You can’t see the Great Wall of China from space

….but you can see the M25.

There’s something of the rock star about astronauts. After all, they have done things we can only dream of, and they give off this air of “other worldliness”. Plus they are the real adventurers of the 21st century, “boldly going” where none have gone before. So I was thrilled to see Chris Hadfield, astronaut and former Chief of the International Space Station, as the keynote speaker at IP Expo this week. He didn’t disappoint. 

From his opening slides describing what it really feels like to be in a rocket when it launches to the end film showing three men squashed in to the tiny Soyuz capsule, the talk was totally fascinating. 

Who knew that what you hear inside the space station is the general hum of electronics, creaks and groans of metal as it expands and contracts with changes in temperature, and the pings and thunks of small meteorites crashing into the space station’s sides?

Apparently, the biggest technical challenge to space flight is the launch. It’s the most dangerous and complicated part of any mission. This is what Jeff Bezos, Richard Branson and Elon Musk are trying so hard to solve. 

So what is it like to “walk” in space? On one level, physically extremely hard – the suits are uncomfortable and exhausting to work in. You certainly don’t look like Sandra Bullock in Gravity after you’ve completed a six-hour spacewalk. But on the other hand, being able to look at the beauty of our planet from 400 km away, in all its fragility and kaleidoscopic colour, is extraordinarily magical. If only we could all share that experience.