N° 24–2016: Call for Media: First press conference with ESA astronaut Tim Peake after return to Earth

Tim Peake, NASA astronaut Tim Kopra and Russian Soyuz commander Yuri Malenchenko will return to Earth on Saturday 18 June after six months in space. After a three-hour journey in their Soyuz spacecraft, they will land on the Kazakh steppe at 09:00 GMT (11:00 CEST).

Tim will continue his journey to the European Astronaut Centre (EAC), the home base of all ESA astronauts, in Cologne, Germany. ESA’s medical team will monitor how he readapts to gravity after months in weightlessness.

Tim will spend his first night back on Earth at the Envihab facility of the DLR German Aerospace Center, where scientists have gathered to continue the science programme, collecting data on Tim’s rehabilitation phase.

Programme and accreditation
The press conference at EAC starts at 11:00 GMT (13:00 CEST). ESA experts will be available for interviews. For operational reasons, there will be no one-to-one interviews with Tim.

For media accreditation, please contact:
Alessandra Vallo
Tel: +49 2203 60 01111
Email: alessandra.vallo@esa.int

About the European Space Agency

The European Space Agency (ESA) provides Europe’s gateway to space.

ESA is an intergovernmental organisation, created in 1975, with the mission to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space delivers benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world.

ESA has 22 Member States: Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom, of whom 20 are Member States of the EU.

ESA has established formal cooperation with seven other Member States of the EU. Canada takes part in some ESA programmes under a Cooperation Agreement.

By coordinating the financial and intellectual resources of its members, ESA can undertake programmes and activities far beyond the scope of any single European country. It is working in particular with the EU on implementing the Galileo and Copernicus programmes.

ESA develops the launchers, spacecraft and ground facilities needed to keep Europe at the forefront of global space activities.

Today, it develops and launches satellites for Earth observation, navigation, telecommunications and astronomy, sends probes to the far reaches of the Solar System and cooperates in the human exploration of space.

Learn more about ESA at www.esa.int

For further information, please contact:
ESA Media Relations Office
Tel: +33 1 53 69 72 99
Email: media@esa.int