Britain’s Tim Peake has hung up his spacesuit, stepping down from Europe’s astronaut corps to grow to be an envoy for space actions, the European Area Company mentioned on Friday.
Peake, who grew to become the primary British astronaut to go to the Worldwide Area Station in 2015, mentioned it had been an “extremely thrilling and rewarding” 13 years.
“Being an ESA astronaut has been essentially the most extraordinary expertise,” Peake, 50, mentioned in an announcement.
“By assuming the position of an envoy for human spaceflight, I shall proceed to assist ESA and the UK Area Company, with a give attention to instructional outreach, and I sit up for the numerous thrilling alternatives forward.”
The ESA mentioned that Peake had been on an unpaid depart 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 youths, aspiring children and younger professionals alike, inspiring hundreds of thousands of them and on the identical time being a superb ambassador for the entire of ESA, its values and its ambition,” Aschbacher mentioned.
Paul Bate, head of the UK Area Company, additionally hailed the astronaut.
“We want Tim all the very best and sit up for supporting him in his subsequent journey, figuring out that the UK’s position in human space exploration is within the secure palms,” Bate mentioned.
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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