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Tim Peake's Spacecraft Tour

In June 2016, after six months orbiting the Earth on the International Space Station conducting experiments, walking in space and even running a marathon, Tim Peake returned to Earth in the Soyuz TMA-19M descent module.

On 23 May 2019, after a 20-month tour of the UK, Tim Peake joined the Science Museum Group to announce that over 1.3 million people visited the Soyuz spacecraft from his Principia Mission.

Soyuz TMA-19M is the first flown human rated spacecraft in the Science Museum Group Collection.

It goes on permanent display at the Science Museum in London after touring to venues in Bradford, Shildon, York, Manchester, Edinburgh, Peterborough, Cardiff and Belfast on the National Tour of Tim Peake’s Spacecraft presented by Samsung and the Science Museum Group.

The Sokol KV-2 emergency space suit which was worn by Peake during his descent to Earth, and which joined the Soyuz on tour, is to go on long-term display at the National Space Centre, Leicester, from 2019.

SPACE DESCENT VR WITH TIM PEAKE

This exhilarating 360° 3D state-of-the-art virtual reality experience is made possible with support from Samsung and the generous co-operation of Tim Peake and the European Space Agency. Using the Samsung Gear VR and the very latest in VR technology, it enables visitors to experience what it feels like to sit inside the Soyuz’s descent module as it makes its dangerous high-speed journey back to earth.

TOUR HIGHLIGHTS

Attracting 1.3 million visitors across 20-months, the tour of Tim Peake’s Spacecraft went to eight venues in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales:

  • The tour launched at the National Science and Media Museum in Bradford where it attracted 108,162 visitors.
  • The tour’s second venue was Locomotion in Shildon, which saw a 200% visitor increase from the same period in the previous year as it welcomed 46,849 visitors during Soyuz’s stay.
  • The National Railway Museum in York had 126,509 visitors to its display of Soyuz in its Great Hall.
  • Tim Peake’s Sokol spacesuit joined the Soyuz on the tour at Manchester’s Science and Industry Museum, and attracted 168,005 visitors.
  • Tim Peake held a Q&A with schoolchildren at the launch of the display at the National Museum of Scotland, where 542,575 people visited the Soyuz.
  • The tour continued at Peterborough Cathedral, which had won a national competition to host the tour. The cathedral saw 171,361 visitors, which represented a 900% increase in visitors on the previous year.
  • National Museum Cardiff saw 91,483 visitors to the tour display.
  • Belfast’s Ulster Transport Museum welcomed 64,414 to the final stop of the tour

PRESENTING PARTNERS

 

Samsung and SMG logos

SUPPORTED BY

European Space Agency and Russia-UK 2017 logos

This is a partnership which supports the Science Museum Group to achieve its mission. Find out more about how you can support the work of the Science Museum Group.