Astronauts who have spent hundreds of hours in space share the worst things about being there

If you've ever looked up to the skies and wondered what it would be like to travel beyond the confines of the Earth in an adventure to space then you're absolutely not alone.

For now it's still the purview of astronauts, as commercial space travel is still quite some time away from becoming an option to all of us.

Some billionaires have blasted off into space for a bit and even taken a few famous faces along for the ride, but for now, space travel is still for astronauts and the astronomically wealthy.

I suppose there's not much point to having unfathomable amounts of money if you can't blast Captain Kirk himself up into space, but when William Shatner became the oldest person in the world to go to space he said he experienced 'overwhelming sadness'.

He described feeling a contrast in the 'vicious coldness of space' stacked up against the 'warm nurturing of Earth below'.

For the people who've been up there it can be hard to describe what it's like. (Carla Cioffi/NASA via Getty Images)

Yes, it turns out there are downsides to space travel and what the Star Trek actor experienced is something called the 'Overview Effect', which refers to the cognitive change felt from observing our world from space.

For some people looking back on that little blue marble we inhabit and seeing how small we are in the grand scheme of things can put things into perspective.

For astronauts with hundreds of hours spent in space their personal worst things tend to be slightly different.

A trio of them told The Sun, the newspaper and not the thing at the centre of our solar system, what the worst thing about going to space was.

As you can imagine there's nowhere quite like space to make you feel a distance between yourself and everyone else, with astronaut Shannon Walker saying the hardest thing was 'being away from your friends and family'.

Shannon Walker said the toughest bit about going to space is how much you miss your friends and family. (Bill Ingalls/NASA via Getty Images)

She said the 'best bit of space is going to space' and explained that it's hard to sum up the magnificence of getting to space.

Meanwhile, fellow astronaut Stan Love who has spent over 300 hours in space told The Sun the biggest problem he had is that you 'don't feel so good for the first few days'.

According to the astronaut, 'the first three days everyone has an upset stomach' when they go to space, or people pretend they don't have it, and after that the feeling subsides.

Then, of course, it returns once you're back on Earth.

Meanwhile, one venerable retired astronaut, Jack Lousma, sounded like he never wanted to come back down again as he said the worst thing was 'to come home'.