In collaboration with the European Space Agency
When Ilan Eshkeri first unveiled Space Station Earth at the Royal Albert Hall in 2022, the composer’s collaboration with the European Space Agency was hailed as a rare feat: a concert that managed to be both a spectacle and a meditation. Now, after that sold‑out premiere, the BAFTA and Emmy‑nominated composer is preparing to take the project on the road, with a UK tour announced for summer 2026 that will include Glasgow, Birmingham, Manchester and London’s Royal Festival Hall.
The premise is deceptively simple. Astronauts aboard the International Space Station have filmed hours of footage of our planet, much of it never seen by the public. Eshkeri has set this imagery to a score that fuses synth‑pop textures with the sweep of an orchestra and the power of a choir.
The result is an immersive experience that attempts to translate what astronauts describe as the Overview Effect, the overwhelming sense of awe and fragility that comes from seeing Earth from orbit.
“There aren’t many words that can truly describe the beauty of seeing Earth from space,” says Tim Peake, who inspired the project through his friendship with Eshkeri. “But Space Station Earth does this, using music and video, to capture the emotion of human spaceflight and exploration.”
Eshkeri himself frames the revival of the show against a wider backdrop. With Artemis II scheduled to return humans to the moon in 2026, he believes the public imagination will once again be gripped by the possibilities of space travel. His production, he suggests, offers audiences a chance to share in that vision, not through the lens of science fiction, but through the lived experience of astronauts.
The composer’s own career has long straddled the worlds of cinema, television and popular music. His recent credits include the Netflix series House of Guinness, the crime drama MobLand with Matt Bellamy of Muse, and the documentary Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story. Collaborations with Coldplay, Annie Lennox and David Gilmour have cemented his reputation as a musician able to move between genres without losing his distinctive voice.
For Space Station Earth, that voice is turned outward, towards the planet itself. The production is less a concert than a meditation on perspective: a reminder of the unity and fragility of Earth, staged at a moment when questions of planetary survival feel more urgent than ever. Tickets go on sale on October 17, and if the Albert Hall premiere is any indication, demand will be high.
2026 Dates: 28 May Glasgow, Royal Concert Hall; 31 May, London, Royal Festival Hall; 5 June, Birmingham, Town Hall; 6 June, AVIVA Studios, Manchester
