Tim Peake, British Astronaut,
Spacewalker

| published February 23, 2016 |

By Thursday Review staff

Aside from crews frequently made up of American astronauts and Russian cosmonauts, the International Space Station often lives up to its namesake, and includes the scientific participation and technical capabilities of astronauts and cosmonauts from other nations.

In this photo taken by NASA astronaut Scott Kelly, British astronaut Tim Peake suits up and checks his equipment for a recent spacewalk outside the space station to assist astronaut Tim Kopra with the replacement of one of the ISS’s eight voltage regulators. The regulator failed back in November, and during their late December spacewalk Peake and Kopra were successful in swapping out the broken unit.

It was Peake’s first extra-vehicular activity, one of several conducted by British astronauts in the past, but the first for a citizen of England on a ISS mission. Peake and Kopra also installed a new lights and mounts for exterior cameras, and ran new electronic cabling ahead of the planned installation (sometime next year) of the International Docking Adaptor, a device which will make it much easier for a wide variety of spacecraft to more easily rendezvous and dock with the Space Station.

Peake is a British Army Reservist and a member of the European Space Agency team. Peake is the sixth astronaut from the United Kingdom to have spent time aboard the International Space Station, but the first who travelled there as a full member of the ESA. In the British Army, he served as a helicopter pilot, a member of the Royal Green Jackets, and a test pilot; later he served on the crew of NEEMO 16, as part of the Aquarius Underwater Laboratory—spending 12 days underwater performing undersea experiments and exploration.

Related Thursday Review articles:

Spacewalk: Making Room for Rendezvous; Keith H. Roberts; Thursday Review; December 22, 2015.

Spacewalk to Repair Cooling System; Keith H. Roberts; Thursday Review; November 10, 2015.