ASTRONAUT Tim Peake, the first Briton to live aboard the International Space Station (ISS), has said Oxfordshire’s Harwell Campus is at the cutting edge of space technology.

Speaking at the launch of a new campaign to mark the fifth anniversary of his historic journey into space, Mr Peake said Harwell was ‘a place of inspiration and wonder’.

The astronaut’s campaign, organised alongside the UK Space Agency, started at the Harwell Campus in Didcot yesterday and seeks to find younger people who were inspired by his journey.

Mr Peake spoke to the Oxford Mail about space tourism, getting more girls involved in STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) and his ambitions of revisiting space.

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“Harwell is an important place, it’s a place of inspiration and wonder, a bit like space really,” he said.

“You have a look around this campus and it’s full of things going on, we’ve got 5G networks being installed, we’ve got autonomous vehicles driving around the campus – you’ve got companies doing really innovative things here – this is the cutting edge of what we’re capable of globally.”

His new campaign will run until January 31, and seeks to hear the stories such as that of Lowena Hull, who when she was 13, designed code for an MP3 player which Mr Peake used on the ISS.

Examples such as Miss Hull highlight the need to also get more young girls involved in STEM.

Mr Peake said: “The point is we still have a lot of young women who take up GCSEs in STEM subjects but when it comes to A-levels that’s where it starts to drop off and then when it comes to making choices for university, it drops off even further.”

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Mr Peake, who spent 186 days on the ISS, also said he was keen to return to space at some point, saying: “It’s everybody’s dream to go to space and when you’ve been there once it whets the appetite to go even more so hopefully there’ll be a second mission to achieve that.”

Even in the time since Mr Peake lived aboard the ISS, technology surrounding space tourism has grown.

“I think space tourism is really interesting and exciting, and the commercialisation of space as a whole is accelerating what we’re doing and pushing technology, it’s pushing innovation,” he said.

“On the flip side of that coin, we must do it responsibly, and explore space in a sustainable manner.

“I think it’s still a fair few years in the future before space becomes accessible to the masses though.”

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Science Minister Amanda Solloway was also in attendance for the launch of the campaign and lauded the Harwell Campus.

She said: “This site is incredibly important and everything I’ve seen today has been amazing.

“In terms of here practically, we see opportunities for jobs and roles, everything we do here is excellent.

“What I’m really keen to do is model the brilliance that we have here and make sure we get it everywhere through the country.”