HMB congratulates Tim Peake. He is the first official British astronaut and the first British astronaut to go to the International Space Station. Tuesday,15th of December 2015 will be remembered for not only space exploration, but it coincided with the premier of the new Star Wars films which is expected to break box office records.

Britain has now sent seven astronauts to space according to the British Interplanetary Society. The story is widely reported in the international press as it inspires millions of people around the world about science and space exploration. Britain and India have close ties when it comes to space exploration. In July 2015 it placed in orbit five British satellites and soon it will be launching a US satellite.India is acknowledged for its cost effective space exploration programmes. The Indian Space Exploration Organisation (Ispo) has now launched 45 satellites for 19 nations.

The Indian space programme received international acknowledgement when it placed its Mars Orbiter Mission spacecraft in orbit at mere fraction of a cost than other nations. With it, the country joined an exclusive club of global space powers, being the fourth after the USA, Russia and EU to place a satellite in orbit around Mars. India has also become the first nation to place a Martian probe in orbit in the first attempt.The Indian PM, Narendra Modi hailed the achievement saying that the launch has set India on course to becoming a world leader in space technology.

Indian scientists have made their mark internationally. At the heights of NASA’s space research a decade ago, four out of ten NASA scientists were Indian. There is an excellent illustration of the Indian contribution in NASA’s work at Homegrown.co.inThere have been four astronauts of Indian origin too.

Kalpana Chawla who was the first Indian-American astronaut and first Indian woman in space. She first flew on Space Shuttle Columbia in 1997 as a mission specialist and primary robotic arm operator. Sadly, she was killed in the 2003 Space Shuttle Columbia disaster which took away the lives of seven astronauts.

Sunita Williams is an American astronaut and United States Navy officer of Indian-Slovenian descent. She holds the two records for taking the most number of spacewalks by a woman which was seven and the most spacewalk time for a woman at 50 hours, 40 minutes).
In India, Wing Commander Rakesh Sharma flew aboard Soyuz T-11 in 1984, as part of the Intercosmos programme.Ravish Malhotra was chosen to train for spaceflight in the Soviet Union’s Intercosmos programme in 1982. Malhotra served as backup for Rakesh Sharma on the Soyuz T-11 mission which launched the first Indian citizen into space, but unfortunately himself never went to space.