Astronaut Tim Peake reveals his pre-take off song choice to Tom Hanks
While appearing on BBC Radio 2 with Dermot O’Leary, longtime space fan Tom Hanks got the chance to quiz British astronaut Tim Peake about his experiences in space.
Hanks, who himself revealed that he managed to rack up a cumulative total of around four minutes of weightlessness while working on Apollo 13 with Ron Howard, first became obsessed with space exploration after watching the Stanley Kubrick movie 2001: A Space Odyssey.
Since then, he has kept up to date with the goings on of NASA and he relished the chance to pose some questions to Peake, including the age-old query of, ‘How, exactly, do you go the toilet in space.’ Peake curiously revealed that 98% of all astronaut urine and sweat is recycled as the water is filtered out for general usage.
However, one of the most noteworthy revelations when it came to another of Hank’s passions, music, arose when Peake revealed that prior to lift-off, astronauts generally have around ten minutes of waiting while checks are conducted during which the crew can listen to three songs.
Peake revealed that the anthem he always turns to is the Queen classic from 1979, ‘Don’t Stop Me Now’. The astronaut from Chichester commented that every time he hears the song even when stationed on terra firma he gets “goosebumps”.
On other occasions, Peake has also selected ‘Beautiful Day’ by U2 and ‘A Sky Full of Stars’ by Coldplay. He dubs these anthems his “rocket music”.
Naturally, the three pre-take off tracks revelation left many listeners wondering what their selection would be. We got a hint at what song Hanks might opt for moments later when ‘Layla’ by Derek & The Dominos was played by O’Leary, and the Asteroid City actor commented, “It’s got to be up there in the top ten, without a doubt,” when he was asked if ‘Layla’ was one of his favourite songs.
Aside from chatting about one of his favourite passions, Hanks was also appearing on the show promoting Moonwalkers, a live show currently on sale that sees Hanks look at the history and future of humankind’s voyages to the moon.
As the show’s synopsis states: “The show tells the stories of the Apollo missions, reflecting their gripping journeys at spectacular scale. Newly filmed interviews between Hanks and astronauts of the current Artemis programme will grant an insight into the return of crewed surface missions to the moon.”