Astronaut drops in at laboratory

A-LEVEL science students from across the North of England got the unique opportunity to meet US astronaut Larry DeLucas at Daresbury Laboratory near Warrington.
Sponsored by the Institute of Physics and the Daresbury Laboratory, Dr DeLucas, former astronaut on the space shuttle Columbia and chief scientist at the International Space Station at NASA, gave a spellbinding account of his experiences in space.
Dr DeLucas talked about his experiences flying through space, which included a mission on board space shuttle Columbia in 1992, the longest mission of 14 days in space there had ever been at the time.
He then described the selection process to become an astronaut, as well as some of the quirkier sides of space travel including suffering a swollen head and having to be clamped to the toilet.
The lecture concluded with a discussion on the future of space exploration and some of the new challenges, experiments and techniques that await scientists and astronauts alike.
Head of science in society at Daresbury Laboratory, Tony Buckley said: “The entire audience was riveted right from the beginning to the end of this talk. It was full to the brim with amazing images, video footage, interesting stories and facts about life in space. I was particularly surprised to learn that the average age of an astronaut is 40 and that there are only 400 former astronauts in the world.”
The evening concluded with a variety of stunning video and images of earth taken by Dr DeLucas’ crew on board the Columbia and other missions.