SPACE rocket company Skyrora has announced the addition of British astronaut Tim Peake to its advisory board.
The experience Tim has gained as a European Space Agency astronaut, former International Space Station (ISS) crew member, and British Army Air Corps officer will be invaluable to Skyrora as the company continues its development of the Skyrora XL rocket for providing orbital launches by 2023.
Skyrora has already shown themselves as a leader within the UK space race with a recent full ground test of its second largest launch vehicle, making the UK effectively launch ready.
The ground test, the first in the UK since the Black Arrow Programme 50 years ago, was followed by Skyrora last month successfully launching its Skylark Nano rocket – the first of its kind to take place in Shetland.
Volodymyr Levykin, chief executive officer at Skyrora said: “I couldn’t be more excited with Tim joining our advisory board. Tim’s knowledge, insight, and vast experience in the space industry will boost Skyrora’s efforts to become the UK’s premier and principal company for commercial rocket launches.
“Tim has been at the forefront of the space industry for years. His level of expertise will help us to gain more insight into the rapidly evolving UK space industry and sustain our rapid growth and development.
“As the UK space industry continues to grow rapidly, we must all work together and combine our multidisciplinary efforts to achieve capturing 10 percent of the global space market by 2030, as targeted by the UK government”.
Tim Peake said: “I’m delighted to be joining Skyrora’s Advisory Board and helping to support their efforts to develop a commercial rocket launch capability. The UK is well placed to become a key player in meeting the increasing need for small satellite launch opportunities and Skyrora’s innovative ideas and rapid pace of development make them an extremely exciting company to be working with.
After a successful 17-year career in the military and aeronautical industry, Tim Peake joined the European Space Agency astronaut training programme in 2009 and took part in missions such as the ESA CAVES and NEEMO 16.
Following Tim’s successful six-month trip to the ISS managing scientific experiments for hundreds of researchers on Earth from December 2015 to June 2016, Tim led a UK countrywide tour to promote his ISS Principia mission to the younger generation.
Tim saw this as a unique opportunity to engage with students and teach them about the science and engineering behind human spaceflight. This created an educational outreach programme of more than 30 projects, engaging and inspiring more than two million school children across 10,000 schools, which is equivalent to around 15% of all school children and one in three schools in the UK.
Tim will continue with his engagement as a highly distinguished and much loved ambassador. In honour of his achievements, Tim was appointed Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George by Queen Elizabeth II in June 2016. He was also awarded the Royal Academy of Engineering’s prestigious Rooke Award in recognition of going above and beyond, promoting engineering and space to the younger generation.
