Tim Peake is a European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut assigned to join the International Space Station crew for Expedition 46/47 for six months in 2015. Tim has a background as a test pilot and a British Army Air Corps officer.
Born in Chichester, England, on 7 April 1972, Tim is married with two sons. Among his leisure activities he enjoys skiing, scuba diving, cross-country running, climbing, and mountaineering in his wife’s native Scotland. He has also completed the London Marathon. Other interests include quantum physics and aviation.
Tim completed his secondary education at Chichester High School for Boys in West Sussex, England, in 1990. In 1992, he graduated from the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst as an officer in the British Army Air Corps. Having been selected for the Empire Test Pilots’ School at Boscombe Down, he graduated in 2005 and was awarded the Westland Trophy for the best rotary wing pilot student. He received a Bachelor of Science degree in flight dynamics and evaluation from the University of Portsmouth in 2006.
Read Tim's full biography on the ESA website.
TES are thrilled to announce the launch of the Cosmic Classroom in partnership with British ESA astronaut Tim Peake’s Principia mission to the International Space Station.
We are asking teachers to sign-up their classes to a live link with Tim Peake on the ISS. In so doing, together we’ll make this the world’s largest schools and space science event.
Building on more than 100 years of supporting teachers and education, it’s our objective for this partnership to specifically support science learning by providing a spark on which to build inspiration in classrooms across the country.
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Tim has selected the name ‘Principia’, to celebrate Isaac Newton’s ground-breaking text on physics, Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica (Latin for “Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy”), which described the principal laws of motion and gravity on which all space travel depends.
Tim will fly to the ISS as a member of the Expedition 46/47 crew. He will be launched on a Soyuz from Russia’s Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on 15 December 2015 alongside NASA astronaut Tim Kopra and Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko. They will join the international crew already on the ISS, briefly bringing the number to nine, and then reverting to the more usual complement of six, before returning in May 2016.
The ISS is a unique scientific research facility, allowing Tim and his crewmates to work on experiments that cannot be done anywhere on Earth. These experiments include physiology, biology, materials science, solar physics, radiation physics and technology demonstrations. Some of these experiments are intended to improve our understanding of fundamental science and some will demonstrate new applications of science and technology – but all will help to enhance the quality of life here on Earth or help us in the next stages of human exploration of the solar system.
Tim also wants to use his mission inspire people, especially children, to develop their interest in science and to learn more about the career opportunitues that it opens up.
For more on the Principia Mission visit the United Kingdom Space Agency website.
Watch this space for more information and don't forget to REGISTER your interest.