SMALL PRINT:WHAT'S IT really like to be an astronaut? Think giggling during take-off, manoeuvring some tricky parking and having to come up with a rapid Plan B when the tool bag floats off during a spacewalk. Those were some of the more human aspects of space missions that the US astronaut Col Shane Kimbrough related to an audience of around 1,100 teachers, parents and students who packed into the Helix at Dublin City University yesterday.

Kimbrough was a crew member aboard STS-126 Endeavour and spent around two weeks on the International Space Station (ISS), during which he completed two spacewalks at around 300 km above Earth.

So what did we learn about being an astronaut?

You giggle a lot during takeoff

The initial couple of minutes as a space shuttle blasts off can be pretty violent, but then the solid rocket boosters fall away and the journey gets smoother, says Kimbrough of the eight or so minutes it takes to get into space. "I was giggling like I was on a rollercoaster," he told The Irish Times. "The people around me had flown in space before but I hadn't so I was like a kid. How could you not be excited and overjoyed?"

Parking in space is a bit tricky

After a couple of days, the space shuttle finally gets to dock with the ISS, but parking into a craft that’s hurtling along at a speed of around 28,000 kph is no cinch.

“The space station is travelling really fast and you have to catch it,” says Kimbrough, describing how the shuttle backs into the docking station. “There’s one person flying but all the other crew are involved in some way, either shooting a laser to the station to give you the exact range, or reading checklists. There’s a docking mechanism on the ISS where you connect, so I was in charge of making sure all the systems were ready to dock.”

There’s a backup plan if you float off into space

On a spacewalk during the STS-126 mission, a tool bag went floating off into space, but luckily there’s a back-up jetpack if that should ever happen to a human. “It’s a great capability to have but you don’t ever want to have to use it,” he says.

You get woken up by music each morning

One of the perks of being on the ISS is the wake-up call: during his trip, one of Kimbrough's alarms was City of Blinding Lightsby U2.

No excuses: you still have to exercise in space

The ISS crew exercise for about two hours each day, but it’s not your ordinary set-up on the treadmill. “There’s a pair of shoulder pads attached to it and you get in underneath it,” says Kimbrough. His mission also delivered a special machine for resistance exercises that allows astronauts to “feel the burn”.