Professor Jim Al-Khalili talks to Tim Peake about his route to becoming the first British ESA astronaut and why conducting scientific experiments in space is so important.
What’s it like living underwater for two weeks? What’s the trickiest part of training to be an astronaut? What are the most memorable sights you see from space? Several extreme questions, all of which can be answered by one man: Major Tim Peake.
After a childhood packed with outdoor adventures, via the Cub Scouts and school Cadet Force, Tim joined the British Army Air Corps and became a military flying instructor then a test pilot; before eventually being selected as a European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut. In 2015, Tim became the first British ESA astronaut to visit the International Space Station.
Over the course of a six-month mission, he took part in more than 250 scientific experiments and worked with more than two million schoolchildren across Europe.
In a special New Year’s episode recorded in front of an audience at London’s Royal Society, Professor Jim Al-Khalili talks to Tim about his lifelong passion for adventure, the thrill of flight and why scientific experiments in space are so important.
Presented by Jim Al-Khalili
Produced by Lucy Taylor
