Tim Peake phones home from space – but gets parents’ answerphone

At 12:45 GMT, NASA astronauts began the last spacewalk of 2015 leaving Britain’s Tim Peake in charge of the U.S. section of the International Space Station. The rail auto needed to be moved so a cargo ship filled with almost 3 tons of food and supplies could dock at the orbiting space lab on Wednesday. Up here obviously we have got a job to do and we will be working, I suspect, for some of that time as well.

Tim Peake calls his parents from the International Space Station – but they were out, so he leaves a message on their answerphone instead.

The cause of the stall is being evaluated, but experts believe it may be related to a stuck brake handle, said ISS Mission Integration and Operations Manager Kenny Todd.

Speaking to ITV News, they also revealed that a cardboard cut-out of Major Peake – dubbed “Flat Tim” – will take his place at the Christmas table.

Both Tim Kopra and Scott Kelly are venturing outside the spacecraft to fix a jammed rail auto, which is expected to take around three hours.

Since his arrival on ISS, along with two Soyuz crew mates, Tim has had a busy schedule. We’d popped out for about an hour to see our daughter who lives nearby, came home to an answerphone message, “hello, this is your son from the International Space Station”.

“I would like to say a huge thank you of course to everybody who has supported me throughout this mission”.

In other space news, SpaceX is aiming for a Sunday launch, its first since a summer accident grounded its Falcon line of rockets.

“As our firm begins its second century, our Starliner programme continues Boeing’s custom of area business innovation with business service to the area station”, famous John Mulholland, vice president and supervisor of Boeing’s business crew programme.