He is the first British ESA astronaut, the second astronaut to bear a
flag of the United Kingdom patch (following
Helen Sharman),[4] the sixth person born in the United Kingdom to go on board the International Space Station, and the seventh UK-born person in space.[5] He began the ESA's intensive astronaut basic training course in September 2009 and graduated on 22 November 2010.[6]
Upon graduation from
Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, Peake received a short-service commission as a second lieutenant in the Army Air Corps on 8 August 1992.[8] He served as a platoon commander with the
Royal Green Jackets,[9] and was promoted to lieutenant on 8 August 1994.[10] On 9 July 1997, he transferred to a regular commission, receiving a promotion to captain on 20 August.[11][12]
Peake completed a BSc (Hons) in Flight Dynamics and Evaluation at the
University of Portsmouth the following year.[15] Peake left the army in 2009 after 17 years of service and over 3,000 flying hours to his credit, becoming a test pilot with
AgustaWestland.[16][17]
In ESA
Peake was selected to join the European Space Agency astronaut corps in 2009, flew to the ISS in 2015/16, and retired from active service in 2023.[18]
Peake beat over 8,000 other applicants for one of the six places on the ESA's new astronaut training programme. The selection process included taking academic tests, fitness assessments and several interviews.[19] Peake moved to Cologne with his family for the ESA training.[20]
As part of his extensive astronaut training in 2011, Peake and five other astronauts joined an international mission, living in and exploring cave systems in Sardinia. This
ESA CAVES[23] mission enabled them to study how humans react to living in extreme conditions with complete isolation from the outside world. This expedition gave the team an idea of what they could expect and how they would cope in the confined space of the ISS.[24]
On 16 April 2012, NASA announced that Peake would serve as an
aquanaut aboard the
Aquariusunderwater laboratory during the
NEEMO 16 undersea exploration mission, scheduled to begin on 11 June 2012 and last twelve days.[25][26] The NEEMO 16 crew successfully "splashed down" at 11:05 am on 11 June.[27] On the morning of 12 June, Peake and his crewmates officially became aquanauts, having spent over 24 hours underwater.[28] The crew safely returned to the surface on 22 June.[29]
Peake was launched to the space station (ISS), on 15 December 2015, for Expeditions
46 and
47.[32][33] He launched successfully at 11:03 GMT from
Baikonur Cosmodrome[34] on board
Soyuz TMA-19M. The official website dedicated to his mission is principia.org.uk.[35]
During docking, the
Kurs docking navigation system failed, and a manual docking was performed by
Yuri Malenchenko who was alongside Peake and
Tim Kopra. This delayed docking with the ISS by 10 minutes. The Soyuz finally docked with the ISS at 17:33 GMT.[37] Peake received messages of support from the
Queen and
Elton John, after the successful docking.[38] His first meal at the ISS was a bacon sandwich and a cup of tea.[39]
A new year's message by Peake was broadcast by the BBC to celebrate 2016.[40][41]
Peake supported a spacewalk by two American astronauts on 21 December 2015. He participated in the first spacewalk outside the
ISS by a British astronaut on 15 January 2016. The purpose of the spacewalk was to replace a faulty
sequential shunt unit on the station's solar arrays.[42]
In February 2016, Peake presented
Adele with a Global Success award at the
Brit Awards in London.
On 24 April 2016, Peake ran the
2016 London Marathon from the ISS treadmill. Peake became the first man to run the marathon from space and the second person to run a marathon from space, after
Sunita Williams, who ran the 2007
Boston Marathon from the ISS.[43]
At a special meeting of the Chichester City Council on 17 February 2016, it was agreed unanimously to confer the Freedom of the City upon Peake with the appropriate ceremony after his return later in 2016.[45]
On 18 June 2016, Peake returned to Earth from the ISS aboard the descent module of the Soyuz spacecraft that had taken him to the space station in December 2015. The spacecraft landed on the Kazakh steppe in
Kazakhstan almost 480 km (300 mi) southwest of the major city of
Karaganda, landing at 09.15 UTC. Peake had completed approximately 3,000 orbits of the Earth and had covered a distance of 125 million kilometres (78 million miles).[46]
International Space Station partnership and the Nobel Peace Prize
Life up here is absolutely spectacular ... amazing view of Earth ... way beyond my expectation.
— Tim Peake, during his first news conference from the ISS[47]
At the UK National Student Space Conference in early 2014, Peake expressed his support for the initiative to award the International Space Station partnership the
Nobel Peace Prize.
"I was delighted to read about the
International Space Station and the discussions about it being nominated for the
Nobel Peace Prize because … it has been one of the most incredible international partnerships...[The ISS] really has brought many nations together through difficult times, and continues to do so."
Peake noted that with increasing constraints on space programs around the world, collaborative initiatives such as ISS will be necessary for future endeavours. "I think [the ISS] really has to be the model for future space exploration because with budgets becoming more and more constrained, then, really one nation is not going to have the capability to expand exploration out into the
solar system, to
Mars and beyond. We are going to have to work together on projects."[48]
In October 2016, at the
National Space Centre, Tim Peake received an honorary Doctorate of Science from the
University of Leicester.[50] In May 2021, as part of its 150th-anniversary celebrations, the
Institution of Engineering and Technology awarded Peake an Honorary Fellowship for his outstanding contribution to space exploration, engineering and the technology industry.[51]
Bibliography
Hello, is this planet Earth?: My View from the International Space Station (Century, 2016.
ISBN978-1-78089-715-8)
^"Principia". principia.org.uk.
Archived from the original on 13 November 2015. Retrieved 13 November 2015. On 15 December British European Space Agency astronaut Tim Peake will be launched on his mission to the International Space Station.