Britain's most famous astronaut back in Shropshire for 'party under the stars'
One of the world's most famous astronauts was back in Shropshire at the weekend.
Major Tim Peake, who trained as a pilot in the county, was attending a summer wedding, where he described the countryside as "glorious."
Posting on social media, he wrote: "This weekend we got to celebrate the marriage of two very special people, with family and friends at a farm in glorious Shropshire countryside.
"The boys’ first wedding, they had a blast and were honoured to have been asked to be Ushers."
"A day of happy memories topped off by a party under the stars and a stunning moon," he continued.
Major Peake, who was the first British astronaut to go to the International Space Station, has Shropshire in his heart and has written about his time in the county.
Tim is a graduate of RAF Shawbury, where he learned to fly helicopters, qualifying as a pilot in 1994 and as instructor in May 1998 at the Central Flying School.
He went on to serve 17 years in the military before joining the European Space Agency (ESA), where he took basic astronaut training in 2009, graduating in 2010.
After undergoing more extensive astronaut training, which involved among many other things spending serious periods of time in caves and underwater, he finally embarked on a Soyuz mission to the International Space Station in late 2015.
From this point on, he achieved a lot of 'firsts'.
Helen Sharman was the first British citizen to travel to space when she headed to the Soviet space station Mir in 1991.
But Major Peake is the first to travel to the ISS – and while Ms Sharman stayed in space for eight days, Tim stayed up there for a lot longer.
After conducting the first official British space walk (in complete darkness for safety reasons), Major Peake became the first person to eat a bacon sarnie in space, apparently with the help of celeb chef Heston Blumenthal.
Making bread for consumption in space is "harder than you might think," according to the Science Museum.
He also became the first person to run the London Marathon from space, using the treadmill on board the station, and a belt to keep him from floating off.
Major Peake eventually returned to Earth in June 2016 after spending six months in space, but not before he was honoured by the Queen while he was still on board the station.
His list of achievements goes on... and on... and sometimes its nice to know that this very impressive gentleman was at least in a very small part, made in Shropshire.
