Get Involved

The Armchair Astronaut is a community of Spaceflight enthusiasts based in the UK and Europe. We're from all walks of life, cultures, men, women, children, adults, experienced enthusiasts and new to the hobby; all united by our passion for Spaceflight and desire to be inspired by meeting Astronauts.

We founded and launched The Armchair Astronaut in 2015 on the back of almost 20 years of involvement of private/corporate event management services which included Astronaut events.

TheArmchairAstronaut.co.uk is an online public outreach platform available to promote all general public Astronaut appearances and Spaceflight events in the UK and Europe. This is a free service. We charge no fees and link direct to official ticket websites. Unless otherwise stated, these are not our events and full credit goes to the Astronaut and team concerned.

We have an established presence on Facebook and X where you can follow us for the latest news and announcements on Astronaut and Spaceflight events in the UK and Europe.

Many Astronauts have used our website as a platform to promote their UK events direct to UK space enthusiasts. This includes UK Book Tours by Buzz Aldrin, Chris Hadfield, Scott Kelly, Mike Massimino, Tim Peake and Kathy Sullivan, as well as multiple UK Stage Tours by Chris Hadfield and Tim Peake, both as a sole speaker and Soyuz TMA-19M / Expedition 46 crew tour.

It is our duty and pleasure to connect UK space enthusiasts with these events and opportunities, and we are always open to more in the future. Astronauts please apply here!

Historically we would add all public Astronaut appearances and events but on one occasion this caused some unintentional upset to the event organisers and, on another separate occasion, damaged our resources for the year when significant financial gain was had at our time and expense only for us to then be unjustifiably shunned from the event.

We now only list events that have been verified by us having reached out to the organiser who has engaged with us.
So, if any Astronaut event is not listed on our website it will either be because:

1. It is a private event not open to the general public, or
2. The event/Astronaut appearance can not be verified, or
3. The organisers have chosen not to engage our support (as is their right to do so) or have spaceflight enthusiasts from our extensive UK community attend.

This allows us to put all our efforts and resources into events being organised by those who are engaging and share in our values. Events that are already in the public domain may still be listed but with a public service note and no links.

This is done to protect you and to to preserve our relationship with event organisers. In these cases we would definitely recommend proceeding with caution and make contact with the organisers to confirm the details and your eligibility to attend BEFORE purchasing tickets. You are welcome you share you experience with us so that we may support the wider community.

Our main aim is to support existing organisations, many of who are non-profit and to promote existing Astronaut and Spaceflight events. Where an existing organisation is not able to accommodate the Astronaut, or where the Astronaut prefers to work directly with us we will always explore all options to host an event ourselves.

There are many different ways you can Get Involved:

• Please support the Astronauts visiting the UK and Europe by attending the events.
• Always mention The Armchair Astronaut when purchasing your tickets and attending the event. Although rare, on occasions we have negotiated special incentives for our community. This has included reduced prices, private meet and greets and most recently an invite to an unannounced element of the event: a live linkup to talk with Astronauts on the International Space Station. We can not always openly publish these details before the event therefore we rely on you mentioning us when you book your tickets or informing us directly when we post the question on social media.
• Like and Follow us on Facebook and/or X for regular updates and announcements.
• Submit a photo of yourself meeting an Astronaut.
• Write a review of the Astronaut events you attended and your experiences.
• Consider making a donation to support our mission and future UK Astronaut events.

We are self funded by our founder who pays all our operating costs and fees. We actively promote Astronaut events including paid for marketing and have done since 2015 to reach the ever growing audience of Spaceflight enthusiasts. We receive no commission from the tickets you buy or the events you attend. 

While we no-longer provide material or cash donations direct to individual organisations, we do continue to provide financial support for their event advertising, offer free professional event management support at the event and provide free consultation services to those organisations who chose to work with us.

We do not receive any free tickets to attend events; that would be detrimental to our mission objective. We pay for our tickets and take our seats along with all other guests. On occasions where we have been gifted tickets these are used for promotional activities or to sponsor other people attending the event who otherwise would not be able to do so.

Donations are always welcome and greatly appreciated.