When did Tim Peake go to space & what was he doing there?

Ever since spaceflight was piloted by a man back in 1961, there have been 600 astronauts in space. However, Tim Peake holds a special place among them. Most astronauts were Americans or Russians, but there have also been some Britons so far. Three of them were only space tourists, while others went to space as NASA astronauts. To this date, Tim Peake is the only UK astronaut, who have travelled to space with ESA’s mission. Orbital Today explicitly answers the question of when did Tim Peake go to space, and we will give you a succinct account of this man’s life and major achievements.

Getting started: Life before space mission

Timothy Nigel Peake was born in 1972, on April 7th, in rural West Sussex. Peake had been interested in flight since he was young because his father, who was a journalist, took him to air shows. When turning 13, the future astronaut joined an orientation program with a military school, after which he decided to become a military pilot. This was a pivotal moment that determined Tim Peake’s astronaut life to come.

What study & experience did he have before space?

After graduating from Sandhurst Royal Military Academy back in 1992, Tim Peake joined the British Army Air Corps. He flew missions in Canada, the Balkans, and Afghanistan. He was an Apache helicopter instructor and trained many test pilots.

Back in 2006, Peake got a bachelor’s degree in the dynamics of flight at Portsmouth University, after ranking and serving for three years in a test squadron of the Boscombe Down helicopter in the British army.

How Long was Tim Peake’s mission?

Tim’s space mission was called Principia and the most historic moment in British space travel. Tim is the first British person who visited the ISS. Helen Sharman also went to Myr space station back in 1991, on a Soviet rather than European mission, though.

Peake’s Principia mission lasted for 186 days and 11 hours. There were less than 250 pioneering experiments for Tim, and history books already have a lot to say about what happened. But when did Tim Peake walk in space? Let’s find out!

What did Tim Peake do on his mission?

For the first month of his space mission, Peake went on a spacewalk, trying to repair the power supply of his station. His mission had him driving across Mars terrains that have been virtually simulated using special equipment. Tim was involved in more than 250 EVA scientific experiments with mission partners from various international space agencies. But those are not the only Tim Peake experiments in space, and some of them were of a rather entertaining nature.

What do space astronauts do?

What astronauts want most is to travel in space. Some of them have the courage to leave the ISS so that they can go into the space’s black heart. And Tim Peake got this chance. He went with Tim Kopra, his colleague, and they both tended to the maintenance of the ISS.

Scott Kelly from NASA and Tim Peake tested their new VR tech that allowed them to gain access to Mission Control so that they could no longer pay that much attention to what was happening on the ISS. And then, they played a Space Invaders game transmitted back to Earth, along with a few other, less ‘serious’ astronaut things that still made history.

What else did Tim Peake do in space?

Tim is the first British astronaut in ESA who went to the ISS. He launched on a rocket called Soyuz on December 15th, 2015, along with Yuri Malechenko and Tim Kopra. Three crew members have been busy in space for six months.

For an entire month, Peake ran a spacewalk so that he could repair the station power supply. Besides, Peake made a lot of short educational videos transmitted back to Earth, played a game of ping-pong in zero gravity, and even ran a virtual online marathon.

On a funny note, while most people might say that Tim Peak is not the most appreciated person for his physical abilities, but his British sense of humour made the three astronauts’ stay in orbit way more enjoyable, which is a great bonus in a tiring and not too welcoming environment. And the rest of humanity can now appreciate Peake’s funny videos, too!