What does space smell like? Major Tim Peake answers military kids' questions

Disney's latest film Lightyear, which is available to watch in BFBS Cinemas, features a cameo appearance by British Army veteran and European Space Agency astronaut Major Tim Peake – a man millions of children around the world would love to ask a question. 

Military kids from Talavera Junior School in Aldershot were given the chance to put questions to the spaceman via BFBS the Forces Station's Natasha Reneaux who spoke to the Honorary Colonel of 9 Regiment Army Air Corps in the run-up to the film's release. 

The astronaut today shared on Twitter a new full-colour image from the James Webb Space Telescope which shows the "sharpest view of the universe to date", encouraging schoolchildren to take an interest in science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) to help them in their future careers.

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He said: "Everybody has something in common today, and that's, whatever career you go into, technology will play a part.

"We are living and we're surrounded by technology more and more and so the more you know about it, it will open doors of opportunity for you regardless of your career choice so space is an obvious way to get people inspired into those kind of STEM subjects."

Thanks to the kids of British Army personnel, we now know what space smells like and what astronauts miss most when they spend months in the International Space Station.

What did Maj Peake miss the most while he was in space? 

"You just want to be immersed in nature."

How did Maj Peake stay in touch with loved ones while he was in space? 

"Who would have thought that today you can go into space and you can just phone anywhere on earth, anytime and nobody can ring you, so you've got the best of both worlds." 

Was Maj Peake able to see Earth's atmosphere while he was in the International Space Station? 

"It's beautiful to see, but it's also quite startling how thin it is."

What does space sound like? 

"It's really spooky to hear the silence of space, the silence of the vacuum of space."

What does space smell like? 

"The smell of space is weird."