It was one small step for man, but two small steps for the children when they met some real-life astronauts in Bradford.

Six astronauts from the Mission Atlantis space crew touched down at the National Museum of Photography, Film and Television yesterday to talk to youngsters from across the region about the experience of blasting off into space and to see the IMAX movie Space Station 3D which they helped to film.

The team was led by Leeds University-educated scientist Dr Piers Sellers, pictured left with the rest of the crew, who spent 11 days in space last October adding new sections to the International Space Station and attaching vital solar panels to its giant structure.

Piers, 47, from Halifax, who carried out three space walks during the mission, said the experience of being in space lived up to everything he had dreamed of as a boy.

He said: "There are two things that really strike you about being in space.

"The first is the experience of zero gravity where you can float along a whole corridor just by touching the walls with your fingers.

"The second is the view which is indescribably beautiful. Everything is just so bright. When you first do the space walk you are just utterly awestruck for the first few seconds about how beautiful it is.

"You are in this huge universe of light, with the earth glowing below you and the space station glowing above you like it's made of molten lava."

Dressed in his blue mission jump suit, Piers said the IMAX film did a remarkably good job of recreating the feeling of floating weightlessly in space.

He said: "It certainly helps to convey the feeling of vast space. It's as close as you can get without actually going!"

Philip Lomas, Pier's father-in-law, from Hebden Bridge, was also at the NMPFT yesterday to see the giant IMAX Space Station film. Piers met Philip's daughter Mandy when they were both students in Leeds.

Philip said: "We were there for the launch. He told us that it was his ambition when we first met him and we thought, well maybe... but he actually did it!"