Tim Peake, the first British astronaut on the International Space Station, dialled a wrong number after trying to phone home for Christmas, asking a woman “Is this planet Earth?”
British astronaut Tim Peake has apologized after dialling a wrong number from the International Space Station and saying “Hello is this planet Earth?” to the woman who answered.
Peake quickly took to Twitter late Thursday to insist that the incident was not a prank call, “just a wrong number!” and that he was trying to connect to his home.
According to Britain s Daily Telegraph newspaper, it is not the spaceman s first phone flub. On Monday, he tried to ring his parents to wish them a Merry Christmas but had to leave a message because they had “popped out” from their home in southern England.
Peake also is somewhat of a serial tweeter. He tweeted an illustration created by Lupus Films of the astronaut with The Snowman and The Snowdog.
And on Christmas Eve he tweeted a photo of the sun peeking from behind the Earth.
According to the Telegraph, Peake, 43, of Chichester in southern England, is conducting a series of experiments on himself to help scientists understand the toll of spaceflight on the human body, which is hoped will aid in future missions to Mars. He blasted off to the space station on Dec. 15 with an American and a Russian. He is the first Briton to visit the station.