Episode 2 Astronauts: Do You Have What It Takes?

Wow! That's a beautiful thing. Look at that.

250 miles above us, six people are living in space.

Hello.

Millions dream of going into orbit.

But few ever make it a reality.

Now, a hand-picked group of exceptional applicants...

Go.

..are about to be put through astronaut selection...

Commander.

..by former commander of the International Space Station, Chris Hadfield.

Ten seconds. Hands on your head. Go.

Along with trauma specialist Doctor Kevin Fong...

Being an astronaut places extreme demands on the human body.

And psychologist, Doctor Iya Whiteley.

So she's focused, determined.

Over six weeks,

with access to remarkable training facilities across the globe...

Stop spinning.

..the candidates will face a series of gruelling tests.

I can't quit. I've got the determination to see it through to the end.

Using standards set by the world's space agencies.

Being sat in a chair where astronauts have actually sat and

-trained is such a privilege.

-Going to 4.5.

Brace for impact.

Those who fail to make the grade can be asked to leave at any time.

The reality is your scores have not been high.

For the person who impresses the most...

I feel like I absolutely smashed that.

..the ultimate reference.

Chris' backing for their application

when the space agencies next take on recruits.

We really want to put the best people onto the rocket ship.

Oxygen failure. Oxygen failure. Oxygen failure.

Last time, the candidates were thrown in at the deep end...

I have control.

..as flying ability...

That was so cool. I just flew a helicopter.

Six, nine...

..mental agility...

HE GASPS FOR BREATH

..and physical fitness were put to the test.

Derreck, that's it for you.

Mountaineer, Hannah, faced her past.

I got caught in an avalanche years ago, so I just have a bit of a...

Nerves got to particle physicist Jackie...

I should have definitely done better.

..but it was nuclear engineer, Derreck...

Yeah, I didn't make the cut, fellas.

And surgeon, Prash, who were the first to leave.

We will meet again on the ISS.

I'll be waiting for you.

LAUGHTER

I trained specifically four and a half years for my first spacewalk.

That's a lot of work.

From thousands of applicants,

just ten have made it through to the second stage of selection.

If you're trying to choose astronauts, you want to hire people

that have a proven ability to learn complicated things.

Then you are looking for,

what other interesting things have they done in their life?

Have they got all the core qualifications and they've sailed

across the Atlantic or they've climbed Everest?

If you have the choice, why wouldn't you take the best people on earth?

Of the remaining candidates, one fits the classic astronaut profile,

with a background in the military.

I've served in the air force for 12 years and from day one of that,

it has been competitive.

Some of the guys, they're used to doing their PhDs,

they're used to working in a lab, they haven't been exposed to this

type of competition.

Probably it's given me a slight advantage in that I've seen

similar things before.

Others are scientists at the cutting edge of space research.

I'm not surprised that I have got onto the second stage of this process.

I am obviously physically fit and I think I've shown a

wide range of skill sets.

Double.

All are highly qualified,

but if they fail to keep pace, they can be asked to leave at any time.

Genuinely, I have no idea where I'm sitting in the group because I don't

know what the standards are that they're expecting from us.

What it really comes down to, I think,

the simplest question you could ask,

would I trust them with my life?

But also, do they have the right stuff?

The candidates have come to one of the world's leading maritime

training facilities.

The test they'll face here is a matter of life and death.

They will have to escape from an underwater capsule in a simulated

emergency splashdown.

With water covering two thirds of the world's surface,

every astronaut must learn to escape from a space capsule

which has crash landed at sea.

If you're floating in any sort of turbulent seas,

you run the risk of sinking. You run the risk of drowning.

And if you're landing in the water,

eventually your ship's going to sink.

And everybody has to have the skills to deal with a sinking ship.

The astronaut candidates will be tested in pairs.

First, aerospace engineer, Vijay, and RAF pilot, Kerry.

I've done similar types of training, survival training,

life raft training.

So hopefully all those skills will be quite useful to me.

Overseeing the test is marine safety instructor, Jim Cunningham.

Good morning, candidates.

-BOTH:

-Morning.

This is our capsule that we're going to use

for the simulation this morning.

So what I require of you guys is to take a seat,

so will you get yourself buckled in, please?

Trauma specialists, Doctor Kevin Fong,

and psychologist Doctor Iya Whiteley, watch poolside

whilst Chris is underwater

to observe the candidates at close quarters.

Standby one, one.

This is an interesting test because you have to, in many ways,

suppress what is your normal response to a very threatening situation.

Increasing your heart rate,

increasing the blood flow to your muscles.

Now, in this situation that has a downside and that is that you

deplete your oxygen reserves faster than you normally would.

So staying calm here actually helps you survive the situation.

Jim has given the pair clear instructions.

Kerry must remove the window, Vijay open the door.

Only then can they release their harness and escape.

Capsule drop. Brace for impact.

Brace positions.

Capsule capsizing.

The pair escape, following the procedure perfectly.

That was strong from both of them. But strong from her.

This test is designed to see how people deal

with unexpected situations, and Kerry was very calm and collected.

She certainly deals very well with high-pressured situations.

I've flown in Afghanistan, in and out of Camp Bastion,

Kandahar, Kabul. Quite a lot of flights around the Middle East.

We do have to think about what we would do if we were fired upon.

We do have to have survival training, so, if we were shot down

in enemy territory, what would we do?

It's a lot of responsibility, being in command,

but when something goes wrong, my reaction needs to be good enough

to make sure that everybody survives.

We'll go straight into the next one.

Kerry and Vijay's final test will see the vehicle rapidly submerged and

rolled underwater...

Brace for impact.

..simulating a more violent capsize.

Forceful splashdown causes turbulence, reducing visibility.

So they've been told to wait for the bubbles to clear

before making their escape.

They complete a near flawless escape.

I thought we did well.

You were calm. Everything was good.

You always beat me, though.

I knew you'd hate that, that's why I did it.

Has anyone got any diving experience or anything?

-No.

-Don't panic. That's Mr Mannering. Captain Mannering.

Captain Mannering. Don't panic, don't panic!

-Yeah.

-I can swim but that's about the extent of it.

Yeah, that would be bad if you were inside it and you couldn't swim down

to get to the door.

Normally I'm quite composed and I think logically,

but bring water into it and I do kind of panic.

I'm definitely trying to overcome this fear.

A lot of it is in my head.

When I was younger, I nearly drowned on a school trip.

I did kind of have to be rescued.

Yeah, I try and avoid water at all costs.

Jackie has been paired with energy consultant

and the GB bobsledder, James H.

I'll keep you right, Jackie.

-She's worried.

-She's very stressed.

She's absolutely terrified.

But she is trying to put on a brave face.

Ready? Stand by.

Capsule approach to the water surface, and brace for impact.

With her eyes shut, Jackie can't find the handle.

For safety, Jim opens the door for her.

SHE GASPS FOR BREATH

There you go. There you go.

No problem, no problem.

Nobody wants a panicked astronaut.

The only way that you can be ready to think like an astronaut

is to have changed who you are.

When something happens that has a great impact,

you've turned yourself into somebody who has a different fundamental response.

The real question for an astronaut is, what do you do next?

It's not what happens, it's how you react to it.

The capsule is going to be upside down this time, so it's much worse.

I will be fascinated to see how Jackie is with this task.

Absolutely. And I'm surprised, truly, that she is actually going a second time.

Brace for impact.

Much better.

She didn't panic as much when she came out of the water this time.

Jackie clearly was distressed but, despite being afraid,

she had the capability to take on the task,

and carrying on with the mission.

You did it.

I'm really pleased for her that she pushed through it because I know she

would have been beating herself up if she hadn't.

And if it was normal circumstances I would never have got in that capsule

and I'd have never have done it.

I genuinely thought that I might drown.

She definitely had a problem with that.

I wasn't sure she was going to do it.

Obviously we all have respect for her guts and her fortitude.

The real question is, do you want that person sitting next to

you in a space shuttle?

The next two pairs stay calm and escape without difficulty.

Ballerina Merritt and teacher James A...

..are followed by commercial airline pilot Tessa

and cosmochemistry researcher Tim.

Good.

The final pair

is associate professor Suzie and dentist and mountaineer Hannah,

who is facing some old fears.

I have to admit, that one of my big Achilles is confinement.

I was caught in an avalanche years ago,

but that's where it's a challenge for me.

The training vessel is ready.

But Hannah is still in the changing room.

Some people would probably enjoy this. This is my idea of hell.

SHE EXHALES DEEPLY

Failure to complete the test would mean leaving the process.

Hannah absolutely does not look comfortable

and if Jim doesn't think she is up to it, he will stop it.

But she's genuinely finding this tough.

-You can see the distress clearly.

-Mmm.

She's trying to compose herself now.

Now bracing for impact.

INDISTINCT SPEECH

OK?

OK.

Here we go!

One run down.

But the more extreme capsize is still to come.

During an emergency,

there is no-one that can keep you calm except yourself.

But that ability to focus, to keep your instinctive fear at bay,

to control your breathing

and to safely exit the ship - it's vital, as an astronaut.

So she's done this once.

Yes, but this time it's turning over completely.

-You can see the distress.

-This isn't just nervousness, is it?

-This is proper distress and panic.

-This is distress and panic.

I mean, I don't know what she's feeling right now,

but she looks very, very close to a panic reaction.

Brace for impact.

Hannah has been told to position one hand on the window

and the other on her harness.

She makes her escape but is so focused on controlling her anxiety

that she fails to follow the procedure.

I needed to do that.

Just for me, for my own mental...

This is another step in...

..working through this...

..issue that I have with enclosed spaces.

In order to be successful as an astronaut,

those things somehow need to get properly put behind you.

Any tendency towards drama is almost the opposite of what we need for

success in the astronaut business.

I got a feeling yesterday I will probably be sent home today.

As of the last test,

I thought I'm probably going to go

because I'm definitely thought I was probably the weakest person.

Watching all the candidates

in the spacecraft underwater emergency test,

there was quite a spectrum of responses.

I learned a lot about most of the people here,

and a huge amount about a couple of them.

Kerry, very strong performance again.

She appeared to be calm and comfortable.

Suzie's strong here, as she has been for much of our process.

She did a great job.

Jackie, this was not a good task for her.

Terrified, I think, is not an inappropriate word.

Right from the very beginning you could just see it on her face.

She was hesitant and concerned.

And that manifested itself right through.

I could see her gasping for air just before the water was filling up the

cabin, and she just couldn't take a breath in.

But she managed to put herself back and do it over again

and you've got to respect that.

Hannah.

She found this really hard and watching her,

she was eyes closed, head back.

At times I wondered whether she would go through with it.

She was clearly struggling with something.

After Hannah's levels of stress subsided

she was actually not able to follow completely the procedure.

And she was not able to maintain the position of hands

like the instructor did say.

So this is not something she is getting over and having a perfect performance.

I think she was clearly dealing with something in her past.

And I think once she's dealt with it, she'll be fine.

It was obviously weighing very heavily on her mind.

When you saw her in the early tasks you thought, wow,

here's a real proper contender.

Although both of them did not perform well.

Spacecraft underwater emergency

was not your best test.

That condition of being upside down,

constrained,

had a visible emotional impact that was sort of all-consuming.

How it appeared was it sort of reduced you right to the basic level

of just functioning. Just barely making it through.

At any given moment on a spaceship you may have one breath...

..before you have to be on the emergency breathing equipment

or you're done.

To be able to hold your fears at bay...

..it's an absolutely fundamental part of success as an astronaut.

You are an extremely impressive human being,

but you ran into serious problems.

Repeated serious problems.

The hard truth is that your astronaut selection ends today.

Appreciate for your feedback.

Some very strong, amazing young ladies and gentlemen in there

that you will guide for them to get their dream.

-Good luck.

-Thank you.

I am disappointed, but I did struggle with it.

I struggled a lot.

And it was all-consuming.

And that's not what you need.

The behaviour we saw in this test

-was not anything acceptable for an astronaut.

-Yeah.

But you demonstrated a level of courage that was staggering.

Finding within yourself the ability to face up to something that reduced

you right to your very limit was extremely impressive.

As a result, we are not sending you home today.

-Thank you.

-But that great resolve and strength of character that you

demonstrated, try and find your courage earlier.

Understood.

-Good luck on the remaining tests.

-Thank you.

I did think I was going home.

I did show a lot of panic and a lot of selfishness

by trying to survive and not look after my crewmates.

So, yeah, I need to work on that, definitely.

Space flight is dangerous.

But that doesn't mean you need to be scared.

It comes through recognising that

I could put the task ahead of my own emotions.

And I'm hoping to see Jackie change how she approaches danger

and recognise that she has a choice in how she faces up to risk.

Having seen how the candidates react in an emergency,

Chris's next test will examine their ability

to adapt to day-to-day life in space.

One of the things I love best about flying in space is being weightless.

But initially, though, you're clumsy.

It's like having to learn to walk again, and you bump into stuff.

You're not adapted for this. It's fundamentally different.

If you're writing and you realise I can just let go of my pen

and it'll just stay there floating in space while I read.

And so when you start looking around your spaceship for your pen

your eyes naturally look to the surfaces around you,

and even though your pen is floating there right next to you,

you can't see it.

You have to change how you look, how you think.

After the rocket has safely delivered you to orbit,

the moment the engines shut off,

instantaneously,

for the first time in your life, you're weightless.

And it's like...that.

And so today, the way that we're going to simulate that transition

from your life on Earth to weightlessness is...

..upside down goggles.

And it's going to be harder than you might think.

Using glass prisms, the goggles flip their vision...

Hello. Your eyes look huge.

And upside down. Ooh, that's so weird.

..simulating the sort of novel sensory experience

that astronauts have to cope with.

Wargh!

I just can't see the table.

In time, our brains can adapt to an upside-down world,

but the candidates don't have that long.

When you first get to orbit you have to perform right away.

But some people can be really overwhelmed

by a difference or a change...

I can't actually see the whiteboard.

..and that's what the upside-down goggles are simulating.

If you radically change one of the five senses,

how well can the candidate still function

in what should be a pretty straightforward task?

-Tell me if I'm about to write on you..

-THEY LAUGH

Chris wants to see how they perform a series of basic tasks,

starting by writing their name and date of birth.

Wow!

-That's OK.

-That's very good.

Some, like Jackie and Suzie...

That was really good.

..show an ability to adapt to this sensory disorientation.

To be fair, I was born in May, so...

But for others...

My handwriting is terrible at the best of times.

..such as Vijay and James H, it isn't as straightforward.

-How are you find it, James?

-Yeah, easy.

I wish I wasn't born in September now, though. That's for sure.

I've been competitive for as long as I can remember.

I started playing sports when I was a kid.

Playing tennis when I was about four, quite competitively

and have many memories of bursting into tears of rage

when things wouldn't be going my way on the court.

At the moment my main sport is bobsleigh.

I've been doing that for Great Britain for the last 2.5 seasons.

The competitive drive has always been there. I guess I live to compete.

Come on, James. You've got this.

Although it looks fun, this test provides Chris with a valuable

insight into who could adapt best to life in orbit.

If your astronaut selection can identify a candidate

with the right level of mental flexibility and fluid intelligence,

that gives them a real advantage over a candidate who doesn't.

Send it home.

-OTHERS:

-Whoa!

Oh, God.

It's not be enough just to be able to cope with the sensory challenges

of living in space.

While they're up there, astronauts also need to be able to operate some

of the most hi-tech machines in existence...

..like those used to survey our nearest planetary neighbour, Mars.

The surface of Mars is a harsh and unforgiving and dangerous place.

And so we send our non-human envoys first.

We send robots.

Our first explorers, paving the way for us to follow.

Britain's biggest space tech firm

is also the leading manufacturer of spacecraft in Europe.

They're currently building the next Mars rover,

which will leave Earth in 2020 in a £1 billion programme.

Today, the candidates will operate this ground-breaking robot.

It's amazing here. I've been walking around like, "wow"

at everything I've seen.

So, yeah, to operate the Mars rover is insane.

It's awesome.

We get to control Rover.

This is as good as it gets.

I probably should know more than I do about the Mars rover because,

they're building one of the instruments, the Raman spectrometer, at my university.

I really wish that I had asked them about how to operate a Mars rover.

The candidates will be recreating a test that Tim Peake did on board the

International Space Station in 2016

- driving the rover through a simulated Martian landscape.

The robot you're going to be operating is called Bridget.

So the first of us that are going to live on Mars

may well live in a cave.

And your purpose today is to use the Bridget rover robot

to explore a cave on Mars

so that we can decide whether it's a good habitat or not.

The key thing to remember is, Bridget is a battery-powered robot.

And it gets its power from the sun.

It's a solar-powered recharger.

So it's critical that you get back out into the sun before the time runs out.

Otherwise you've lost the entire mission.

With any deployment of a high-value asset, planning is key.

To be given some sort of map of a cave, so in my mind,

if you leave that rover in that cave you may as well pack your bags now.

Controlling the rover requires complex calculations of speed,

distance and trajectory.

If it was six wheels, if we turn these,

we're going to go that way, yeah?

You can do the same backwards, to reverse.

So we're facing forwards, yeah?

-Hello.

-Come on in. Have a seat.

-Thank you.

Just as on a real mission,

the astronaut candidates will have to control the rover remotely.

So, welcome to your spaceship.

Thank you.

At the controls, space scientist Suzie.

These are your three screens.

That one is the camera view looking through the eyes of Bridget.

This is a computer-generated bird's-eye view.

The task today seems simple.

It's going to be complicated.

Operating a robot on a television screen, it can be confusing.

It takes the lot of mental agility and visualisation.

It's a real skill that astronauts need.

Scattered around the mock-up Martian landscape are dozens of rocks.

Hidden on five of them are symbols,

which will only be revealed by the rover's onboard UV lights.

This is your scoring map.

The candidates need to find these rocks,

noting both the symbol and location on their map.

Each symbol is worth points,

with those furthest from the exit worth the most.

They have 20 minutes to find as many symbols as they can

and get the rover back out of the cave.

OK, here we go.

Begin.

The rover's built for safety, not for speed,

travelling at a maximum of four centimetres per second.

Zipping into the building.

And she's at max speed.

She's at max speed.

It takes Suzie seven minutes to get within striking distance of

her first target and turn on her UV lights.

I think she might have spotted it.

Look, there is a target.

She's got it, she's got it.

So now she's got to start driving.

As well as being a test of the candidates' visualisation skills

and mental agility, it will also give the panel an insight

into their attitude to risk.

-She's looking for the 20.

-She is.

She's going for gold.

-(Oh, she's marking it.)

-OK.

She found the target.

That's two targets.

Now she needs to decide, how greedy am I?

She may have found the third target.

Yeah.

But she is so deep into the cave.

Suzie has used up more than half of her time.

Not leaving herself much contingency if something goes wrong.

-She needs to begin the turn now to be comfortable, I think.

-Oh, yeah.

To get back out of the cave...

..she decides to attempt a three-point turn...

..a slow and difficult process.

She's finally on a successful trajectory now,

but it took that long to dig out of the hole.

Because it's so far in.

-I feel for her.

-I really feel for her.

With the rover still three metres from the exit...

CLOCK BLEEPS

Time's up.

That was a disaster. I just murdered their robot.

Yeah, that was a disaster.

Bridget never made it out of the cave.

She destroyed the asset.

Yeah, a huge, huge miscalculation there.

Hey. How was it?

I don't think I'm ever going to live that down.

Turns out that driving Mars rovers is not my forte.

I didn't know how long it would take to turn it around.

That's a massive fail in this challenge, I think.

It's awful not doing as well as you want to do on a test.

Yeah. It's disappointing.

-Yeah.

-Not a good one to mess up on.

It's one of these that seems so easy on paper.

Doesn't it, though? I had in my mind, just get it back out,

get it back out, and what did I do?

Get it stuck in there.

What was I thinking?

Next, theoretical physicist Jackie.

Begin.

And after a poor performance in the underwater escape test

the pressure's on.

Oh. She's spotted something.

Scanning from just inside the cave's entrance,

Jackie finds her first target in under two minutes.

That's pretty slick.

She's picked up the ten points on the left.

So she knows she could see quite far.

So if she plans correctly she doesn't need to go very far in.

She's methodically searching.

Look at that.

20 points.

Unable to see any more targets from the front of the cave,

Jackie ventures further in.

This is the mental process.

It's like her fangs are out and there's a bloodlust.

Can she hold it together?

She makes steady progress...

..picking off one target...

..after another.

She's got them all. She's got them all.

Jackie's secured full points, but she's used up almost half her time.

Now it's a race against the clock.

She can still do it. She can still get out.

But she's got to start turning now.

Instead of a three-point turn,

Jackie decides to try a U-turn.

She's got to turn now.

Can she make it to the exit?

Will the vehicle turn hard enough for her?

She's worked it out. She's at full turn.

She's at full speed and she's using the camera to look ahead of the turn

to see how far out she has to go.

-Exactly.

-But it's agonisingly slow now.

Yeah. Look at her face.

She's focused. She's completely focused.

The turn takes seven minutes.

She's got one minute.

This is super tight.

With seconds to spare...

She's done it, she's done it.

..Jackie makes it out of the cave with a perfect score.

Yes!

I'm so relieved.

Like, ugh! I was so stressed today, knowing that we had that test.

And that I did so badly on the last one.

I was so stressed.

But now I feel amazing.

I feel like I've smashed it.

It's going to be hard for me now to go in and not be too happy.

Because I don't want to make anyone feel bad

and I don't want to stress anyone out.

-Hey.

-Hello, Jackie. Beaming!

Well, it went really well.

-MERRITT GASPS

-Fantastic.

So hopefully I've redeemed myself from nearly drowning four times.

Not everyone executes their plans as well as Jackie.

Come on.

Some are so focused on finding the targets...

There's no way she'll make it back to the finish line.

No, no, no.

..that they fail to make it out of the cave.

I think I may be stuck.

Others, like Tim, can't spot a single rock.

He's already burned seven minutes. He's got no targets.

He just hasn't had an effective search pattern.

And he's our geologist on the team.

Yeah.

But he does at least make it out in time.

It wasn't a huge win, but it wasn't a loss either.

RAF pilot Kerry plans precisely.

This is Kerry's concentration face.

So she's focused, determined

and executing the plan.

She finds three targets and heads for the exit with time to spare.

What I think they're looking for is somebody that's balanced, flexible, that can work around problems.

So if I was choosing astronauts then I would choose me.

James A has a PhD in molecular biology

but it's another specialism which he thinks gives him an advantage.

I used to play a lot of first-person shooters.

And in that you're looking through the eyes of the person you're playing,

and in this test today you're looking through its camera.

So, fingers crossed,

I'm hoping that'll play to my strengths today with this.

After struggling with the upside-down goggles,

James H isn't as confident.

I think this test is more of a suck it and see test for me,

rather than an active strength of mine.

Hopefully, it'll just go well.

Seconds in, James A is on the move, scanning for targets.

So he had a plan, which was turn on the lights,

tip the camera down and start driving.

He is at four centimetres per second, straight line.

-Head for the back.

-He's very time-aware.

Two minutes in, James H is searching blindly.

Possibly trying to identify the first target.

He hasn't turned the light on, though.

He's only just started moving.

He's got quite a long way to go into that cave to hit his targets

and I don't think he's seen any of them yet.

-Right.

-So that's a 5-point target in the middle of the screen.

He hasn't turned his light on yet.

OK, so lights on.

-So that's 15 minutes.

-15, 15.

He hasn't seen the first target yet.

At the moment, it looks to me like he's sort of hunting around fairly

blindly and I think he's a bit confused by this task.

After nine minutes...

He's getting very deep into the cave.

..James A spots two targets in quick succession.

He's sitting on 35 points.

-This is very impressive.

-This is VERY impressive.

Look at him. He's like, "Hey, I've got this nailed."

Having driven to the back of the cave in a perfect straight line,

he can attempt something no-one else has.

-So he's backing up.

-Look at that, he is.

He's backing up. Ah!

And if he looks forward

he might be able to pick off one of the other targets.

Yeah, he's looking, isn't he?

Look at that track. Look at that track.

That's a beautiful control.

Can he drive this vehicle backwards all the way to the exit?

Nobody's done it yet.

James H is making slow progress.

He's now ten minutes in.

And he hasn't locked any single target on the map.

Yeah. So this isn't great.

If he does not think about turning around soon

he is going to get stuck in that cave.

Just half a metre from the exit, and with seven minutes still remaining,

James A stops dead.

I think he's doing a final survey around,

trying to get so many points.

He's got three targets left to find.

This is a good strategy, isn't it?

He's seen a target, he thinks.

Two down, one to go.

Oh, he can actually see the 20-pointer.

Is he going to get the 20-pointer for a full score?

He has.

-He's got it.

-He's got it.

-Wow.

-Six minutes.

He's got all the targets.

Wow! That is phenomenal.

That's phenomenal.

With six minutes left on his clock,

James H has stopped looking for targets

and is trying to find his way out of the cave.

This is a blind manoeuvre.

This is classic loss of awareness of your situation.

Even if he'd started reversing hard now

he's not going to get out of the cave. So this is game over.

But for James A...

..it's mission accomplished.

You can't argue with that. He's out of the cave.

He's out of the cave with more than five minutes to spare.

Wow. That is today's best performance.

That is a study in executing a plan.

My strategy was probably the worst strategy I could have gone for.

Just got every single bit of it wrong today.

Yes!

I feel like I absolutely smashed that.

Yo! Hey.

I loved that.

THEY LAUGH

-That was brilliant.

-How did it go?

Um, I got 'em all. And I had five minutes left at the end.

All that time playing first-person shooters is finally paying off.

LAUGHTER

We saw the entire spectrum,

from perfection, where you finished everything with 100% score with five minutes to spare,

right through to the other complete ends of unacceptability

that resulted in, really, the worst case.

Bridget never made it out of the cave, a pretty serious mistake.

Suzie, who has lots of natural skill and ability,

today revealed a flaw in her decision-making

through the way that she prioritised.

She was very aggressive in shooting for the highest scoring

points and I'm just wondering whether or not

this is an indicator of her overall approach to risk.

James H, pretty shocking performance.

There was no evaluation of risks or benefits,

there was no weighing on decision-making, on what would work,

what wouldn't,

and that's just not acceptable.

It was much more of just a fingers-crossed way

of dealing with it.

And as a result, he had the worst of all outcomes, which was no targets,

didn't make it to the exit.

No rover.

I don't think anyone is going to get eliminated today.

Well, if you're going to be an astronaut

you want to be consistently good at most things.

So if that's what Chris is looking at...

-Hello, James.

-Hey.

-How are you doing?

-Not too bad.

Probably the most nervous I've been all week.

You did not have a good day today.

No, not at all.

You not only didn't get any targets

but the rover never even got close

back to the mouth of the cave.

You didn't get to where you needed to be

for the requirements of a task that is

very astronaut-representative.

And to not perform on this task

-means that the selection process ends here.

-Right.

-Take care.

-Cheers.

Bye.

Right now I'm just gutted, devastated.

But obviously the outcome was terrible.

So I feel devastated about it.

I'm not surprised after how it went today.

-Hi.

-All right?

What's happening?

HE EXHALES

There's only ever going to be one reason why you're going to meet with

Chris in a hallway at this time of night.

Probably the best task to mess up if you want to get out of the process.

And, yeah, that's pretty much what happened.

Just being here has been an achievement in itself

and just really pleased he chose me to come on here in the first place.

A lot of weight is put on some challenges,

and if you don't do well on those then you might be sent home.

So, yeah, I think I was lucky.

In the astronaut world

there is a thing we call operational decision-making.

You HAVE to decide on something that has

big consequences - maybe life or death.

Today it was pretty clear.

The mission was, get the rover back out of the cave.

It's almost as if he had no plan at all,

as if he was just kind of hoping that things would go right.

His operational decision-making today was unacceptable

and it is absolute bread and butter

to a successful life as an astronaut.

There are eight of us left now.

Four have left.

It only gets tougher from here, doesn't it?

After a week of constant assessment...

..for the astronaut candidates, a chance to socialise.

Tonight the panel has invited them to a drinks reception...

..and asked them to bring their loved ones.

You look beautiful.

My little soldier.

But this is more than just a social event,

it's a chance for the panel to see them off-duty

and find out what they're really like.

I'm looking to see how people behave

when they don't sense that they're being observed.

Astronaut selection is competitive.

And that applies in social situations as well.

Some of the people this age are going to go live on the moon.

And maybe even, if we can develop the technology fast enough,

go as far away as Mars.

And you are going to need, not just a skilled group of people,

but people who can get along

like no group of people have ever gotten along in history,

or the whole mission will be threatened.

-Hello.

-Hi.

Hello, hi!

Good evening, astronaut candidates.

-ALL:

-Good evening.

But much more importantly, good evening to the guests.

This is my wife, Helena.

We met in high school.

-We've been together for 40...

-Too many.

..42 years!

LAUGHTER

We really thought it would be nice, since everyone else had a chance

to bring friends and family, that I would do the same.

When Chris was selected as an astronaut,

it was such a moment of joy,

and I was doing cartwheels across the kitchen.

-And liftoff...

-Even though you know it's dangerous you're like, OK,

let's just go to space, so that's exciting.

And I have insurance!

I thought what might be nice, to ask each of the candidates to come here

and formally introduce the guest that they've brought with them.

It is no exaggeration to say that

I would not be stood here today if it wasn't for this woman.

Although she has no science qualifications herself,

she's always encouraged my passion and interest and curiosity

in science and the natural world

and encouraged us in anything that we want to do.

Academically, I'm most proud of achieving a first class in my

undergraduate masters degree.

I think one of the best things was seeing how proud my mum was when I got my undergraduate degree

because she was a single parent -

she raised me and my sister on her own.

And I remember the first thing I said to her when I came out of graduation,

"Mum, half of this certificate is yours. We can share it,"

because I wouldn't have been able to do that with my mum.

-I wouldn't be here without you, Mum. So thank you. Thank you.

-Pleasure's all mine.

APPLAUSE

The person I've invited this evening is my amazing wife, Jenny.

Jenny does a much harder job than me. She's a nurse.

And, um...

HE LAUGHS HALTINGLY

The things she does for people are absolutely amazing.

I'll leave it at that. Hopefully she'll explain much better

than I can all the amazing things she does for everyone else.

Part of the reason I set it up the way I did tonight was, it put them

suddenly, for the first time,

up in front of all of the other candidates

with the necessity to say something unplanned.

This is my twin brother, James.

He's a neutrino physicist.

Erm, I don't know what to say, really.

Yeah, we did everything together, basically,

as we were growing up so I'm really glad that he made it.

I have a PhD in space plasma physics.

I don't think I ever thought I was that smart. I had a very smart brother.

My twin brother is extremely smart.

I think that kind of put me in my place.

We both worked pretty hard at school.

But my brother did better than I did, academically.

Being an astronaut might enable me to trump my twin brother, that's true.

Don't film that!

-Very nice to meet you, James. And you're a physicist?

-I am, yeah.

I work on neutrino oscillation physics.

So what do you think of your sister?

Of all the people I know,

the kind of person to do this kind of thing, it's probably Suz.

Wow.

SUZIE LAUGHS

There was sort of a separateness and an aloofness

of Merritt and her sister, that kept them from

a genuine conversation with the groups that I was in.

I wish I could have enjoyed it a little bit more but at this point

I've been under a ton of pressure,

and just all the challenges have been...

..erm, like, just hitting me a little bit hard.

I found it awkward because you feel somewhat staged,

but at the same time, you want to have, like, a normal conversation.

I've heard so much about you.

Oh, have you? That's lovely. Where do you live?

West Yorkshire. Near Leeds.

-Oh, really?

-Yeah.

-My family's from Sheffield and Wakefield,

is where my great grandfather is from, actually.

-I didn't know that!

-Some of the candidates really recognised that

they're being evaluated.

Very nice to meet you. I want to make sure I meet everyone.

Very nice to meet you, too. Thanks.

Some seemed sort of oblivious to it.

I'm not sure if...

if Tim realised that this was an evaluation.

There was no pressure to perform tonight.

When it's test after test after test

you've always got to be on your toes, and it's really tiring.

So it was nice to just unwind for the evening and just enjoy it.

If you're going through astronaut selection,

you should sort of have the assumption

that you're always being observed.

It's a competition. It's a tug of war against 11 other people

and you should always be your best.

Even though it's been a social evening and it's supposed to be kind of relaxing

it hasn't really felt like you're having a night off.

Because you know people are always watching and if you do or say

something stupid they'll definitely judge you on it.

The person who recognised the strongest that this was an evaluation was Kerry.

So they were hoping that I'd be a good ambassador for the Air Force.

Ha-ha! So we'll see how that goes!

An astronaut's life, no matter what else happens,

you are the face of the world space programme.

And so an ability to be elegant and calm and natural

it's a good skill to have.

I hope you get a little time to enjoy the rest of the evening.

It's been a delight to meet all the guests. Thanks, everybody, for coming.

The party's over,

but the evaluation isn't.

OK, on this particular event, who did not do well?

The two that I guess we should talk about a little, I think,

Suzie and Merritt.

Suzie did not speak in that initial introduction of her brother

as well as I thought she was going to.

-I think she ran out of things to say.

-She just seemed nervous.

And people do get nervous.

And Merritt.

She has this unique ability, in comparison to all other candidates,

where she never stops trying.

That's why she is where she is.

But I still have a gut feeling that we haven't seen

everything that she has to give.

Let's all keep an eye on her and see how she fares in the next few tests.

The remaining eight astronaut candidates

have made it through the basic stage of selection.

But as they enter the advanced phase,

the process will move up a gear.

Things are about to get harder.

Hands on your head. Go.

The candidates travel to Germany...

Start spinning now.

..to find out who has what it takes to fly in space.

Welcome to your Soyuz simulator.

Wow.

Make a hash of this...

Wrong way, wrong way, James.

..you're going home.

Ten seconds.

Oh, God.