Astronaut Tim Peake on bad A-level grades, his foray into festivals and how he fancies his chances on Strictly

Tim Peake made history when he launched into space in 2015, becoming the first British astronaut to visit the International Space Station. But the 50-year-old admits his rise to the top came after several years of playing 'catch up'.

As a teenager, Peake didn’t leave school with top marks in his A-levels - and didn't complete his degree in flight dynamics until the age of 33. Today, the former Apache pilot wears many hats; he has worked with the European Space Agency since 2009, is a STEM ambassador at Prince’s Trust, an author and - more recently - has become the star of his very own one-man show about space.

“I do say that I’ve never studied harder than when I left school, my life has been one constant series of studying various subjects,” Peake told the Manchester Evening News . “When I speak to students I hope that my story can offer some consolation and some comfort in the fact that I left school with a C, D and an E as my A-level results…But it does show that - look, if things don’t go so well at A-levels, or you have had a challenging time, it doesn’t mean that you cannot catch up”.

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After a turbulent few years, students up and down the country received their A-level results this week. Education has been disrupted by the Coronavirus pandemic for the past 24 months, meaning this year was the first since 2019 that students sat actual exams for their qualifications.

Peake added: “You can always go back and achieve your dreams and work hard to get what you want and I think that’s a really important message. But we have to understand that Covid and lockdowns have had a really damaging impact on education for some people.”

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