blue Peter viewer Troy,

to take his place on the International Space Station,

where he'll be living and working for a total of six months.

And in January 2016,

I got to go to mission control to see how Tim was doing.

Since he lifted off, Britain has been gripped by Tim's mission,

and I am, too,

so to be given the chance to see behind the scenes of mission control

is a real privilege.

Now, you may recognise this place from all the space movies

that you've seen, but this isn't a movie set.

This is the real thing.

This is the control centre for the Columbus module

that Tim Peake is inside right now in space.

The International Space Station speeds around the Earth

at over 17,000mph,

so it takes a team of flight directors down on the ground

to make sure everything runs smoothly in his module.

And the first person I'm going to meet is one of them.

-Can you tell us what a flight director does?

-Yeah.

I mean, it's a pretty interesting

and cool thing that we are doing here.

We are in control of this module,

so we are responsible to maintain everything

which is going on in this module.

And we are also telling Tim what kind of experiments he has to do.

That is our job.

This is the position controlling, actually,

the modules or sending commands, opening valves,

controlling the temperature that the astronauts are feeling,

that the atmosphere, the oxygen that they are breathing is OK.

On the 15th of January this year,

Tim Peake became the first British European Space Agency astronaut

to perform what the guys here call an EVA,

or a spacewalk to you and me.

When they do a spacewalk,

-that then goes somewhere else, doesn't it?

-Yeah.

I mean, this is being controlled from Houston, which is in America,

and that is the main control centre for the Space Station.

Tim and his crewmate had to stop their spacewalk early

because one of their helmets was leaking, so things DO go wrong,

and it's the mission director

who is responsible for making sure Tim is OK.

For the Columbus module, that's Berti.

-So, you're in charge.

-Yes, I am.

Are you happy with what he's been doing in space?

Oh, he's fantastic. He's a fantastic team worker.

He's always in a good mood.

There's always many tasks he has to do.

Each minute is planned out in his day.

How do you communicate with Tim?

-Cos it's not like you can just pick up the phone.

-But he can.

When there's a certain coverage with the satellites,

he can pick up the phone and call me on my mobile,

and he calls me in my office.

-That's really cool, isn't it - to get a call from space?

-Yes.

Every Thursday around midday,

the control centre here in Munich gets in touch

with the International Space Station to transfer information

and just make sure everyone's OK.

Wait a minute. Today's Thursday.

It's around midday.

I can't quite believe I'm saying this,

but the team here have allowed me

to sit in on one of their crew conferences.

-ON PHONE:

-'Yes, this is Houston. Are you ready for the conference?'

And we are ready.

I don't know why, but as we wait for the call to come through,

I'm really nervous.

And then, all of a sudden,

I get the once-in-a-lifetime chance to talk to space.

-ON VIDEO:

-'Munich space to ground 44.'

Tim, it's Barney. It's so good to see you. How are you?

Hello, Barney, and hi to Blue Peter.

-How is it up there?

-Barney, life on board is wonderful.

We've already had two EVAs,

one of which I was able to go outside the Space Station on.

Being kept very busy, and, of course,

when we do get the odd five minutes' break,

just going to the windows

and looking down on planet Earth is absolutely spectacular.

Obviously, you're wearing the Blue Peter badge.

We'd love to see what would happen to that badge

if it was to be in an anti-gravity environment.

Can you float that for us?

I've got another Blue Peter badge for you here, actually,

so I'm going to put that up by the camera

and show you what happens.

It's just going to float around.

Now, the thing with small objects like this

that don't have much mass is they float around really easily.

You know, you let go of them for two minutes

and look away and they're gone. They'll go all over the place.

Listen, it's been so good to speak to you,

and, yeah, we'll see you when you land.

-Thanks a lot.

-Fantastic, Barney. Great speaking to you, too.

And, yeah, look forward to seeing you when I get back. Bye, now.

That was one of the coolest things I have ever seen

on Blue Peter. But all good things come to an end,

and after spending 186 days in space,

on the 18th of June, it was time for Tim to come back down to Earth.

It's been such an amazing journey to be a part of. And look behind us.

That is the actual spacecraft that brought Tim Peake back to Earth.

-I love how excited you are today.

-It's awesome.

-Stay calm.

And if you look behind us, you can actually see scorch marks,

burn marks up the side,

and that's from where it re-entered our Earth's atmosphere.

-It's amazing.

-It's awesome.

I mean, if you think they had to slow it down from 180mph

to 13mph, it needed a pretty big parachute to do that.

And it is big. If you look up there,

you can see a parachute the size of two tennis courts.

And in the side of it is like a window

where you can see exactly where Tim Peake sat.

-I want one of these.

-You can't have one.

-OK.

Tim Peake is such a legend, he's such a hero of ours,

so we were very lucky when he joined us in the BP studio.

-Hello, Tim.

-Hello, Lindsey.

Welcome to Blue Peter. It's very exciting.

I think I've got to touch you just to make sure...

Yeah, you are actually in the BP studio.

This is amazing.

Can I say, the badge looks great on you, as well.

Thank you very much.

Is this the badge that you took into space with you?

I wish it was, but it's not. It's back.

It has landed safely, but it's in NASA in Houston,

and it's waiting to be given back to me when I get back there.

I love it. I love that it had to fly back separately.

-Little VIP Blue Peter badge.

-Absolutely.

-It's amazing.

Now, of course, we were so inspired by your journey into space -

it was fantastic - but we weren't the only ones.

Have a look at our space fans today. Hello, space fans.

-ALL:

-Hello!

-Hey! Hi, guys.

-We've invited them into

the Blue Peter studio, and I've got to say,

they're showing you up a little bit - these outfits.

I've been completely upstaged. They're fantastic.

They're wonderful. I absolutely love them.

I wish you'd worn these leggings into space.

That would have been quite a look for you, Tim. Amazing.

-I should have run the marathon in those.

-Yeah, exactly.

Now, you've all got burning questions, haven't you?

Kick us off, Eden. Off you go.

What everyday things did you miss when you were in space?

Wow. Well, everyday things - friends and family the most.

That's what you miss, because you're kind of detached from Earth.

But, actually, you miss the fresh air.

You miss being able to go out for a run,

the trees and the forests. I love the outdoors.

I love cycling and hiking and stuff, so I really missed that.

We've got another question here.

If you could have stayed in space any longer, would you have stayed?

I would have loved to, yes. And when I got on board,

I was there with Scott Kelly and Misha Kornienko,

and they were nine months into a year-long stay on board.

But they were in great shape, really good condition,

and I thought to myself, "Wow.

"Yeah, we can really live and work in space for a long time."

-I'd have loved to.

-Well, we're glad you're back

cos you're in the Blue Peter studio.

We've got a little question on video for you here.

Hi, Tim. My name is Zainab

and my question is

what was your favourite thing to do

while you were in space

to pass the time?

Ah, great question.

You know, there wasn't a huge amount of free time,

but when we did have any time,

I would love to go to the Cupola window,

and that's the biggest window we have on the Space Station

and it faces planet Earth,

and that's where I would take my photographs.

It was the best thing ever.

That's amazing. We've got another question here.

How tiring was it to do the marathon in space?

It was tiring, and, you know, I thought I was going to do it

in a longer time than I did, and people said, "Wow!

"You know, you ran that really fast. You must have felt really good."

And I said, "The only reason I was running so fast

"is because my shoulders hurt so much wearing this harness

"that pulled me down onto the treadmill."

And so, halfway through, I realise, "I'm going to have to go faster

"because I need to finish as quickly as I can."

Cos I did a marathon here on planet Earth,

so I wonder how different that feels.

I didn't have sore shoulders. Just legs.

Yes, I know, but it would be interesting.

Maybe I'll get to do the London Marathon

-in another year's time, so...

-I'll do it with you.

-OK.

-I'll join you again.

-Sounds good.

We've got another question over here.

What was it like going to the loo in space?

Going to the loo in space?

It's surprisingly easy and ordinary,

but it's all thanks to a switch which turns on a big fan,

and that uses airflow

and it keeps everything going in the right direction, yeah.

-Otherwise, it would get very messy.

-OK.

On that note, we're going to move on to something a little bit different.

-We thought that we'd put you on the spot, Tim.

-OK.

-We're going to play a little game, if you're up for it.

-Oh, dear.

-Would you like to?

-OK, let's go for it.

OK, in that case, let's play Space...Or Another Place.

It's, frankly, a fantastic title,

and it's going to be an even funner game, OK?

So, we thought we'd test your knowledge of space,

-and we're going to show you a series of pictures.

-Right.

Now, some of these are pictures of space and, of course,

some of them are just of any old place

on boring old planet Earth, OK?

And you've got to tell me which it is.

-Sounds easy, doesn't it?

-No.

LAUGHTER No? Well, good.

We've made it even harder for you because, actually,

we've really zoomed in to these photos,

so it's really hard to tell whether it's space or not.

-Are you up for it?

-OK, let's give it a go.

Phew! OK, here we go. This is your first picture.

Gosh, it's a tough one.

There's obviously some shadow on the left

and a little bit of black on the right.

And the white is so white that it looks like it's in space.

It doesn't look like the light is going through any atmosphere,

-so I'm thinking...

-That's amazing.

I'm going to be completely wrong here now, but I would...

-Maybe it's a comet. Maybe it's 67P, which we landed on recently.

-OK.

Very precise answer. I'm impressed. Let's have a look.

-Hey!

-Oh!

-It is indeed space.

-There we go.

-One point

to Tim Peake there. OK, next photo.

Oh. Erm, wow. That looks like a cloudy, hot atmosphere.

-I would say maybe Venus, something like that.

-What do we think, guys?

-But I could be completely wrong.

-ALL:

-Space.

-Space, yeah?

-OK, they're all behind you here, Tim.

-Space.

-Let's have a look at what it might be.

-Oh, no!

BUZZER It's actually Radzi's afro.

-HE LAUGHS

-That's brilliant.

-So, I'm afraid that was...

-That is brilliant.

That was some other place. OK, let's go to the next one.

Erm... Ooh, scratches, visor.

Erm, I would say space cos we get our visors scratched up in space.

-What do you think?

-ALL:

-Space.

-Space?

You're going to agree with him whatever, cos he's Tim Peake.

-Let's have a look.

-Ah, there we go.

-I believe that's you.

-It is.

-Your first walk that you did, wasn't it?

-That's right, yes.

-Is that when you took that selfie?

-Yeah, I had a few minutes to take

-a selfie out on my spacewalk, yeah.

-Surely, you've got to frame that.

-What a picture.

-I will do, yeah.

-It's amazing.

OK, we're doing well. Let's move on.

Erm, wow. It looks like fireworks, so I would say Earth.

-What do you think - space or...?

-ALL:

-Another place.

-Another place.

-Yeah, another place.

-Another place. Let's have a look.

It's London.

At the end of that, Tim, you managed three points. Well done.

-OK, thank you.

-A good game. Thank you so much for coming in.

And to our space fans, as well, you all look phenomenal.

Tim, would you like to stick around

-and maybe later in the show, have a bit of fun?

-I'd love to, thank you.

-Shall we let him stay? ALL:

-Yeah!

-OK, you can stay.

And that wasn't all we had in store for Tim Peake

when he came to visit us in the BP studio.

And I think we found quite a fitting end to our time with him.

Over the last two years, all that you've done has got everybody

at home truly excited about all things space and science.

So, in honour of your incredible achievement and your contribution

to science, we'd like to award you with our highest accolade,

-here on Blue Peter.

-Goodness me.

It is your very own gold Blue Peter badge.

Wow, what an honour. That is fantastic.

How amazing is that, everybody?

There you go, Tim.

Wonderful, thank you so much, Lindsey, that is brilliant.

Absolutely brilliant.

I shall treasure that forever. That's wonderful, thank you so much.

What a legend Tim Peake is.

We know that he likes looking out of the window and looking at the

stars, so that's given us a bit of an idea for a Blue Peter make.

We thought we'd bring the constellations and the stars to you.

That's right. For this make, you are going to need the following...

So, the first thing you need to do is grab your black card and just

make sure, like so, that it fits around your jar,

as this will ensure that it does fit inside, in just a minute.

The next thing you need to do is grab your pencil and you can

see that we've simply dotted out the constellations

and exactly where they go.

Now, you can find the template on the Blue Peter website.

Make sure you download that so that you know exactly where you're

putting everything.

Now, a top tip for this is when you're poking the pencil through,

like so, just grab a little bit of tac and put it on to the back

and that means that you won't go all the way through

and hurt your finger.

Ask an adult for help because that bit can be a little bit fiddly.

Now, another top tip is, for the constellations,

we've put big holes, as you can see there, and then for the stars

we've just poked through slightly smaller holes.

The next thing you need to do is grab your silver pen,

like this, and simply join up the dots like that.

Now, the reason for this is so that you can see your constellation

during the day as well as at night.

Well, if you want to see it at night, you're going to have to

light it up and to do that, you take your jar,

take your finished constellation sheet.

Roll it up, so it's small enough to fit inside the jar, like this.

-And then just literally pop it in.

-Aww.

So, we need to light the stars from behind the card, so you can

see them outside the jar, and to do that you take these

battery-operated tea lights, turn them on, of course, first.

-Drop one in the middle, just like that.

-Nice.

And then another top tip is to put one on the inside of the lid.

Take a big wedge of tac, turn your light on and then just press it

into the inside of the lid, really firmly, so it's not going

to go anywhere.

And then when you put that on,

the stars are lit from top and bottom.

It's beautiful, isn't it? You can't see it too well in here.

So, follow us over here.

There we go, that's more like it.

-Aww.

-As you can see, you can be creative with any design.

Look, there's even a Blue Peter ship there, for inspiration.

Look at that. If you want to join in, all the details

you're going to need are on the Blue Peter website.

Check it out and send us a pic, if you do.

Now, you're excited, aren't you, because earlier in the show

you saw the first part of my amazing space challenge.

But here's what happened when I actually experienced weightlessness.

'I've travelled to France to experience something

'I've only ever dreamed about - weightlessness.

'This is as close as any human being can get to feeling like

'Tim Peake, without going into space.

'Very few people get to do this,

'so I'm incredibly lucky to have a ticket.'

My heart is beating, seatbelt's on, no going back, this is it.

Ah!

'This special plane is going to climb steeply

'before dropping towards Earth.

'It will happen around 30 times, and every time it does

'everyone onboard will experience weightlessness.

'As soon as we're up in the air, we start to get into position

'and lie down in the padded area of the plane.'

You can feel the excitement in here.

I really don't know what to expect,

but this is just going to be amazing.

'The time has arrived.

'The scientists are ready and the plane begins its steep climb.'

My heart, you would not believe how fast it is beating.

Oh, wow.

I feel heavy.

'And then we start to drop.'

Oh, my goodness, oh, my goodness.

Oh, wow. Wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow.

I'm starting to float.

'I had no idea what to expect, but this is utterly incredible.'

Whoa! Whoa!

I'm floating, oh, my goodness.

What do I do?

This is the most...

I'm floating!

This is the weirdest feeling.

Oh, wow.

That was the most bizarre feeling of my life.

'On my next go, I start to get the hang of it,

'with a bit of help from the team onboard.'

Let's walk on the ceiling.

Whoa, look at this!

I'm walking on the ceiling.

Woo!

Shall I do a flip?

SHE SCREAMS AND LAUGHS

Oh, my goodness!

This is the most ridiculous feeling of my life.

Woo!

OK, I'm going to try and swim.

Woo!

'It's so fun, but it doesn't last forever.'

Oh, dear.

'Each period of weightlessness lasts around 25 seconds,

'just enough time for the scientists to carry out their experiments.

'Things seemed to be going well for Ulrich and his team,

'who are looking at what happens to the heart and blood vessels

'when someone is weightless.'

It's going really great.

We get good images from that result.

So you're happy with all the results so far?

Yeah, we are happy so far.

'Christina's team, who are testing a robot that could land

'on an asteroid, are still getting the hang of the conditions.'

Very stressed doing science with weightlessness.

Yeah, I bet.

-But are you having fun?

-A lot of fun.

Oh, you're going over there.

You have no choice where you go, do you?

'It will take a few weeks until the scientists get the results back.

'In the meantime, I've got some very important...

'highly scientific experiments to do.

'First up, floating the badge.'

Whoa!

'Tying my shoelaces.'

I've got to try and put it on. Haven't got long to do it.

I've got the shoe on.

Now I've got to do my laces.

How does Tim Peake do this?

I can't do my laces!

'How about floating on a magic carpet?'

Woo!

'Aladdin made this look really easy.

'And what about brushing my hair?

'That's my scientific experiments almost done,

but there's one last thing I've always wanted to try.'

I'm flying! I'm a superhero!

Do you know what? That was just the most incredible experience

I think I've ever had in my life.

And to think that I got to see just what it's like for Tim Peake

to live, work and do everything that he does up in space is phenomenal.

I want to go again.

That was honestly one of the best days of my life,

but I do say that every time I do a Blue Peter challenge, don't I?

I just love them all.

That's about it for today.

-It is the end of the show.

-Make sure you're watching Blue Peter

every Thursday for more adventures, makes and, of course, badges.

We will see you next week. Now though, I'm going to go and float

-about in space for a bit.

-I thought you might do that.

-See you next week. Bye.

-Got to get one of these.