I simply think it is first official because he is paid for by the government and not private enterprise. He definitely isn't the first astronaut from Britain though.
Interesting, cheers ed. I guess they are keen for it to be acknowledged as a first, makes for a better story.
To be fair though, the BBC have mentioned Helen Sharman in a couple of articles and that Torygraph article mentions her and all the others:
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Well, at least I understand now why I keep seeing the phrase - thanks.
I still thinks it's really quite odd though
USTREAM.TV And I thought docking in Elite was hard...
It nearly docked then backed right off.
Yep automatic docking was aborted for some reason.
They are doing it manually.
Contact and capture confirmed. They are docked. 😀
Rather annoying the video feed was lost 🙁
...who's first to say its all filmed in a studio just outside of Russia?
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- via [url=
Poke[/url].
Surely he's not a British astronaut anyway. Russian launch so doesn't that make him a cosmonaut?
Surely he's not a British astronaut anyway. Russian launch so doesn't that make him a cosmonaut?
Just different nomenclature; he's an astronaut to westerners, a cosmonaut to Russians.
Couldn't watch it, but because I'm helping out on one of our enclosing machines at work I'm outside the high security area and have my phone with me, so I'm listening to 6Music; at 11.03, after the news bulletin, LaLa played Bowie's [i]Space Oddity[/i]. Perfect Tim(ing). 😀
It's just someone in space ... (like in Fargo ... it's just a flying saucer ...) 🙄
£100 billion for ISS, who'd swap Trident for it?
Womens Hour on Radio 4 described him as the 1st British Man in Space...apparently
FFS! It's not as if they are the first people to land on Mars ... 🙄
Nice to have news about achievement, human endeavour and international cooperation.
Something to rightly be celebrated, no?
^ GrahamS - totally agree. A positive news story for a change. I think its fantastic!
The incessant coverage today with ridiculous. As mentioned previously, he's a bit late to the party so I just can't understand the hysteria. So what if he's British, in space surely were all just humans and the national tribalism with regards the 'he's one of ours' mentality is just totally irrelevant IMO. First British person on the space station? Or just another person on the space station? The latter for me. I'll pick my ears up when the next human, of any nationality, goes back and lands on the moon or gets to Mars.
I'll pick my ears up when the next human, of any nationality, goes back and lands on the moon or gets to Mars.
No you won't, you'll just yap yap yap again, Like, 'It's just an Earthling that's set foot on Mars, nothing special'
🙄
What about? 😉
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So what if he's British, in space surely were all just humans and the national tribalism with regards the 'he's one of ours' mentality is just totally irrelevant IMO
Nothing wrong with a bit of national pride for once. Our British tax money paid for him to be there.
The fact we are willing to fund that and invest in space is worth celebrating.
incessant coverage today with ridiculous.
Compared to what exactly? The hours of scheduling and news consumed by celebrity gossip or some blokes kicking a ball about?
The big deal is not just British involvement but government funded to the tune of £16m I believe (relatively cheap), British flag, and all officially British.
Still hitching a ride with the Russians, but so are the Americans.
Doesn't diminish the ones before but then they've had to get/buy American citizenship effectively and ride under the American flag via NASA and funded by them.
It's something to be proud of as *finally* we've actually acknowledged that space exploration is worth paying for when for decades we've paid almost nothing and let even the ESA struggle along without our help.
[quote=JoeG ]What about?
Harrison Ford covered that one earlier this week
I was on the same station (RAF, not space) as Tim for a while. Always seemed a nice bloke, glad to see him doing so well!
Sky news seemed to have good coverage - a russian interpreter (or a live feed that had one) , plus actual camera's interviewing the Italian woman had been up in ISS too and decent commentary and questions and a decent panel of experts.
BBC had some doofus trying to make a joke as an expert said they would "jump into the iss from the soyez" and he said "dont you mean float" but the telephone line to the expert was so bad, he didnt hear it and had to repeat it about 3 times . painful. and pretty much all their experts were just on a mobile phone (or string and cup by the sounds of it).
then we had to turn on Cox on the bloke i cannot understand a word he says......
a russian interpreter (or a live feed that had one)
That sounds like the official feed that I watched that online at
I didn't watch the BBC coverage of the docking but I did watch Stargazing Live to see the hatch opening. I thought they did pretty well given they had no idea when the hatch would open and had to fill a lot.
we had to turn on Cox on the bloke i cannot understand a word he says......
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Two things for me;
Despite the fact I was stuck in traffic, between the time I left home, returned & put the kids to bed, a man went from here to being on telly in space, awesome.
On the BBC2 coverage, there was a simu-graphic of all the junk we've left in space floating around the planet. The sheer quantity, mess and disregard we've had with respect to that is appalling on the biggest scale imaginable. I was really at a loss with that.
back2basics - Member
then we had to turn on Cox on the bloke i cannot understand a word he says......
Which was all aimed at school kids together with shots of thousands of kids at the science museum screaming rather than looking at the launch footage.
And that highlights something that concerns me about British attitude to space, perhaps the government's attitude. It's maybe just seen as something for kids to be enthused about and so investment may only be small and on educational things, rather than investing in space technology companies, human exploration, or even crazy things like launching our own rockets or at least being a major part of ESA.
Though getting kids interested in the stuff is good, but no use if they find there's no options for them in this country when they grow up, so they end up doing something else.
Agreed deadkenny. It's great to get kids enthused about space and engineer or science, but there needs to be somewhere for them to channel that energy as they get older.
Helen Sharman was pretty keen to make that point and said that the government's funding for ESA is limited pretty much to this flight. Tim may not even get a second flight, never mind any others.
also agreed deadkenny, much of the bbc coverage seemed to be pitched at kids, or at best overly simplified.
I watched the launch and it gave me the same thrill as it always has, just a huge sense of positivity, progress and hope. Then we cut back to screaming kids and some idiot presenter stumbling over his words to crack a funny, and I think perhaps we haven't really moved on at all beyond this being a novel distraction for the masses.
Tim Peake will probably be on Strictly Come Dancing this time next year. 😆
rather than investing in space technology companies, human exploration, or even crazy things like launching our own rockets or at least being a major part of ESA.
UK is the 4th biggest individual contributor to the ESA, but also funds through other mechanisms such as the EU and EUMETSAT.
Launching our own rockets would be the biggest waste of investment ever, utterly pointless when you can use others.
Though getting kids interested in the stuff is good, but no use if they find there's no options for them in this country when they grow up
The kids could at least do [url=
RASPBERRYPI.ORG the same experiments[/url] (with the same hardware) that Tim Peake is going to do while on the ISS
UK is the 4th biggest individual contributor to the ESA
At the moment, but as I understand it we ramped up our contribution for Tim's mission. from what Helen Sharman said, there is no ongoing commitment beyond that.
And it is still less than half of what France or Germany contribute.
2013 figures:
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[url= https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Space_Agency#Member_states.2C_funding_and_budget ]More recent figures on Wikipedia[/url]
Launching our own rockets would be the biggest waste of investment ever, utterly pointless when you can use others.
Agreed!
I'd be happy if the UK upped it's overall science budget, but I'm not sure I'd spend it on more space stuff, which outside of nice PR seems to have poor returns.
hmm not sure about that. Sure just sending a man in space is probably not useful in itself. But there is huge eco system that is needed to send things into space. From designing components for rockets and the vessels that carry the people and cargo, design and building different kinds of satellites for commercial or scientific use. Design of electronic systems used throughout. Even the infrastructure on Earth that makes it all happen. I think these are all useful industries for the UK to be involved in. So even if we don't spend the money on sending people into space I still think the other space stuff is well worth getting into.
There are two reasons to make rockets and targeting systems.
Space is the one I'd prefer to fund.
Space is the one I'd prefer to fund.
If it wasn't for the cold war, Tim wouldn't have got in to space. On that telly programme the other night they said his rocket was basically a ballistic missile.
I'm impressed, but not all that. He's travelled 220 miles to meet up with some colleagues, and he got a telly channel devoted to it. I've travelled 240 miles to meet up with some colleagues and they haven't even offered me a cup of tea yet, let alone an interview with Brian Cox.
And I had to use the 0717 Guildford - Waterloo service, which is infinitely less comfortable and more cramped than a Soyuz capsule.
[actually I am impressed. Very. Go Major Tim!]
If it wasn't for the cold war, Tim wouldn't have got in to space.
Indeed - and probably most of that tech came from WWII, particularly the work of the German rocket scientists.
(FWIW in my career I've had the opportunity to work on weapons systems and refused it. If it had been space rockets, I'd have accepted in a flash).
And I had to use the 0717 Guildford - Waterloo service, which is infinitely less comfortable and more cramped than a Soyuz capsule.
And the toilets are probably worse too 😀
When you get up there, like in the ISS, you've traveled for a few hours then have to adopt to life up there with all it's intricacies, how the hell do you sleep?
To they issue Sleeping Tablets or Tranquilisers?
What if he turns mental? How would they cope then? knock him out and stick him back in the module for the rest of the duration or send him back on his own?
Just askin'
What if he turns mental?
I think that the selection process weeds out anyone who may not be up to it mentally. There's probably a box to tick on the form.
The original astronauts were test pilots because they 1) Could handle the stress and 2) Had their own helmets.
To they issue Sleeping Tablets or Tranquilisers?
I suspect they have lots of medication on board but I assume eventually tiredness kicks in and they just fall asleep
What if he turns mental? How would they cope then? knock him out and stick him back in the module for the rest of the duration or send him back on his own?
I assume they have isolation procedures for all eventualities from infectious disease to psychotic madman with both of these being incredibly unlikely
