“If you are ever told that you can’t do something, you need to challenge it and think, well why?”
Tim Peake’s achievements are undeniably astronomical. Yet his journey to becoming that astronaut might not be what you think…
Peake was an average kid at school, with average academic performance. His passion however, was anything but average. He wanted to fly, and he knew this the moment he sat in the cockpit of an aircraft.
Before donning the iconic spacesuit, Peake was a military man, serving as an Army Air Corps Pilot. To get there he had to complete his A-levels (in which he achieved a C, D, and E grade), face a rigorous selection process, and then spend a year training. He took everything in his stride, and this ultimately set him on his journey into space.
Whilst many would be completely overwhelmed by the astronaut selection process, Peake’s positive attitude and ability to draw on his own unique experiences saw him excel. He was surrounded by incredibly bright individuals but didn’t let this intimidate him. He believed in himself. He wasn’t afraid to fail.
Later selected for a mission to the International Space Station, Peake faced the ultimate challenge: saying goodbye to his family as he embarked on a six-month journey into the unknown. When lift-off came, there was no room for doubt, and Peake’s dedication to his mission saw him soar.
Peake reminds us to challenge those that tell us we can’t do something. To take whatever route we need to take, and that with perseverance, passion, and positivity, we too can reach for the stars.
Tim Peake – video transcript
The moments when you're on your own in space, looking down on earth through the Cupola window, they're very, very special. It's actually surprisingly quiet, calm, and tranquil. I mean the space station's going at 25 times the speed of sound. You have no forces on your body, and you feel very detached, very remote. With the exception of your five other crew mates, every other human being in the universe is living on that planet.
I was a very normal school kid. I enjoyed school. I wasn't particularly academically brilliant. I was very average. I was in the Army Cadets at school, but we had an Air Force section. So every weekend, when the Air Force section went flying, I would change from green uniform into blue uniform, go along with them on the bus, and jump in the aircraft.
First time I sat in a cockpit of an aircraft, I never looked back. I knew that was something that I wanted to do. It was an absolute driving passion, so I applied to be an Army Air Corps pilot.
To be an Army pilot at the time, I needed three A-levels to get a place at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst. That was actually a tougher hurdle to negotiate than you might think. I managed to get a C, D, and an E at A-Level in maths, physics, and chemistry, which I think is actually not a bad message to send. I mean, you know, the fact that you can still go on and achieve a degree later in life, which I did, I was in my 30s when I gained a degree in flight dynamics, but it's more than just the academics, of course, getting into Sandhurst. You have to go to the selection process, and then spend a year at the academy, which is a tough year, so I just took everything one step at a time.
I loved flying aircraft. I loved understanding what made them work. I loved trying to make them better, and that led to becoming a test pilot. It was all about being in the cockpit. It was being at the sharp edge pushing boundaries. And as a test pilot, we work a lot more closely with industry. And the space industry, the aviation industry, are so closely linked, that it really began to open my eyes to the possibility of becoming an astronaut.
The astronaut selection process, it's a year long. It is a very demanding year, very tough year, but actually, if you just break it down one step at a time, it doesn't have to be. Having had the military experience, I know that the one thing you can't do with this is to try and pretend you're somebody you aren't. So go along, relax, enjoy it. I knew I'd had lots of experience that the military had given me, and that that probably stood me in good stead.
When I went for the round of hard skills, the majority of the people had PhDs, very, very bright individuals, lots of scientists, lots of engineers. I felt completely out of my depth. You know, I got a degree at 30. I scraped through some A-Levels when I was at school, and I've been flying helicopters for 17 years. How do I compete with these people? But, in the same way, you've got to look beyond that and say, well, hang on a second, yes, they're bringing a lot to the party, but you also have to draw on your own character and your own strengths and think, well, you know, again, this is something I believe in, and I'm going to give it my best shot, but I'm not afraid of giving it a go, and I'm not afraid of failing it.
I was just treating this as an incredible experience, an opportunity to, you know, try and go for something that was an absolute, you know, dream job.
Being assigned to a mission to the space station is the most euphoric moment of my life. When I received that phone call that said, "Tim, you've been given a mission, and it's a long duration, six months," it was the culmination of all my hopes and dreams. By far and above, the hardest moment in my life was saying goodbye to my family, waving goodbye as the bus took me to the launchpad. But actually, at the moment the rocket lifts off, it's all about focus and being on the job. All the thoughts you've had prior to that, about the risk and about leaving your family behind, that's done and dealt with when you strap into the rocket.
You make lots of sacrifices to be an astronaut, but, of course, you do that knowing that you have the opportunity to have one of the most privileged experiences that there are. When you actually get out there yourself, it's a mixture of emotions, because it's absolutely phenomenal to see the universe from just a thin visor. And to be able to turn around in any direction and just to be, look one direction, the earth, and the next direction, the Milky Way.
I think every astronaut looks at things differently when they come back. It changes your perspective. You get to see the earth in its natural place in the solar system. Here on earth, we don't appreciate the scale of the universe, so when you go into space, and you then look back at this little blue jewel beneath you, and you think, "wow, that's the only place I know where we can survive", it becomes very precious to you.
I think if ever you are told that you can't do something, you need to challenge it and think, well why? School children have told me, "Oh, my teacher said I'd never be an astronaut." So, what was that based on? “Well, just statistics”. That's not a valid reason. You might be able to say, there's a very low probability of me becoming an astronaut, but that's not a reason to not have a go.
There are so many different routes to perhaps getting where you want to be. A NASA astronaut colleague of mine wanted to be an astronaut desperately, thought, well, the, the way is to become a US Air Force pilot. That route didn't work out, and he was devastated. Retrained as a doctor and actually ended up flying to the space station as a medical doctor. So he got there, but, you know, it was a different route to the one that he originally thought he was going to take.
I've never forgotten my chemistry teacher at school said, "Life is like a dustbin, you get out what you put in." Nothing is going to just roll in front of you and present itself. You have to work hard, and then you will create your own luck.
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Tim Peake became the first British astronaut to visit the International Space Station.
His education outreach programme reached over two million students who followed his six month mission in orbit.
He has won numerous awards for his contribution to society and continues to inspire the next generation of scientists, engineers and explorers.
