Have you been watching the BBC series Astronauts: Do You Have What It Takes?

We absolutely love this programme - looking at putting incredible people, from a range of different backgrounds, through tasks which are either identical, or similar, to those undertaken by real astronauts on the European Space Agency's (ESA) astronaut training programme. Most of the team here at the NSO would love to be astronauts too - a dream which has never left us since we were children. The same goes for one of our favourite contestants - local to us here in Liverpool, and friend of the NSO - Jackie Bell. 

In 2017 she became one of 12 applicants selected from thousands of entries to take part in the BBC show in an attempt to gain a reference from Chris Hadfield, Canadian astronaut and former commander of the ISS, when the ESA next begin recruiting.

We've been lucky enough to speak to Jackie and you can read her career story on our website. What's interesting is that all of the contestants have STEM backgrounds, many of them physics-based. Getting those qualifications, and the knowledge and skills that they bring, obviously stands you in good stead for a career as an astronaut!