Tim Peake was rocketed to the International Space Station (ISS) for expeditions 46 and 47 on 15 December 2015. He launched successfully at 11:03 GMT from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on board Soyuz TMA-19M and will be spending six months on the ISS along with commander Tim Copra, flight engineer Jeff Williams (US) and flight engineers Oleg Skripochka, Yuri Malenchenko and Alexey Ovchinin (Russia).
The former regular British Army Air Corps officer participated in the first spacewalk outside the ISS by a British astronaut on 15 January 2016. The purpose of the spacewalk was to replace a faulty sequential shunt unit on the station's solar arrays.
The Soyuz spacecraftESA/NASATim Peake during his 4 hour 43 minute spacewalk to replace a failed power regulator and install cablingESA/NASAUtah’s capital Salt Lake City, seen on the left, sits at 1300m, bordered by the waters of the Great Salt Lake and the peaks of the Wasatch Range that rise over 1.6 km above the valley floorESA/NASA
The International Space Station travels at 28,800 km/h (18,000 mph) meaning that it only takes 90 minutes to circle the Earth. During the next orbit the Station moves around 2200km (1,367 miles) to the west, in relation to its previous position.
Astronauts are able to use digital cameras for taking photos by setting up the camera to take an image every few seconds, before playing the images back quickly, creating a time-lapse effect.
On 6 March, Tim Peake made a time lapse of an aurora, stating that "an aurora was photobombed by the International Space Station's solar array in this time-lapse".
Mellit in SudanESA/NASA
In his latest interview on 19 March, Peake explained how gyroscopes can be used to keep spacecraft stable during his six-month Principia mission. Satellites track their pointing direction using the same approach as on submarines and aircraft aided by fast-spinning gyroscopes that maintain a fixed orientation in the same way as a child's spinning top.
On camera Peake allowed a small gyroscope to float in space gravity, before spinning it. He demonstrated how it would not stop spinning when it was touched and that it 'remained in the same plane [orientation]' even when it moved, giving us an insight into the way the ISS uses gyro stabilisation to control its position. The International Space Station has four big gyroscopes that are used for the stabilisation of the station.
Sao PauloESA/NASATim Peake inside the International Space StationESA/NASAStars in the UniverseESA/NASAImage taken over Tunisia, looking south-east, towards Libya. Gulf of Gabes and Boughrara Gulf on the leftESA/NASASpheres experiment: testing algorithms for complex docking operationsESA/NASAThe Moon seen from the International Space StationESA/NASATim Peake took this picture during his 4 hour 43 minute spacewalk to replace a failed power regulator and install cablingESA/NASASouth Africa from the Space Station's EarthKAMESA/NASAExpedition 46 Soyuz Approaches Space Station for Docking. Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko manually docked the Soyuz TMA-19M spacecraft to the International Space Station's Rassvet module after an initial automated attempt was abortedNASATim Peake captured this photo on 29 January 2016 from the ISS, as the robotic arm in Japan's Kibo laboratory successfully deployed two combined satellites from Texas universitiesESA/NASALightning strikes illuminating clouds over Western Australia during a thunderstormESA/NASAThe Spacecraft hub, showing how close the spacecrafts Soyuz and the Cygnus are to each otherESA/NASAThe aurora as seen from the International Space StationESA/NASAMy ringside-seat view of the spacewalk EVA 34 – taken from the cupolaESA/NASAThe Space Station Flyover of the MediterraneanESA/NASAThe ISS records Earth with a blue glow just before dawnESA/NASAAn active auroraESA/NASAAn iceberg, about the same size as London, drifts off AntarcticaESA/NASA"Every so often our orbit lets us enjoy a longer sunrise and sunset − more time to capture the spectacular colours!"ESA/NASATim Peake prepares for a spacewalk, also known as extra-vehicular activity (EVA)ESA/NASAA glacial river water flowing from this Patagonian ice fieldESA/NASALondon, UK, as seen from the International Space Station 400km above EarthESA/NASAHimalayan valley under a full moonESA/NASAThe morning sun hits active volcanoes in GuatemalaESA/NASATim Peake during his 4 hour 43 minute spacewalk to replace a failed power regulator and install cablingESA/ NASAThe Canary Islands, one of the first images taken from Sentinel-3A’s Sea and Land Surface Temperature Radiometer (SLSTR)ESA/NASAA sea of green fishing boats lights up the nightESA/NASAA cloudy Rio de JaneiroESA/NASATim Peake juggles with fresh fruit following the arrival of his new crewmates on the International Space StationESA/NASAGreen streaks of auroraESA/NASATim Peake practices a Cygnus capture ahead of the Orbital launchESA/NASA31 December 2015: The west coast of Canada from the International Space StationESA/NASACygnus captureESA/NASA15 January 2016: Tim Peake prepares his Extravehicular Mobility Unit spacesuit ahead of a spacewalk with NASA astronaut Timothy Kopra to replace a failed voltage regulator, to return power to one of eight power channels. The spacewalk was a successESA/NASAAfricaESA/NASA
