Christmas lectures to explore challenges of space flight

Royal Institution lecture series by Kevin Fong, an expert in space medicine, will include live video chat with British astronaut Tim Peake on ISS

The delicate art of lobbing people into space and keeping them alive as they fall around the planet at 17,500mph for months on end will be this year's theme for Britain's most prestigious public science lectures.

Kevin Fong, a flying doctor and expert in space medicine, will use the Royal Institution Christmas lectures to explore how an immense controlled explosion propels astronauts into a beautiful and hostile environment where a single mistake can mean death in seconds.