NASA astronaut Nicole Stott has revealed she spent lots of time looking down at the Isle of Man from space during the last ever flight of the space shuttle Discovery.

She made the revelation during a visit to the Island this week. Nicole and four of the crew who travelled on the shuttle's 39th and final mission - STS-133 - were guests of Tynwald.

Although it was the first time in the Island for the other astronauts it was not Nicole's. She is married to Manxman Chris Stott who runs the Island based space company ManSat.

Nicole, who is a mission specialist, describes the Isle of Man as a wonderful place and famously took soil from Tynwald Hill and a CD by Island musician Davy Knowles into space with her.

She joined NASA in 1988 at the Kennedy Space Centre as an operations engineer before being selected as a mission specialist in July 2000. Her first experience of space was as a flight engineer on a long duration space flight spending 91 days on the International Space Station in 2009.

isleofman.com reporter Tessa Hawley spoke to Nicole about her time in space:

You have strong links to the Isle of Man – does your trip feel like coming home at all?
"It does feel like that. I kind of use one of our space flight experiences to describe it. When we docked with Discovery back to the International Space Station Mike Barratt and I floated through the hatch and we looked at each other and were like 'wow – did we ever leave this place?'

"We had been together before on the station, on our first flight, and it really was one of those goose-bumpy feelings, it felt so comfortable and so familiar. That's exactly how I feel when I come back to the Island, it really is. It's got something special about it."

Do you ever feel worried or apprehensive before you go into space? 

"It's not worry. We train so much for doing this and I think we have the best understanding we can of what the risks are. None of us are naive enough to think we are strapping in and that there is no risk whatsoever.

"I think we have really come to a place where we wouldn't do it if we didn't think there was value in it and that what we are doing is going to make life better here for people on Earth and that's ultimately making life better for our children and our families as well.

"It's not a worry, it's a kind of anxiousness and anticipation and wondering if we as individuals are going to be successful. Are we going to be able to do what we were trained to do?"

How do your family feel about you going to space?
"I think that to worry is a very natural thing for families to do – most certainly during the two critical phases the launch and the landing. Those are kind of those times when there is the least understanding for families about what's going on but the greater understanding that that is where the risk is.

"It is definitely a much more difficult thing for families to deal with. I know now when I watch launches, and when I watch people I know launching, that there's something very different to watching it to being strapped in on it."

What do you miss the most when you are in space?

"I think family is definitely at the top of the list for that. Being inside the space station is a really fascinating thing but I have to say I think ultimately we are earthlings and there is something about the gifts that earth gives you – like smelling things and fresh air – those kind of things that you might not even realise you're missing while you are up there, but when you get back you do.

"I remember when the hatch opened on the space shuttle when I got back the first time and it was the end of November in Florida, a really nice crisp fall day, and it was almost overwhelming – the feel of the air, the smell of it. It really was like 'wow I haven't experienced that in three months'. Then you get that 20 minute shower that's really great too!"

Lets talk about washing – how do you do that in space?
"You just have to go with it. You know the thing is there are ways to manage all of that up there. I said how much I loved that shower when I got back and it is true because you don't have running water. But it's all part of the adventure.

"You figure out how to deal with it. Basically you take a sponge bath and I never felt dirty - honestly I felt clean up there! Your clothes don't hang on you in the same way so you don't really get dirty. I wore the same sweater on and off for three months. It was totally fine. It's an adventure and you just go with it."

This flight is significant as it is Discovery's 39th and final one – did this make it more special for you?

"The fact that it was the final flight of Discovery was kind of an addition to the other things about the flight itself that will be memorable. It certainly will stand out.

"It makes me emotional on a number of different levels. There are certainly those impressions you get just being in space and looking at the Earth and how it feels to live up there but also with our flight especially – to walk away from Discovery on the runway knowing it was its final flight – there was certainly emotions wrapped up in that."

Could you describe your time in space in three words?

"I think awesome has to be there. We use that word a lot of but because of everything about how your body is up there, how you float versus walking, and most certainly looking out of the window and either seeing a space craft approaching or seeing the beauty of the Earth – you feel like you know what awe is.

"I think surprise would be one. There are so many things that we train for on the ground but there is a lot of things like how your body is going to feel, what its going to be like to move to one place to another – that is on the job training. You can't know what it's going to be like until you do it. You can’t know what it's going to feel like to launch on a space shuttle until you do it. So there are surprises in that.

"And that goes all the way to looking out the window and down to Earth and you could go over the same place 10 times but every time you look at it something will surprise you about it – some beauty about it, something you didn't see before, the way the clouds are – something is surprising.

"Camaraderie – there is something about being in a very special place like that with people you care about that you've really grown to know as family. I had the same experience on a long duration space flight with five other crew members and the same exact thing on the short duration space flight that we've just finished. You train for a long time together and five of the six members of the STS-133 crew joined as astronauts at the same time. It really was a very cool thing and you know for life you'll have these experiences shared.

"I can almost use the word perfect in describing the experience – with the exception that you can't have your family with you there yet. As someone who knows for sure my husband and my son would love to be there experiencing that same thing is the something that keeps you from being able to use that word perfect."