United Kingdom astronaut phones wrong number from space

The first British astronaut on the International Space Station encountered a few problems phoning home for Christmas.

He then tweeted an apology to the woman he called by mistake to let her know the call was not a prank. He blasted off to the space station on December 15 with an American and a Russian.

Earlier this month Mr Peake, 43, was waved off by his wife and two sons, Thomas, six, and Oliver, four, at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

Tim Peake will get straight into challenging work on the ISS but will also have the best time.

Earlier in the week, Mr Peake helped two fellow crew members to conduct a space walk outside the ISS. Sergey Volkov and Tim Peake assisted both astronauts as space walkers prepared to go out into space.

And on Christmas Eve he tweeted a photo of the sun peeking from behind the Earth.

Soaring 250 miles over the French-Spanish border, the ISS could be mistaken for Santa’s sleigh.

From southern England, it will appear in the West at about 4.24pm and remain visible for around six minutes.

Robin Scagell, vice-president of the Society for Popular Astronomy, said: “The space station’s maximum elevation will be about 23 degrees viewed from London, which is just above the rooftops”.

“So we’ll be able to see a different object flying over the rooftops on Christmas Day”.