British astronaut Tim Peake ran a marathon in space in record time yesterday, strapped into a treadmill on the International Space Station (ISS) as thousands ran the London Marathon below.
Peake opened the race by counting down in a video message as runners waited at the start line in the British capital.
He then joined them 400 kilometres above earth on a simultaneous feat on board the space station, wearing weights on his body to counter the zero gravity conditions.
“Hello #London! Fancy a run?” Peake wrote on Twitter before the race, accompanied by a photograph of London from above.
He followed up with a message sent after he completed the marathon, in which he noted that while he had run the 42 kilometres, the International Space Station had travelled almost 100,000 kilometres.
“Congratulations to everyone in #LondonMarathon; #teamastronaut,” he wrote. “Gonna sleep well tonight!”
