Book Tim Peake

Tim Peake is a British astronaut, decorated army aviator and author who became the first British astronaut of the European Space Agency. His path to space began at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, which led to a commission in the Army Air Corps in 1992. He qualified as a helicopter pilot in 1994 and as a flying instructor in 1998, rose to the rank of major in 2004 and graduated from the Empire Test Pilots School the following year, winning the Westland's Trophy as the top rotary wing student. He then ran Apache helicopter trials at Boscombe Down and earned a degree in flight dynamics. After 17 years and thousands of flying hours, he left the army in 2009 to become a test pilot with AgustaWestland. That same year ESA selected him for astronaut training, which he completed in November 2010. Peake went on to live aboard the International Space Station, becoming only the second astronaut to wear an Union flag patch after Helen Sharman. He was appointed a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George in 2016 and brings vivid first-person stories of flight, risk and life in orbit.