Uranus not urinal… Astronaut Tim Peake mistook ‘lights’ in space for a UFO but had actually spotted urine leaking from a Russian probe
- The astronaut, 48, said he had seen lights ‘moving in formation’ during his trip
- He said his team were ‘perplexed’ before they realised it was droplets of liquid
- Peake became first official British astronaut to join International Space Station
Tim Peake has revealed he thought he saw a UFO in space before he realised that what he was actually seeing were droplets of urine.
The astronaut, 48, said he had seen lights ‘moving in formation’ during his 186-day trip to space in 2015 before being told it was really liquid leaking from a Russian probe vehicle.
Major Peake became the first official British astronaut to join the International Space Station and during his mission he earned a Guinness World Record for the fastest marathon in orbit.
Tim Peake has revealed he thought he saw a UFO in space before he realised that what he was actually seeing were droplets of urine
Speaking on the Graham Norton Show on Friday night he recalled: ‘I saw three lights moving in formation and then there was a fourth.
‘We were perplexed, until we realised that what we thought were the far away lights of alien spaceships were actually very close small droplets.
‘What was happening was liquid leaking out of a Russian probe vehicle, crystallising instantly and reflecting the light. What we were seeing was Russian urine.’
The astronaut, 48, said he had seen lights ‘moving in formation’ during his 186 day trip to space in 2015 before being told it was really liquid leaking from a Russian probe vehicle
Major Peake has released his autobiography Limitless which tells the story of his journey to become an astronaut.
Speaking on the show he said of the book: ‘Limitless is really the journey from young boy to astronaut.
‘I feel a bit of a fraud because as a boy I had no ambitions at all of wanting to be an astronaut – I was obsessed with being a pilot.’
Major Peake became the first official British astronaut to join the International Space Station and during his mission he earned a Guinness World Record for the fastest marathon in orbit
Peake was joined on the show by Gary Barlow, Nadiya Hussain, Richard Osman and Mariah Carey.
Major Peake has previously said there is a ‘high chance’ we will soon discover if there is other life in our solar system.
He said in 2016: ‘I would be very surprised if there wasn’t life elsewhere in the universe.’
Major Peake has previously said there is a ‘high chance’ we will soon discover if there is other life in our solar system
It comes after Peake said last month that he hopes to embark on a second mission to space and become the first British person to set foot on the moon.
He said that his name is still ‘in the frame’ for a manned mission to the moon that will be undertaken by NASA in the coming years.
The former army Major said upcoming NASA missions to the moon would first only involve Americans, but that future journeys could see British astronauts participate.