{"id":1462,"date":"2026-03-30T21:36:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-30T21:36:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/1462\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T21:36:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-30T21:36:08","slug":"britain-should-be-proud-of-historic-artemis-ii-moon-launch-involvement-tim-peake-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/1462\/","title":{"rendered":"Britain should be proud of historic Artemis II Moon launch involvement, Tim Peake says"},"content":{"rendered":"

British astronaut Major Tim Peake<\/a> has stated that the UK can be “very proud” of its involvement in Nasa\u2019s upcoming Artemis II Moon mission<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A spacecraft is scheduled to launch this Wednesday from the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida, marking the first time astronauts will fly around the Moon in over 50 years.<\/p>\n

Goonhilly Earth Station, located near Helston, Cornwall, is set to play a crucial role by tracking the Orion spacecraft during its journey around the Moon and back to Earth.<\/p>\n

Four astronauts \u2013 three American and one Canadian \u2013 will be aboard the vessel. Maj Peake anticipates the trip will provide “amazing sights of the Moon like we\u2019ve never seen before” in 4K high definition.<\/p>\n

\"Maj<\/p>\n

Maj Peake said the mission can inspire young people in the UK to consider a career related to space (Jeff Spicer\/PA Media Assignments)<\/p>\n

Asked about the UK and Europe\u2019s lunar exploration, Maj Peake said: \u201cWell, the UK and Europe are right there on Artemis II, we were there on Artemis I, in terms of we built the European service module which powers the Orion spacecraft that provides all the electrical power, the life support systems, the propellant.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo Europe is heavily involved in the Artemis programme and in return for our involvement, at some point, yes, we will get a European astronaut as part of that mission.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cWe can be very proud in the UK that we are part of this Artemis mission.\u201d<\/p>\n

Maj Peake said the mission can inspire young people in the UK to consider a career related to space.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really important I think that young people in the UK, across Europe, they\u2019re able to look at these programmes and think: I could be involved in that,\u201d he told PA.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese are interesting, exciting careers to be had and that level of inspiration, it could be the seed, the spark that gets somebody a fantastic and very rewarding career.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I think it\u2019s really important that we do get the word out that we are part of this programme.\u201d<\/p>\n

The astronaut knows the four Orion crew members \u201cvery well\u201d, and said the launch of the mission will be an \u201cemotional moment\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"Artemis<\/p>\n

Artemis 2 crew members, from left, Mission Spc. Jeremy Hansen, of Canada, Mission Spc. Christina Koch, Commander Reid Wiseman, and Pilot Victor Glover pose for a photo after the crew’s arrival at the Kennedy Space Center on Friday (AP Photo\/Chris O’Meara)<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cHaving that emotional attachment to friends who are sat on top of that rocket will be incredible but there\u2019s not an astronaut on the planet who wouldn\u2019t want to be in one of those four seats.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo it\u2019s going to also be incredibly exciting, it will be a very proud moment and we\u2019ll all be wishing them well on their journey and for a safe and successful mission.\u201d<\/p>\n

The mission will last around 10 days and pave the way for Artemis III and IV \u2013 the latter being the mission that would see boots back on the Moon again.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first mission was uncrewed and that also went around the Moon, so what we\u2019re testing out on this mission is the fact that we\u2019ve got four astronauts on board in the Orion spacecraft,\u201d Maj Peake said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ll be testing out the life support systems, the communications, navigation, piloting the spacecraft, making sure it performs perfectly and once they\u2019re very happy with that, they\u2019ll then do what\u2019s called a trans-lunar injection burn and that sends them on their way to the Moon.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said further space exploration may bring medical breakthroughs and help improve clean energy systems on Earth, and that the Moon may have precious metals, minerals and resources on its surface that could be \u201cincredibly valuable\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a huge amount to be learned in terms of scientific knowledge,\u201d the astronaut added.<\/p>\n

Maj Peake will be hosting a BBC podcast about the mission from next Monday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"British astronaut Major Tim Peake has stated that the UK can be “very proud” of its involvement in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1463,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1116,13,1115,1117,1114,1113],"class_list":{"0":"post-1462","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-britain","8":"tag-artemis","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-kennedy-space-centre","11":"tag-maj-peake","12":"tag-orion-spacecraft","13":"tag-tim-peake"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1462","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1462"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1462\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1463"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1462"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1462"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1462"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}