Tim Peake is going back to space — and it's a different world to the one he left

As the second space race dawns, Britain’s most famous astronaut tells WILLIAM HOSIE what to expect

-  WILLIAM HOSIE

When I speak to Tim Peake, Britain’s favourite astronaut, I am reminded of a scene in The Crown where Prince Philip meets Neil Armstrong and turns his nose up at his perceived lack of gravitas. Of course, it’s simply because, in that episode of the drama, the Duke of Edinburgh is unable to recognise the very quality Armstrong possesses and he doesn’t: humility.

After a career in the Army Air Corps, Peake beat more than 8,000 applicants to join the European Space Agency’s new astronaut training programme in 2009. “The most important skills for an astronaut to have are adaptability, flexibility and resilience,” he says today.

We’re meeting ahead of his keynote speech at this week’s Space-Comm, a conference at London’s ExCel that brings together leaders in the industry, where Peake, 52, will set out his vision for the future of space travel, as he aims to become the first Briton to fly to space twice. Nine years ago he became the first British astronaut to perform a spacewalk. In 2023, he stood down from the astronaut corps, only to come out of retirement after it struck a deal with Axiom, a Texan space infrastructure company, last year. The deal will allow him to return to the International Space Station (ISS) with the first ever all-British mission.