Shropshire from space: Tim Peake's St David's Day tweet takes in our county
British astronaut Tim Peake tweeted a St David's Day greeting to Wales from space today . . . and included Shropshire in his photo.
The county occupies a position about halfway up and two thirds of the way across Peake's picture, and is where he learned to fly helicopters during his time at RAF Shawbury.
Major Peake also sent a video message where he wished the nation "iechyd da", or good health.
Major Peake qualified as a helicopter instructor on May 28 in 1998 at RAF Shawbury's Central Flying School.
Helen Sharman became the first British citizen to travel to space when she visited the Soviet space station Mir in 1991. But Major Peake was the first to travel to the ISS, which he joined on December 15, 2015.
And while Ms Sharman stayed in space for eight days, he wont be back until the middle of next year.
Major Peake has keep up connections with Shropashire during his time in space, sending six-year-old Harry Lanyon a message from the ISS after the Shrewsbury youngster built his own rocket from cardboard tubes, tinsel and yoghurt pots.
Harry's mother Sara was so impressed with his work that she tweeted the International Space Station, saying:
Shortly after she received a reply from the astronaut, who trained as a helicopter instructor at Shropshire's RAF Shawbury.
Major Peake said:
And another Tim Peake in Shropshire made the news, with people getting confused by him and his more famous namesake.
This Tim Peake is a press officer, who represents British Gymnastics based at Lilleshall National Sports Centre.
He described himself as an 'alleged spaceman' on Twitter and issued a number of emoji-packed tweets sending up the fact he has the same name as the British space hero.
From the account @Tim Peaky, he tweeted:
Yesterday he posted on Twitter:
