What's it like to fly in space - from the man who really knows

Colonel Chris Hadfield, astronaut, test pilot, spacewalker, spaceship commander, and bestselling author, is the man who has all the answers – answers he will share in a special evening in Brighton when he tours with a show he promises will be visually stunning, Chris Hadfield: A Journey Into The Cosmos (Brighton Dome, June 22).

“What does it feel like?” he says. “You've got to remember that it is the culmination of decades of work. If you ask an Olympian what it is like to cross the finishing line and have the tape break across your chest you've got to remember that there are maybe 25 years of work to get to that point. Of course, it is important how it feels in that moment but it's not just about the transience of that moment. In the moment you can feel nauseous or overwhelmed or cowed by the level of responsibility or really aware of the dangers you have faced just to get there. But also it's about how it fits into your dreams. It transmits into all those emotions but also you remember that you're working with a group of world-class people at the very edge of human capability. Every step you take is a big step. Until only recently all this had just been the stuff of dreams. When I was born, no one had flown in space. All this has happened in my lifetime.

“But when you are there, you feel a tremendous humility when you recognise the rarity of the experience that you are having and the absolute privilege of being one of a very, very small number of human beings that have been trusted to see the world in this way. And it also gives you joy.”

But again, so much is about all that has led to this moment: “I decided to be an astronaut when I was nine years old. I didn't just hope to be an astronaut. I decided to start changing who I was so that I could start turning myself into an astronaut, and I started doing that the summer that I turned ten. The change was inspired by science fiction and also by science fact. The change was inspired by Star Trek and also by the Apollo programme. And I changed myself deliberately and gradually in order to be qualified enough and trustworthy enough at some point to be able to command a space ship. But then the reality is the suddenness of the change, going from earthly mundane gravity-dominated existence to feeling that you are weightless. It almost feels like a superpower.”

And you are travelling so fast that it takes just 90 minutes to orbit the entire world: “But when you do that it enforces the validity of the choices that you took as a ten-year-old and all the complexities of how you reached this point, plus the joy and the honour and the privilege. I served as an astronaut for 21 years and I trained every day during those 21 years so that I could have three space flights, six months off this planet. And then when you return there is a real internal reckoning with what you are going to do with that experience as you start to wonder whether this experience can be of value to other people and how you can let other people share the experience.”

And indeed Chris feels that it's a responsibility to do so: “I have been very fortunate but things didn't happen accidentally. I was getting a world-class education and I didn't have to worry about the stability of my country. With reasonable confidence I learned that there was room for me to be able to be the best that I could be. But that comes with the responsibility. I wanted to serve. I joined the air force was when I was 18 and served for 35 years.”

Along the way Chris even created the first music video made in space with his hugely-popular cover of the David Bowie song Space Oddity.

As for the show in Brighton, Chris will present never-before-seen space imagery taken from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) and the International Space Station (ISS), featuring breathtaking views of Earth, the Moon, Mars and more in an awe-inspiring exploration of discovery.

Drawing on his three spaceflights, Chris will share gripping personal stories, moments of joy and great danger, insights into cutting-edge space technologies and his unique perspective on where we are at this pivotal time in human history.