London - If six months in orbit 230 miles from earth sounds like a challenge, take a look at the bizarre lengths astronaut Tim Peake has already gone to in his training.
The countdown to blast off has included a week living in an underground cave and 12 days on the bottom of the sea.
Major Peake, Britain’s first astronaut for 20 years, took stomach-churning “zero gravity” flights and learned Russian to communicate on the International Space Station.
And if that wasn’t enough, he yesterday said he may take didgeridoo lessons.
The former test pilot from Chichester, West Sussex, has no fears about launching into space from Kazakhstan in a Russian Soyuz rocket in November 2015 – because it’s much less dangerous than his old job.
He said: “I think my future career is probably far safer than my past career. I’ve carried out some fairly high-risk flight tests. I’m not overly apprehensive.”
But the 41-year-old said the thrill was mixed with “concern” over leaving his wife, Rebecca, and their two sons for so long.
The family are set to move to Houston in the US while he completes his training.
Major Peake, who was selected by the European Space Agency from more than 8 000 candidates, spent 18 years in the British Army, serving in Bosnia, Northern Ireland and Afghanistan.
He helped introduce Apache helicopters into Army service, after flying them on an exchange posting to the US.
After leaving the Army in 2009 he became a helicopter test pilot for AgustaWestland.
In a press conference on Monday, he described his “strange” 14-month training plan. It included a week in isolated caves in Sardinia, to prepare him for living with very limited privacy and equipment.
He also spent 12 days in a lab located 65ft underwater near Key Largo, Florida. On the space mission, a crew of six will share an area the size of a Boeing 747-400 jet.
And he experienced weightlessness in a special plane which dives so steeply that people and objects inside float through the air as it plummets.
Chichester-born Major Peake said his dream was to walk on Mars, but it would probably not be possible. He added: “I certainly hope it’s within the career span of young people who we will be hoping to inspire with this mission.”
He even said fellow Apache pilot, Prince Harry, could follow him.
He said: “I’m sure he’d make a fantastic astronaut and I would wish him the best of luck. I would like him to have a go.”
He promised to keep up the tradition of Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield, who posted regular Twitter updates about his progress.
Major Peake praised Commander Hadfield for doing a “fantastic job”, saying: “I don’t think I’ll be able to top the tweeting, but I will also be tweeting.” But he said unlike Commander Hadfield, he would not record a version of Bowie’s Space Oddity, adding: “I wouldn’t inflict my singing on anybody.”
However, he does have another musical tribute in mind. “I may take a didgeridoo – a friend has offered to teach me how to play,” he said.
Major Peake will be the first UK national to work in space under the Union Flag. Other British astronauts have had private funding – such as Helen Sharman, the first Briton in space in 1991 – or taken dual citizenship. - Daily Mail