About a month before she graduated from the European Space Agency, Katherine Bennell-Pegg woke up in the middle of the night, during one of the program’s mandatory survival expeditions. In the dark, outside, without a clue what the time was (watches not being considered essential survival gear), she looked up.

“I saw the stars above the trees. And suddenly something shifted, and I could see the space station. I had this realisation of, ‘I could be up there soon. That could be me.’”