Tim Peake delivers Christmas video message from International Space Station

British astronaut Tim Peake has helped two of his fellow crewmen carry out a spacewalk – but failed in an attempt to phone his parents from the International Space Station (ISS).

He appears in the video along with his colleagues Scott Kelly and Tim Kopra.

The spacewalk more than 250 miles (400 km) above Earth was just scheduled last Friday.

Mr Peake also said that they will have a cardboard cut-out of their son at the Christmas table later this week, which they have named “Flat Tim”.

Kelly and Kopra fixed the stuck rail vehicle in 15 minutes, leaving them time to tackle work to prepare the station for new modules, said mission commentator Rob Navias from NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.

NASA described the job as a “cautionary measure” that needs to be done ahead of the arrival of the Russian Progress supply ship on Wednesday. Problem occurred with cart moving along with platform – which is called crew equipment and translation aid (CETA).

Commander Scott Kelly concluded the message: “Merry Christmas, happy holidays, and happy new year from the International Space Station”.

Kelly is on a one-year mission that’s due to end in March.

Weather permitting the astronauts on the International Space Station will be passing over the United Kingdom today and can be passed off as Santa on his sleigh going about his important work.

Because the assigned task took so little time, they were then able to use their remaining time on the spacewalk to complete other crucial tasks.

During the three-hour spacewalk, Major Peake, along with Russian cosmonauts Mikhail Korniyenko, Yuri Malenchenko and Sergei Volkov, remained on board the ISS.