What if feels like to: Go into space

It was always my childhood dream to become an astronaut. I watched the first people walk on the Moon when I was nine. Canada had no space agency back then, but I decided to turn myself into an astronaut, as far-fetched as it seemed. I've flown in space three times.

The first time, I flew on a space shuttle to help build the Russian space station Mir and the second was to build the International Space Station (ISS). On my third flight I was the pilot of the Russian spaceship that launched from Kazakhstan. I stayed up on the space station for five months.

The journey to orbit is dangerous, complex and demanding. We don't ride spaceships - we fly them up. It's almost like climbing a steep, rocky peak then suddenly standing on top. Every single astronaut, the second they get to orbit and unstrapped, wants to go to the window and look down on the world.

On board the ISS we run around 200 experiments. The majority are taking advantage of the weightless environment. We monitor changes in the human body that mimic those on Earth, such as balance, blood pressure, cardiovascular regulation, degradation of eyes and osteoporosis. Those happen very rapidly to us in space but slowly on Earth, so it's an interesting laboratory.

There is a schedule on the computers with a big red line moving across it for each of the crew members. It tells you what you are doing down to five-minute increments for the entire time you are up there. It's busy on a space station. You get up at 6am, go to bed at midnight and work seven days a week.

I took 45,000 photographs and the ones in my new book are my favourites. I wanted to show what it's like to stand with your nose pressed up against the glass, watching the world pour by at 8km a second. You can go from Scotland to Abu Dhabi in five minutes.

It takes around the same amount of time to prepare a hot drink as it does to cross the Atlantic. We would pass Newfoundland and I'd think: "I want to get some good pictures of the UK," so I'd grab some tea, float back and then Scotland and Ireland would be appearing on my horizon. In comparison it seems quite slow to get around the world now.

I wasn't homesick at all. The space station isn't as remote as it used to be. I could talk to my wife every day and email my kids. It was like I was on the most marvellous business trip in history.

My family on my grandmother's side is from the Scottish Borders. They left in 1825 and sailed across to Montreal before settling in southern Ontario. The first place I ever landed in Scotland was Prestwick, in 1977. I toured Europe for six months as a teenager and flew from Toronto to Prestwick. I went up to Glasgow, Oban and Loch Ness then down the east coast. I never thought back then I would land a spaceship in Kazakhstan, get on a plane and it would stop in Prestwick to refuel on the way home. The first shower I had in five months was at Prestwick.

You Are Here: Around The World In 92 Minutes by Chris Hadfield is published by Macmillan on Tuesday, priced £20. The author will be at Waterstones, Princes Street, Edinburgh, and Waterstones @ The Science Centre in Glasgow on December 15.