Former RAF man walks in space

The NASA mission travelled to the space station on board the United States' space shuttle Endeavour.

Among the crew was British-born astronaut Dr Nicholas Patrick, who qualified as a pilot with the RAF Reserves while studying Engineering at Cambridge University. He later moved to the US and joined the space programme.

Endeavour and its six-member crew touched down at Florida's Kennedy Space Centre late on Sunday after covering a total of 5.7 million miles (9.2 million kilometres) since launching from Cape Canaveral on 8 February.

This was Dr Patrick's second mission into space; he made his space debut in 2006 as part of a seven-strong team.

He said it was the RAF that got his career as an astronaut off the ground:

"I learned to fly while I was in the RAF when I was studying at Cambridge. The Service encouraged my love of flying and I have been doing it ever since.

"The launch is amazing," he added. "You feel three times your own weight as the shuttle accelerates which goes on for about eight minutes. It literally is the ride of a lifetime."

During the latest mission, known officially as STS-130, Dr Patrick made his first space walk when he and fellow crewmember Robert Behnken carried out maintenance and repair work on the International Space Station.

The astronauts opened the Space Station's new observatory during an overnight space walk, removing insulation blankets from the cupola - a robotic control station that offers 360-degree, space-front views through its seven windows. Dr Patrick also connected heater and data cables to the 'Tranquility' module which houses the observatory.

During his latest flight into space, Dr Patrick was briefly reunited with his old Service as an RAF team tracked his flight into space from RAF Fylingdales Early Warning Centre in Yorkshire.

The Fylingdales team tracked Endeavour for 13 minutes at a crucial point in the shuttle's flight as it passed over the Atlantic. RAF Flight Sergeant (FS) Jim Slevin explained:

"Because of the Earth's curvature, the Mission Control team in the US lose sight of the shuttle as the flight tracks across the Atlantic," he said.

"Fylingdales is an ideal sight. We can see a lot of sky from here.

"As the shuttle crosses the Atlantic and heads towards Europe we have a better view of it than anyone else.

"We put the information, images and telemetry data into the network to let them know that everything is OK and systems are operating as they should."

The RAF team carried out checks on the shuttle's early orbit phase, providing vital data to the NASA team during the most vulnerable point of the mission.

Although Fylingdales' primary role is as an early warning centre, the RAF team is involved in many elements of the International Space Programme.

Last year they were brought in to track a rogue Russian satellite which had broken free of its orbit and was heading for earth.

FS Slevin said:

"Fylingdales has the ideal location because we can see so much. We are regularly carrying out space surveillance for a number of foreign powers."

STS-130 was Endeavour's 24th flight and the 130th for the space shuttle programme. NASA is cancelling the programme at the end of this year, with only four remaining missions scheduled in 2010.

See Related Links for more images and video footage of the mission from NASA.