How to ‘do it’ in space: Former European Space Agency trainer explains

The Neil Mitchell program has a long-held interest in space travel.

Earlier this year Neil spoke to Charlie Duke, the youngest man to walk on the moon at 36, Megan Clark, who will head up the Australian Space Agency and Enrico Palermo, the Aussie in charge of Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic program.

This morning Neil was joined by Dr Gail Iles, now RMIT physics lecturer and former European Space Agency astronaut trainer.

She explain her theory as to why she was cut from the astronaut program.

“There were about 10,000 people applied in Europe, after several tests and grueling examinations I got down to the last few hundreds,” Dr Iles said.

“They revealed the results of the airline pilot tests and it turns out they weren’t looking for ‘the best’ people, there were seven tests and I assumed you had to get 9/9 on every test to be selected.

“But the psychologists explained they didn’t actually want the people who got 9/9, they wanted people who got 7/9, because if you have someone who is too intelligent then they’ll question some of the orders they’re given.

“So I like to tell people I was too intelligent to be an astronaut!”

Click PLAY below to hear the details

Dr Iles also told Neil what’s banned on the International Space Station and what happened the last time there was a couple included on a mission.

GAIL: There was a couple team sent on a shuttle, they were testing how to do it in space.

NEIL: Why??

GAIL: Because eventually we’re going to be inhabiting other planets and we may not have solved the gravity problem by then.

NEIL: And what did they discover about having sex in space?

GAIL: You need a lot of velcro!