Tim Peake: Next stop Mars! | Aida Edemariam

It's been quite a week for Britain's first official astronaut. Meeting the prime minister, a press scrum at the Science Museum; and an agonising interview with Jeremy Paxman. How did he cope?There is something about human space flight that simultaneously feels both entirely futuristic and of the past; a future written into stories and dreams of the mid-20th century, rather than of the 21st. Britain's first official astronaut, after all, was born two years after the moon landing in 1969. "Eugene Cernan was the last person on the moon," adds Major Tim Peake, who was chosen this week for a mission to the International Space Station in November 2015. "And that" – 1972 – "was the year I was born."Behind him, in a picture on the wall, sails the space station, the Earth a blurred blue curve below it. The European Astronaut Centre, where Peake is being trained, and where we meet, is in the far corner of a huge lot on the outskirts of Cologne, Germany, which is also home to the German Space Agency, where that future-past tension persists. The long, low prefab buildings, set among birch trees and wild flowers, feel like a throwback to the 60s. It has, however, been a valued part of the German economy – in distinct contrast to Britain, which cancelled its space programme in 1971 because it was too expensive, and, under the aegis of Margaret Thatcher, deemed a waste of money. In 2010, however, in the dying days of the Brown government, the UK finally acquired a space agency; and th...
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - Category: Science Authors: Tags: The Guardian Features UK news International Space Station Interviews European Space Agency Science Source Type: news