Britain’s Tim Peake has hung up his spacesuit, stepping down from Europe’s astronaut corps to develop into an envoy for space actions, the European House Company stated on Friday.
Peake, who turned the primary British astronaut to go to the Worldwide House Station in 2015, stated it had been an “extremely thrilling and rewarding” 13 years.
“Being an ESA astronaut has been essentially the most extraordinary expertise,” Peake, 50, stated in an announcement.
“By assuming the position of an envoy for human spaceflight, I shall proceed to assist ESA and the UK House Company, with a deal with instructional outreach, and I stay up for the various thrilling alternatives forward.”
The ESA stated that Peake had been on an unpaid go away of absence since October 2019, and had retired from energetic astronaut duties from the beginning of this 12 months.
The UK’s second astronaut after Helen Sharman, Peake was the primary Briton to finish a spacewalk outdoors the ISS.
Throughout a six-month stint on board the ISS from 2015-2016, he contributed to scientific missions, helped dock two spacecraft—and even ran the London marathon on a treadmill.
ESA director-general Josef Aschbacher thanked Peake for his service.
“Tim has been a role model for teenagers, aspiring children and younger professionals alike, inspiring thousands and thousands of them and on the identical time being a wonderful ambassador for the entire of ESA, its values and its ambition,” Aschbacher stated.
Paul Bate, head of the UK House Company, additionally hailed the astronaut.
“We want Tim all one of the best and stay up for supporting him in his subsequent journey, realizing that the UK’s position in human space exploration is within the secure fingers,” Bate stated.
Britain’s Rosemary Coogan joined the ESA’s astronaut corps in November, whereas British physician and Paralympian John McFall was named the first-ever astronaut recruit with a incapacity.
Whereas the UK has left the European Union, it stays one of many ESA’s 22 member states.
© 2023 AFP
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Britain’s Tim Peake steps down from ESA astronaut corps (2023, January 20)
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