posted 10-01-2016 01:24 PM            

Tim Peake to tour the UK

British ESA astronaut Tim Peake will embark on his post-flight tour of the UK in October 2016, visiting all four UK national capitals along with Leicester, Manchester, Salford and Glasgow. NASA astronaut and crewmate Tim Kopra will join Tim for the visits to Edinburgh, Belfast and London.

Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko is unable to join the tour due to the recent delay to the upcoming Soyuz launch and his role as crew trainer for the Russian cosmonauts.

Tim spent just over six months living and working onboard the International Space Station (ISS), after launching from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on 15 December 2015. Over 15,000 people watched on at launch events held across the country.

Tim will be giving presentations at each city, giving his first-hand account about life onboard the ISS and talking about the important science experiments he conducted during his mission.

The UK public followed with interest in Tim's mission on social media and the Principia website. Tim now has over 1 million followers on Twitter, making him the most followed ESA astronaut.

As part of Tim's Principia mission, the UK Space Agency has invested £3 million in the biggest education and outreach initiative ever undertaken for an ESA astronaut. Over a million young people have taken part and the UK tour is a way of thanking the British public for their support throughout his mission.

Schedule:

• Cardiff: 13 October 2016
  
• Leicester: 14 October 2016
  
• Manchester: 15 October 2016
  
• Glasgow: 16 October
  
• Edinburgh: 17 October
  
• Belfast: 18 October
  
• London: 19 October

Further details on venues, timings and how to attend will be released locally and on Principia.org.uk.

posted 10-15-2016 02:38 PM            

The excitement of the many school children, from apparently all over the country, outside to greet his arrival was brilliant to see with plenty of flag waving and when all were inside his interviews on three separate stages well orchestrated. The first two were short and seen on the screen at the main area where he was for much longer. The selected questions were filmed earlier from adults and different aged youngsters at the event and played to Tim to answer which was a great way of doing it, also being interviewed at the same time. He came across as very friendly and informative with a lot of details of his flight and everybody of all ages loved it. Well done to the organisers for being so flexible and I am sure there will be a lot of future space enthusiasts taken from these young people.

Afterwards it was back home and then in the evening to attend a lecture on the cosmos by Professor Brian Cox at the Derngate Theatre in Northampton. That too was very good and thought provoking.