09/03/2016 Newsround

Hello, Ayshah here with your live Newsround update this

Stargazers in Asia get a spectacular show from a solar eclipse.

And the elephant rescue that took three cars and a tow rope.

First, British Astronaut Tim Peake is reaching the halfway point

of his mission on board the International Space Station.

He's spent more than 12 weeks orbiting Earth and is due to return

In a minute, I'll be joined on the sofa by a Nasa astronaut

to tell us more about what it's like to go into space.

But first, Martin's been looking back at some

Tim Peake blasted off on 15th December last year. For his

six-month mission on the International Space Station. He's

been doing all sorts of experiments in space and has even tried to get

you guys involved too. He spent Christmas... Merry Christmas! And

even new year on the Space Station. Happy new year. Finding interesting

ways to keep himself occupied. From making scrambled eggs in space to

drinking water to showing us how to poo, or even being chased by a

gorilla! But it's not just fun and games. He's been working pretty hard

too, cleaning and going for spacewalks to fix broken equipment

outside the ISS. He's even managed to present Adele with an ward at the

Brits And congratulations to the whole Adele. It's been a packed

journey so far, but with all his accomplishments we are sure there'll

be more to come. Joining us now is Nasa

astronaut Don Thomas. You've been up in space four times.

Tell me what it is like. I had the amazing opportunity to be on three

launch missions. It only takes 8-and-a-half minutes to get to

space. A lot of shaking and vibration and 8-and-a-half minutes

later the engines shut down and you are in zero gravity. When you see

the Earth from the window you gasp at how beautiful it is. What did you

see when you were up there? I saw the top of Mount Everest many times.

That's the lazy man's time to see the top. I saw the Amazon

rainforest, Victoria falls in Africa. We always loved passing over

the Kennedy Space Center to look down at our launch point, to say we

left Earth a few days ago. There's a lot of work to do up there isn't

there? A lot of work. Tim Peake has been doing a lot of science. The

International Space Station is a laboratory. We look at how plants

grow, how small animals behave and adapt in zero gravity. Tim's been

pretty busy with the science up there. He's halfway through now. How

much do you miss stuff when you are up there? When you are in space

there's a lots of things on Earth you miss and take for granted. I

missed my family, and fresh food. All of our food is freeze dried. So

to get fresh food and salad. The opportunity to take a walk round the

neighbourhood after dinner, to believe some quiet time to get away

from everybody. You don't get the chance to do that on the

International Space Station. That's true. Thank you don for that

insight. Now Don - I think you'll enjoy

these amazing pictures. Stargazers across Indonesia

and the Central Pacific region were given a rare treat yesterday

when they got the chance to see Wearing special glasses

to protect their eyes, they were treated to a spectacular

show as the Moon passed entirely in front of the Sun,

blocking all sunlight and turning Rescuers in Kenya in Africa have

taken three-and-a-half hours to safely pull out

an elephant trapped in mud. The 20-year-old animal got stuck

around a dried up well Rescuers had to shovel dirt

onto the mud to make it less wet before pulling the elephant free

by using three cars and tow ropes. It was a big rescue effort

and the animal is said to be That's all from the

Newsround team today.