British astronaut Major Peake spent six months aboard the International Space Station (ISS) in 2016 as part of a European Space Agency (ESA) mission, but returned to Earth to find Britain in the midst of a major debate regarding its status in the European Union (EU). Major Peake, 47, landed back on Earth just seven days before the Brexit referendum on June 23, 2016, and has now warned of the consequences for science when the UK finally leaves the EU. Since Brexit was announced, ESA has stated that the UK will no longer be part of Galileo, a satellite navigation project which was designed to rival the US’s GPS system, and Copernicus, an Earth observation satellite, following Brexit.
However, Mr Peake believes the UK being ousted from Galileo is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to issues that Britain will face when it separates from Brussels.
Speaking to Express.co.uk, Major Peake said: “Galileo and Copernicus are two EU programmes and that is causing difficulties and there still needs to be negotiations as to how that partnership is going to work.
“I reiterate, they are EU programmes and ESA runs them on behalf of the EU. So the ESA part of that, is not going to be affected by Brexit.
“But of course, in terms of the wider scientific community, Brexit is having an impact on all areas of UK industry and the science and academia is no exception.
“We will see disruption and things will have to change to accommodate that.”
However, the ESA astronaut, who was the first Briton to perform the space walk outside of the ISS, does state that there are some silver linings for the UK and space exploration.
Britain will remain a member of ESA, an entity completely separate from the EU.
And Mr Peake said Britain will continue to be at the forefront of ESA-led projects.
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Major Peake also praised the UK’s ambitions to build launch sites for horizontal (where a plane launches a second rocket into orbit) and vertical (a lift-off from the ground)launches.
“What we are trying to do with SpacePort Cornwall for example, and up at Sutherland, is to be Europe’s first launch site for horizontal launches and vertical launches into orbit, and we’re doing very well.
“We are ahead of the game at the moment and we need to maintain that edge that we have.”