The European Space Agency has just announced the appointment of six new recruits to its astronaut corps. Given that the United Kingdom has so far declined to contribute to ESA’s manned spaceflight programme, it had been assumed that none of the new astronauts would be Brits.

The only natives of Blighty who have so far orbited the globe have either done so with the aid of private funding and Russian support (e.g., Helen Sharman in 1991), or taken US citizenship in order to fly with NASA (Michael Foale, Piers Sellers and Nicholas Patrick).

ESA has today appointed 37-year-old Army Air Corps test pilot Tim Peake as the first official spacefaring Brit. This is most excellent news. It’s about time that the UK pulled its weight in the European space programme. Britain has always been one the biggest contributors to ESA’s budget, but this member state’s commitment to space has been at best lukewarm.

Europe has some exciting space projects on the board, one of which includes a human spaceflight element. I would very much like to see Britain play a full part in the Aurora programme, and it would seem that our European neighbours are of the same opinion.