The Astronaut Test Selection Book

Tim Peake, ESA Century £20 HB

If you want to apply to be an astronaut you may need this ‘not for dummies’ guide. You’ll be in superb hands: Tim Peake has been there, seen it, done it and now wears the ESA spacesuit.

It’s a brain work-out on steroids, stuffed with authentic selection tests covering language skills, maths, science, engineering, communication and psychology. Buckle up and aim high! You’ll ‘sweat the small stuff’ – an astronaut mantra – with fiendish exercises. Tackled individually or as a group, they’ll leave you feeling confident, crushed, confounded or enlightened. But it’s fun!

Entertaining and engaging, this intelligent book is educational and for the serious-minded. Are you a decisive team player? Do you have the necessary ‘competencies’ and ‘behavioural markers’ to get you closer to space? These tasks will find you out and help get you there. At the very least, they will deepen your understanding of life in zero-G.

By revealing Peake’s own experiences, we’re shown what’s required of a would-be astronaut, and why. You will come to know your own strengths and weaknesses. You will get things wrong. There may be no ‘right’. Regular ‘debriefs’ explain all.

Crucially, The Astronaut Selection Test Book is innovative, earnest, soulful and exhilarating; a route to the stars but also a road map for any career application. It’s a guide for life itself, on Earth, the ISS, Mars or anywhere.