Tim Peake is a British astronaut and military officer who in 2016, while on a mission to the International Space Station (ISS), became the first official British astronaut to walk in space.

Peake was reared in a rural village in West Sussex. His mother worked as a midwife, and his father, a journalist, sparked his son’s interest in flying by taking him on outings to air shows. At the age of 13, Peake joined the army section of the Combined Cadet Force, but he was allowed to fly with the air force section on weekends. By the time he was 16, he had decided to become an army pilot.

Upon graduating (1992) from the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, Peake became an officer in the British Army Air Corps. He was awarded his Army Flying Wings in 1994 and spent four years (1994–98) flying reconnaissance missions in Germany, Northern Ireland, Kenya, Canada, and the Balkans. He qualified as a helicopter flying instructor in 1998 and then served (1999–2002) as a platoon commander with the U.S. Army at Fort Hood, Texas, piloting Apache helicopters. After he returned home, Peake worked (2002–05) as an Apache helicopter instructor prior to his selection for test-pilot training. In 2005 he graduated from the Empire Test Pilots’ School, Boscombe Down, earning the Westland Trophy for best rotary-wing pilot student. The following year he received a BSc in Flight Dynamics and Evaluation from the University of Portsmouth. From 2006 to 2009, when he retired from the British army as a major, he served with Rotary Wing Test Squadron, Boscombe Down. During 18 years of military service, he logged more than 3,000 hours of flying time in helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft.

Following his acceptance on May 18, 2009, into the European Space Agency (ESA) program, Peake moved to Cologne, Germany, to enter basic training at the European Astronaut Centre, where he learned Russian, survival skills, CPR, rescue-diver skills, and movement in zero gravity. He also underwent resilience training, spending a week underground in a cave and living for 12 days in 2012 deep underwater as an aquanaut for the Extreme Environment Mission Operations of the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), all in preparation for his mission to the ISS, which was announced in 2013.

On December 15, 2015, Peake became the first British ESA astronaut to travel in space when his mission was launched on SoyuzTMA-19M. He was accompanied by American astronaut Col. Tim Kopra and Russian cosmonaut Yury Malenchenko. Three days later they reached the ISS. On January 15, 2016, he and Kopra exited the hatch of the space station on an assignment to replace a failed voltage regulator for the station’s solar panels. They worked in total darkness, while the panels were not generating power, to avoid the risk of electrocution. The pair also deployed cables for the future installation of an international docking adapter and completed other tasks during their 4 hours 45 minutes of extravehicular activity. With the undertaking, Peake became the first official British spacewalker; the British-born Michael Foale had walked in space in 1995 but as a NASA astronaut. Peake returned to Earth on June 18, 2016, shortly after becoming the first British subject to be honoured by the queen—as Companion of the Order of St. Michael and St. George—while in space.

When he was younger Peake was a Cub Scout and is now an ambassador for the Prince's Trust and the Scout Association in the UK, and for STEM Learning.  

In recognition of his very significant achievements in aviation and astronautics, and his ongoing enthusiasm and encouragement to the youth in UK to pursue interests and careers in engineering, aviation and astronaut training, Tim Peake is awarded the Award of Honour.

1999/2000 awarded twice:
     Sir Arthur Marshall
     Sir George Edwards

2000/2001 awarded twice:
     Group Captain John Cunningham CBE
     Wing Commander Roland Prosper Beamont CBE

2002  Not Awarded

2002/03  Squadron Leader Neville Frederick Duke DSO OBE DFC** AFC

2003/04 awarded twice:
     Lionel Peter Twiss OBE DSC* QCVSA
     Joseph Sutter Hon FRAeS

2004/05  Sir Michael Cobham CBE

2005/06 awarded twice:
     Neil Armstrong
     Captain Eric Brown CBE DSC AFC KCVSA MA FRAeS

2006/07 awarded twice:
      Sir Michael Knight KCB AFC
      Albert L Ueltschi

2008 - 2009  Not Awarded

2009/10  Sir Maurice Flanagan KBE BA Hon.FRAeS FCILT

2010/11  Duncan Simpson OBE CEng FIMechE FRAeS

2011/12  Wing Commander Kenneth Horatio Wallis MBE

2012/13  Captain James Arthur Lovell USN (Retd)

2013/14  Sir Michael John Marshall CBE DL

2014/15  UK Military Search and Rescue Force

2016  Captain Robert "Hoot" Gibson DSM DFC

2017  awarded twice:
       Air Chief Marshal Sir Patrick Hine GCB GBE FRAeS
      John Tribe BSc(Eng)

2018  The Royal Air Force Aerobatic Team, The Red Arrows

2019  Stuart King FRAeS

2020  Greg McDougall

2021  Martin Baker Aircraft Company Ltd

2022  Not Awarded

2023  The Royal Air Force Battle of Britain Memorial Flight

2024  Commemorative Air Force