Tim Peake reveals he is ‘still in the frame’ for NASA’s future lunar space mission

Astronaut Tim Peake has said he hopes to embark on a second mission to space and become the first British person to set foot on the moon.

He said that his name is still ‘in the frame’ for a manned mission to the moon that will be undertaken by NASA in the coming years.

The former army Major said upcoming NASA missions to the moon would first only involve Americans, but that future journeys could see British astronauts participate.

Astronaut Tim Peak has spoken of how he hopes to become the first British person to set foot on the moon in the up-coming NASA lunar missions

NASA’s Artemis programme plans to land the first woman and next man on the moon by 2024, in what would be the first manned visit since the Apollo 17 mission in 1972.

The last person on the moon was commander of the Apollo 17 mission Eugene Cernan, who traced his only child’s initials in the dust before climbing the ladder of the lunar module the last time.

Should Peake leave footprints on the moon, he would become the oldest person to make the landing, breaking the record of American Alan Shapard who walked on the surface at 47 years old. 

Speaking to the Headliners podcast Peake, 48, said: ‘We are very much part of the return to the moon programme. It’s called Artemis.

‘The European Space Agency build the service module which is going to take the Orion spacecraft back to the moon.

‘We won’t probably have Europeans in the first return to the moon, that’s likely to be two Americans – a male and a female.

‘But subsequently, yes. We will have Europeans, at some point, will be part of those missions. So who knows… I mean, my name is still in the frame and I hope to have a second mission. We’ll have to wait and see.’

The last man on the moon was Eugene A. Cernan, pictured on the moon as part of the Apollo 17 mission in December 1972

Cernan, the last man on the moon, traced his only child’s initials in the dust before climbing the ladder of the lunar module the last time

Peake became only the second astronaut to bear the flag of the United Kingdom when he ventured to the International Space Station (ISS) on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft in December 2016.

He ran the London marathon on the ISS treadmill and also became the first British astronaut to participate in a space walk outside the space station, returning to Earth in June 2016.

Asked by podcast host Nihal Arthanayake, 49, about the politics of space, Peake said: ‘It’s possibly one of the greatest achievements of the International Space Station – more so than the scientific research – is this international collaboration that has managed to bond together for over 20 years now.

Peake became only the second astronaut to bear the flag of the United Kingdom when he ventured to the International Space Station (ISS) on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft in December 2016.

Pictured: Buzz Aldrin peeks through his space helmet while standing on the moon after become the second person to stand on the lunar surface – the first being Neil Armstrong, who took this photograph

‘The space community almost transcends political differences. The people who were teaching me and the people I was living and working with… our lives depend on each other.

‘We can’t allow for political differences to get in the way.’

Peake, from Chichester in West Sussex, is married to wife Rebecca and the couple have two sons, Oliver and Thomas, together.