Page 374 - They Also Served

of experience, Peake was selected for the course at the Empire Test Pilots’ School at Boscombe Down, graduating as the best rotary wing pilot. He then tested Apaches, including a deployment to Afghanistan, before leaving the army in 2009 to become a test pilot with AgustaWestland.
Answering an online recruiting advertisement for the European Space Agency, he beat 8,000 other applicants to be selected for astronaut training. Finally, on 15th December 2015, Peake’s moment came with a launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome. Before the launch, the crew followed the routine set in 1961 by Yuri Gagarin, the first man in space. This includes planting a tree, getting a haircut, signing the hotel room door, and urinating on the back-right tyre of the bus taking them to the launch pad. During his six-month sojourn at the International Space Station, he completed over 250 experiments as well as a spacewalk. He also ran the London Marathon on the station’s treadmill to raise money for The Prince’s Trust. Whilst in space, Peake held a video call with Professor Stephen Hawking and another with childhood hero, and doctor of astrophysics, rock guitarist Brian May.
Awarded the CMG for services to space research and scientific education, Tim Peake announced his retirement from the European Space Agency in January 2023.
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