• Question: What one ambition do you have for space travel as a result of Tim's mission?

    Asked by spacefan226 to Vinita, Kirsty, Col Op, Charlie 🚀, Andrea on 13 Jun 2016.
    • Photo: Kirsty Lindsay

      Kirsty Lindsay answered on 13 Jun 2016:

      I hope that more people are aware that you can work in space in the UK and Europe.

      I think it is important that young people realise there really are people working in space here-it is career choice if that is what they would like to do, and I hope the adults in their lives support and guide them to make that choice.

    • Photo: Andrea Boyd

      Andrea Boyd answered on 13 Jun 2016:

      I hope that the UK will continue their amazing involvement in space – Other emerging space countries have been looking in recent years at the UK and it has been very inspiring – the UK space agency and Tim’s mission have been constantly quoted in the press as an example of what other nations could aspire to.

      Helen Sharman and Tim Peake have both expressed their hopes that the UK would continue to be a strong player on the world stage in space. With a fabulous industry in the UK, including big names like ESA and Airbus, you’ll be working on Mars Missions and more in the future and I think you and your classmates will be smack bang in the centre!
      This is a nice interview when Helen says the same: http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-36316597

Comments

  • Photo: spacefan226

    spacefan226 commented on :

    Do you think we could ever send someone up under the UK space agency rather than with the ESA, how long away do you think that is?

    • Photo: Andrea

      Andrea commented on :

      The UK Space Agency is a very integrated part of ESA since the 1960’s (totally separate membership to the EU btw – ESA and EU are ***not*** the same thing.) and UK already sent up Helen as a non-ESA astronaut but now and in the future UK astronauts are a part of the ESA astronaut corps so that ESA helps to pay for the flight and UK doesn’t have to shoulder all the costs. Actually ESA paid for almost all of Tim’s flight and UK just paid a tiny bit – his flight would not have been possible without ESA. The ISS flight schedule is known two years in advance so the next possible open flight slot is always 3 years away (it takes 2 years of preflight training also). If the UK wants to pay for an individual flight, sure they can. Tough to get public and political approval for that though…