Astronaut Training, Rubbish Puppets & Channel Tunnel Blue Peter

Today, find out all you need to know to train to be an astronaut.

We have a performance from the super-cool Foxes.

And one theatre company is turning this rubbish into this.

QUACKING

That's all coming up on today's live Blue Peter.

CHEERING

-Hello!

-Hi!

-And welcome to Blue Peter.

Now, you can probably tell it's just me and Barney today.

Lindsey's away training for an epic challenge.

-You'll find out more about that later in the year.

-Hang on.

If Lindsey isn't here, and it took me ages to get into make-up,

why did it take so long? You say it's Lindsey...

Thanks. Don't make it too poofy this week. Have you got any lippy?

-No!

-That's enough, thank you.

-Unbelievable, Barney.

-I know.

-DING!

Anyway, coming up very soon, you're going to see how I got on

when I was put through my paces to train to be an astronaut

and that got us thinking. If you could train to be anything

in the world, what would it be? Lucy?

I'd be an actress because of my cousin.

She was on Blue Peter when she was little.

-Did she get a badge?

-Yeah.

-It's inspiring stuff, Blue Peter.

-How about you, if you could train to be anything?

-I would be a scientist.

-What kind of scientist?

-A crime scene investigator.

Look at that. How cool is that?

So what would you train to be if you could?

Get in touch, usual details, please.

We are live, so get in touch via our website.

We will try and squeeze in as many comments as possible at the end.

Radzi, have you heard about the new drink

-that everyone's drinking in space?

-No. New drink?

Yeah, it's all the rage. Everyone loves it.

It's called gravi-TEA.

-HE LAUGHS

-Oh...

WIND WHISTLES

Oh, I liked that one. I thought that was really good. OK, awkward.

Well then, let's go into the next film.

I went to meet Tim Peake a few months ago. He's an astronaut.

He's the first official British astronaut

who's going to the International Space Station in 2015.

And I thought, if I'm going to speak to him,

I should probably go dressed for the part.

OK, this hasn't really gone that well.

I'm going to speak to the scriptwriters. One second.

# Spaceman

# I always wanted you to go into space, man

# Intergalactic Christ

# Spaceman... #

Hey, I'm here to meet Tim.

Oh, hi. Yeah. I'm not a real astronaut,

but I am here to meet a man who's about to become one.

Can someone get me out of here, please? I am sweating.

Major Tim Peake is set to be the first official British astronaut

when he blasts off to the International Space Station in 2015.

So I went down to London to meet him

and find out a bit more about his mission.

Tim, we say you've got to earn your Blue Peter badge,

and just by being an astronaut,

we think that well and truly means you can wear that with pride.

Fantastic, thank you very much.

So, you are the first official British astronaut.

-How does that feel?

-It feels fantastic, it really does.

It was a real privilege to be selected back in 2009

and since then I've just been doing some amazing training.

What sort of things do you do?

The training is incredible, it's really diverse.

There's a lot of things you need to know about.

Firstly, just the trip up and back,

so we have to know everything about the Soyuz spacecraft,

how to get there and back.

Rendezvous and docking with the space station.

How to do a spacewalk, or how to use the robotic arm

so that you can capture a visiting vehicle

and dock it to the space station.

How to carry out all the science that we'll need to do.

And then the simple things like how to repair the toilet

and how to eat and sleep.

And weightlessness, how do you train for that?

That means there's no gravity,

but here there is gravity, so how do you get round that?

There are two main training methods.

The first one is to experience real weightlessness,

and you do that by going up in an aircraft.

You can practise how your body reacts, how to move,

how to handle heavy things.

But if we want to practise that for longer periods of time,

we use water.

We get kitted up in gloves which are just like the ones

we're going to wear on a spacewalk, and various other bits of equipment.

We go down in the swimming pool, using the water as neutral buoyancy,

and practise five, six-hour-long spacewalks.

For the audience watching who would love to be an astronaut,

what sort of things can they do here?

We all come from a variety of backgrounds.

There are schoolteachers, there are engineers, there are physicists.

There are test pilots like myself.

And the one thing we have in common, I guess, is that we are all

passionate about what we do and we try and be as good as we can be.

Tim really is an amazing inspiration, isn't he?

He is out of this world. How can you train like an astronaut right now?

Well, I've come to this school in Salford to find out more

because the students in here are already moonwalking their way

towards becoming the next generation of space explorers.

The pupils here are learning about the qualities

you need to be a good astronaut.

And they're testing themselves with various challenges

as part of their lessons.

They're using simple objects that anyone can get hold of,

like rulers and jigsaws, to mimic the elements of human space-flight.

Astronauts of the future, you've got to teach me

how to be an astronaut too.

So what are we doing here, what is this little challenge?

We're testing our fast reaction times on catching the ruler.

Because that's what you need, fast reaction times,

when you're in space, when you're repairing the ship outside.

Like, if you drop anything, so you can catch it straightaway,

so it doesn't float off into the universe.

Space high-five, no gravity.

Awesome!

'Next up, puzzles. But why are we wearing gloves?'

It's hard for them because they won't be able to grip the pieces easily.

'But this is Blue Peter so we've super-sized things.

'First up, a light wall to test my reactions.

'One point for every button hit.'

OK, you scored 32 in 30 seconds

and that was both of you at the same time.

So what would be a good score for me to get?

40 if you're good, and 45 if you're an expert.

-40?

-Yes.

-Or 45?

-If a light flashes, I need to hit it.

-Go!

-Time up.

-Yes! That'll do, won't it?

That was in between 40 and 45, right in the middle

-so I'm kind of in between good, and did you say expert?

-Expert.

OK, challenge two.

This time it's hand-to-eye coordination

and a two-metre-long buzz wire.

Everyone's life hangs in the balance...based on my steady hand.

Here we go.

Three, two, one. Go.

BUZZING

-Ah! No! Does that mean I'm not an astronaut?

-Yeah.

Thank you for your support(!)

So it all comes down to the last challenge for me

to prove my, er...astronauty-ness?

Christopher, what is my final challenge?

Well, since astronauts do lots of flips in space,

because of the micro-gravity environment,

you'll be doing ten flips on that.

CHEERING

It's time to test my space rolls.

KIDS CHEER

So there you have it. One small step for man, one giant leap for Barney.

I think it's fair to say I've been put through my paces today

but you don't need to have all this equipment

to train to be an astronaut.

You can use anything in your classroom, in your home,

so why not give it a go? Go on, train to be an astronaut.

You never know, you could be the next one in space.

CHEERING

It was such a good day. We'll keep you updated

with Tim Peake's movements later in the year.

If you can't wait, watch Newsround tomorrow.

He is announcing a new competition which you just have to enter.

And thank you to the children at the school as well,

for helping me train to be an astronaut.

-I still feel sick, thank you!

-Barney, let's walk and talk.

If you were watching last week's show,

you'll have noticed that we were in the Blue Peter garden.

That's all part of our green theme

which we're going to be celebrating over the next few weeks

because we know just how much you care about the environment,

and that's because we see the amount of post that you send to us about it.

Just look at the Big Badge Wall this week.

Again, caked, and all to do with the environment.

Here's one I have to show you - this is from Rebecca.

She's made a flowerpot from an old boot. I love this.

Rebecca is wearing her blue badge.

Because of her inspired boot, which is from the Skinny Jeans Gardeners,

you're now getting a green badge as well, Rebecca. Well done.

Congratulations. Someone getting his green badge

this week, too, is Calum.

Calum has designed this. It's come from Motherwell.

It's a bin, which is pretty cool, where you put your recycling.

Look at it, he's made it out of silver paper

and an old cardboard tube. He's even given it eyes as well.

This bit is a touch of genius. It's actually a pencil sharpener.

Calum, well done. Green badge on the way.

Now this is from Sarah, from Hertfordshire,

and this is absolutely mega.

Look at the size of this piece of post!

It's got flowers, plants, trees, you name it.

Well, Sarah, yourself and every person on the Big Badge Wall

are all going to be getting their green badge.

One of the best things about Blue Peter badges

is that you get into over 200 attractions for free.

That's right, I said for free.

So send in all your stuff

because that's what can get you a Blue Peter badge.

All the details about them are on our website.

Last week, we told you we're going to have

some rubbish puppets here in the studio.

That inspired Lucy to design her own. Look at this.

It's a cardboard tube with orange paper on it.

It's got a smiley face and like all good cats,

it's got a lovely pair of whiskers at the bottom.

This is because we've got a brilliant performance

-from the Theatre-Rites company and our Excavators. Hello.

-Hello!

Good to see you, Charlie, Simon, Mohsin and Ed.

Let's start from the very beginning.

We're talking about how everything's been created from rubbish.

So where did the idea come from?

We wanted to make a piece that explored the hidden values of things

and objects that people normally throw away.

And as Excavators, we believe that one person's rubbish

could be another person's treasure.

OK. Who are you going to introduce us to now?

-We've got somebody in the bag.

-There he is!

-Oh, hang on!

OK!

-Come on.

-Out you come.

-Come on.

There you are. Come on, come on, you!

-Don't be shy!

-BARKING

-There he is!

-This is our dog.

-Amazing! Hello, mate. How are you doing?

-Sit down. Sit.

-He's well trained, isn't he?

-He's really well-trained.

And you can see he's made out of a bit of old rope, binoculars,

a bottle, a brush, an old tin, some springs

and some old tennis balls on his feet.

Fantastic. Presumably he's still in training. Oh, yeah!

Sit! And fetch!

Still working on it.

That's fine. Good boy, well done. Who else have we got here?

-Here, we've got...

-Who have we got here?

-There he is.

Come on! Good boy. QUACKING

We've got our duck. As you can see,

our duck's made out of an old tea set.

And when we find him in the show, he's covered in grime and muck,

like the birds that get hurt in oil spills out at sea.

So we clean him down and teach him how to fly again.

Absolutely amazing. So lifelike as well.

You're all wearing your green Blue Peter badges.

Recycling is a big thing. We love turning old things into new things.

How important is it to recycle?

It's really important. Just think about how much stuff we throw away.

And as a theatre company, it's our job to inspire people

to think about that and think about how they might re-use their rubbish.

The Blue Peter audience is better than everybody at being

inspired by the show and things that they see.

If you could give us an idea of what to do

and how to recycle our rubbish into puppets?

Sure. First of all, be sure that whatever rubbish you do find

is clean and safe to use. Once you've done that,

carefully select one item of rubbish that best suggests a character.

Then you can play with all the different ways of making puppets

but also of making your puppet come to life.

-Like this.

-QUACKING

BARKING

You've got a bit of a busy month ahead of you, you're touring?

Yes, we're touring Rubbish all over the country.

We're off to Liverpool next, and we're also going to Bath,

-London, Leicester, Canterbury and Manchester.

-Amazing.

Now, I think it would be a shame to have all this set dressed

and have you in costumes and our rubbish puppets in the studio

-and not have a sneak peek. Could you do that for us?

-Oh, yes.

OK, you get yourselves ready and I'll do the big intro.

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, please welcome Theatre-Rites,

the Excavators, with a brilliant show, it's Rubbish.

No, it's actually called Rubbish. Thank you.

GENTLE PIANO MUSIC

Oh... OK. Oop...

Ohhh.

Oh!

Oh... Oop!

Oop...Oh! Ahhh.

Er...OK.

Hup, hup, hup...

Ah!

Oh!

Huh!

Ahh...

Huh...

Ah!

Huh. Oop...

Ooh! Huh...

HORN HONKS Oh, sorry!

HORNS HONK Oh! Oh! Oh!

HORNS HONK

Oh! Oh!

APPLAUSE

Absolutely amazing. Have you ever seen a better example of how to turn

rubbish into something new and exciting? That was all live.

A great performance from the Theatre-Rites. Excavators and

Rubbish. Thank you very much, guys, brilliant.

If that has inspired you to get involved and to make your own

puppets from rubbish, which we've

got here in the studio, beautifully modelled.

Flynn, that's amazing. What's this guy?

Erm, this guy is Dave the dragon.

Dave the dragon. It happens to be the best name for a dragon!

Your creativity can take you anywhere you like. If you're going

to make one of these puppets out of rubbish, why not take a

picture of it and send it to us? Usual details...

We'll try and put as many of them as we can in our gallery.

So, you've made one as well, Radzi?

I was in the dressing room and I found an old pair of socks.

Yeah. My dressing room - those are my socks!

-Hang on. What's this?

-Again, I found a packet of crisps.

-My crisps!

I was saving those for later!

What else have you nicked? That's ridiculous!

Anyway, next week will mark the 20th anniversary

of the English Channel, which connects England and France.

A few months ago, Lindsey got

the opportunity to travel through that tunnel.

As this is Blue Peter, she wasn't just getting to

visit France. Oh, no! Lindsey had to get her hands dirty!

< Radzi, have you seen my drink?

Below the English Channel is one of

the seven wonders of the modern world.

Wondering what it is? Let me show you the Channel Tunnel.

The Channel Tunnel is a railway line

that runs underneath the English Channel

and connects Great Britain with France.

Clocking up a massive 31 miles, it is

the longest undersea tunnel in the world.

Construction of the tunnel started in 1988,

and on the 1st of December 1990,

English and French workers shook hands as the last bit of rock

was drilled through.

There's about 400 trains that pass through here every day,

and today I'm going to be on one of them.

It's going to take us under the sea and get us to France.

Oh, there's even a shutter going down!

We've got our own little room for the car.

I think we just have to sit and wait until we are in France.

And that's exactly what we did.

So here I am, the other side of the English Channel,

which means I am now officially in France. Bonjour.

It's about 6pm, which means we've travelled over 30 miles under

the sea in around 35 minutes, which is pretty impressive!

No, no! The journey doesn't stop here.

I'll be coming back here to see exactly what happens to the tunnel

when the trains aren't running.

I'm back, and it's about 9:30pm.

It's strange to think that in a couple of hours I'm going to

be under the sea. I'm here to meet John Keith, who works for Eurotunnel.

He'll tell me about the maintenance that

goes on to keep the tunnel open and the trains working.

-Hi, John.

-Hi, Lindsey. Good to see you.

So, what are we going to be doing tonight?

First, I'll show you the rolling stock maintenance how we

keep our trains running.

Then we are going underground, into the tunnel.

We'll see some of the rails being replaced underground.

That's so cool, I'm really excited!

Am I right that the reason we are here late is because it's the

-safest time to be here, because the trains aren't running?

-It is.

'And it's inside this huge depot that those trains are taken for repairs.'

This is the big stuff - 850 metres long.

850 metres! Look over there.

That's how the guys get from one end of the shed to the other.

I'm not surprised! It's so long, it's miles away!

So I got on a bike and checked it out for myself. My goodness!

I am actually out of breath and I've only cycled a tiny bit of this train.

This is not just a big train, this is epic!

Now we are actually under the shuttle.

That's right, this is the train above us.

Look down there and see how far away it goes. You can't even see the end.

These are the longest trains in Europe.

John, I spend a lot of my life feeling quite small cos I'm short.

Now that we are here, I feel absolutely tiny!

This room is just full of train.

Things get even more impressive as we head into the Channel Tunnel.

So we've just entered the tunnel for the first time.

This is where all the workers do the maintenance.

First we go through an airlock.

This keeps the tunnel air pressure constant and means that in an

emergency, trains can be evacuated safely through clean air.

Here we go! We're off!

We're going down into one of the tunnels where they do all

the maintenance on the tracks.

Tonight they are replacing old track with new track, which is cool.

I'm hoping I'm going to be able to get involved.

It's just turned midnight and we are in the service tunnel waiting

to get into the railway tunnel.

We can't go down there until it's safe to do so,

and that means all the electricity has got to be off.

You can see on the door behind me, it says "4352".

That means we are 43 and a half

kilometres from the English entrance of the tunnel.

The trains have stopped running for the night in the main tunnel

so the maintenance team can get started.

Trains travel over the track at around 90mph,

which means that every little

stone they hit is going to cause wear and tear.

And that's why these guys are down here doing their best all through

the night, working as quickly as they can

to mend the track for the next day.

This machine here is incredible.

Its job is to lift up the tracks, push them to the side

and get them out of the way for the new tracks.

It makes it look so easy!

But I soon found out that not all of the maintenance was quite so simple.

I'm so scared of getting this wrong.

Pull up.

This is so stressful!

They told me I've got a new job. I did it!

That was so nerve-racking.

In the next four hours, these guys are going to do a kilometre

and a half of this work.

Where that little white mark is, that's where

they are about to cut into the tracks and replace it with new rails.

Every single part of the track is being inspected

and looked at in such detail.

They are even being marked off to say that they are OK

and ready for new track.

Even the pads they are laying down have a role to play in stopping

wear and tear.

In just a few hours the train will be flying through here again.

The new track is in place but there's still more welding

and safety checks to be done before the tunnel can reopen in the morning.

I think I'll leave them to it. It's bedtime!

Nice one, Lindsey. Now, it's time for a bit of music.

This week's Blue Peter guest is tipped for great things in 2014.

Louise Rose Allen, best known by her stage name, Foxes, is a British

singer-songwriter from Southampton. She first burst onto the music scene

last year with her debut single, Youth.

Earlier this year she bagged a Grammy award.

Her second single, Let Go For Tonight, rocketed into the UK singles

chart in the top ten.

With a sell-out UK tour planned,

Foxes is going from strength to strength.

Now she's here to perform just for you.

Now, it is time to meet her. Would you please give it up for Foxes?

CHEERING

-Welcome to Blue Peter.

-Hi!

-How are you?

I'm very well, thank you. How are you?

I'm very excited to hear you perform later.

I'll start with the most obvious - your name, Foxes. That's a wicked

name. Where does it come from?

I took it from a song I wrote when I was really little.

I had to change my real name because it's very close to Lily Allen so...

-OK!

-My name is Louisa Rose Allen - and, yeah, Lily Allen.

Have you always wanted to be a singer?

Yeah, I was writing from the age of 12.

I used to make drum kits out of kitchen equipment

and weird stuff like that.

-That's exactly what we do on Blue Peter.

-Yeah, you do! Amazing.

If you were to look at the top ten greatest all-time musicians,

not all of those people would have a Grammy award, but you've got one.

What was it like, winning that?

Erm... Almost as amazing as this right here.

No, it was amazing.

I still can't believe I've got a Grammy so early on. It's incredible.

Really, it just makes me want to work harder.

It's a nice thing at a very early stage.

-Foxes, thank you so much for coming in.

-Thanks for having me.

-Before you perform, Barney, I think you've got some comments.

-I do.

Thank you very much. We've been

asking you what you would train to be if you could.

Look at Flynn looking down the barrel! You're a proper presenter!

Quartz Disco Sea Lion says, "I would train to be a palaeontologist or

"an archaeologist because I love dinosaurs and history."

That's a good one. Lemon Metallic Pupfish... What a brilliant name!

"I would train to be a stunt driver, but if I don't get the job I would

"definitely be a Blue Peter presenter."

I'm glad we're only second best(!)

Blue Netball Elephant,

"I would love to train to be a zookeeper or become

"a volunteer at Battersea Dogs and Cats Home, to walk the dogs."

-That's a lovely one. Hi, Radzi.

-It was.

Flynn, if you could train to be anything,

-what would you be?

-An actor.

An actor! I like it, my friend.

Now, we want you to get in touch with us at the end of the show.

You can go online and tell us what your favourite part of the show is on

-the Blue Peter website. We love it when you do.

-It's the

usual website address.

You can go on there and vote for

the bit you liked in the show today.

I think if you go on there and tell them you liked the bit about

gravi-TEA earlier, that would go down well.

That is just about all we've got time for.

Before we hear Foxes perform,

here is what is coming up on next week's show.

I can't tell you how excited I am. Penn and Teller, the magic duo,

are going to be in the studio with some mind-boggling magic.

The cast of Next Step shows how to transform hoodies into backpacks.

And UK hip-hop dance champions Rough Diamond are going to be here

with a show-stopping performance. Show them some of your moves

-as well.

-It was a robbery! Lindsey shouldn't have won that.

But here to perform the fantastic brand-new single

Holding Onto Heaven is Foxes.

# Starless sky

# We've got so good at pretending

# There's a side, a side to you, that isn't running

# But I don't know where it is that you've been hiding

# But I need you tonight

# But I need you tonight

# Cos I'm holding onto heaven

# Lights fade but I won't let them

# Oh, I'm holding onto heaven

# When I breathe it's only you

# All these years

# I've been chasing down the answers

# I was here, always tracing out your shadows

# But I need you tonight

# Cos I'm holding onto heaven

# Lights fade but I won't let them

# Oh, I'm holding onto heaven

# When I breathe it's only you

# I can't take it

# Cos you think nobody sees what you're doing to me

# I'm telling you, guilt is in your eyes

# I hate what you've done, what you've made me become

# No sleep, face the night

# Oh, I'm holding on

# Lights fade but I won't let them

# Oh, I'm holding onto heaven

# When I breathe it's only you

# Cos I'm holding, cos I'm holding

# Cos I'm holding onto heaven

# Cos I'm holding, cos I'm holding

# Cos I'm holding onto heaven

# Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

# Cos I'm holding, cos I'm holding onto heaven. #

APPLAUSE

-That was good.

-Thanks.