‘The only limit is our imagination’: Tim Peake on what living in space taught him about life on Earth

Nine years after his first trip to outer space, Tim Peake is ready to blast off once again. He talks about preparing for the first all-British space mission – and setting his sights on Mars

The astronaut Tim Peake is tracking his cab driver on his phone. The car that will deliver him from our meeting to his next appointment (on a day packed with radio commitments) is late and Peake is calculating the most time-efficient route for us to meander through Soho’s traffic, on foot, to reach it. Peake is the seventh UK-born astronaut in space and the first Briton to spacewalk – an unfathomable feat for us, but not for him. Space, he agrees, casting a glance at a printout of the schedule he keeps in his jacket pocket, might be easier to navigate than rush hour on Earth.

We have already been chatting for an hour, in a snug above his agent’s office. He announced his retirement as a European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut in January 2023, but we’re meeting in the wake of news that he is preparing for a return to orbit on the first ever all-British space mission. That mission is due to launch next year and Peake is expected to be announced as the flight’s commander within the coming weeks. The radio interviews he’s conducting today coincide with a deadline for British businesses to make a case for their science to be included onboard, to be tested in microgravity as a priority for the mission: a strident bid to showcase Britain’s Stem capabilities on an outer-world stage.