Space catwalk: Astronaut shows off colourful suit painted by cancer children

Childhood cancer patients are lined up for a chat with an astronaut aboard the International Space Station wearing a hand-painted spacesuit they helped decorate. The youngsters from the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston will have a 20-minute question and answer session with Kate Robbins on Friday as she whizzes by hundreds of miles above the Earth. She will be wearing a colourful spacesuit dubbed Courage, one of three created to raise awareness of how art can benefit cancer paitents. The other two suits, Hope and Unity were designed by youngsters in hospitals in Germany, Russia, and Japan. The chat comes two days after Rubins, who has a degree in cancer biology, talked to teachers and pupils at her old school in California. Principal Mike Pearson said she was proof of how far you would get with hard work but she told pupils: “He was also our soccer coach, and he made us run laps.”

It just sort of collects and it’ll end up pooling on your face or pooling on your body, so we always have a towel handy

Kate Rubins on what it’s like to sweat in space

Science