How do you become an astronaut?

To become an astronaut, according to British Astronaut Tim Peake, the best advice is just to do what you want to do!

Many astronauts were doctors, teachers, engineers, scientists or pilots first before becoming an astronaut so you can do many jobs and still become one.

Tim says it’s important to focus on what you are good at but if you do enjoy science and maths then they are great subjects to study and they’ll open up lots of opportunities for you.

There are also engineers currently working on space planes that will hopefully take lots of people to space one day.

It’s just like any regular plane which takes off from a runway but it actually leaves the atmosphere!

It makes it much quicker to go round the planet – it takes just four and a half hours in a space plane whereas it takes a whole day in a normal plane.

In the future, people will be able to go on a space plane, go around the world and into space and feel weightlessness!