OUT OF THIS WORLD

TIM’S SPACESHIP SET TO LAND AT CITY’S CATHEDRAL

Visitors to Peterborough Cathedral will have an out of this world experience - and face the biggest questions in humanity - when Tim Peake’s spaceship lands for a special exhibition.

The Soyuz capsule that took Major Peake and his crew mates to the International Space Station in 2015 - and safely brought them back down to earth six months later - will be visiting the cathedral as part of a nationwide tour in August. The space craft will be in the cathedral from August 11 until November 5.

The cathedral was competing against four other cities - Birmingham, Norwich, Plymouth and Worcester to host the exhibition, and a team from Peterborough was in Manchester on Friday night when the winning bid was announced.

The exhibition will be one of the highlights of the cathedral’s 900th anniversary celebrations this year, with the craft taking centre stage in the historic building for three months.

The Dean of Peterborough, the Very Revd Chris Dalliston said the combination of science and religion in the same place would pose some of the biggest questions in humanity to visitors.

He said: “I’m absolutely delighted that we shall be hosting the Soyuz spacecraft in Peterborough, especially in the year we celebrate the Cathedral’s 900th anniversary.

“Throughout the centuries, science and religion have been connected by a shared delight in the created world, a sense of wonder about its origins and destiny, and a desire to seek for the mechanisms and the meaning behind our universe. We hope that many who come to see the Soyuz in our wonderful and ancient cathedral will begin to get answers to both those questions, and delight in the astonishing inventiveness of humanity and the extraordinary creativity of God.”

Soyuz will be displayed in north transept and aisle inside the Cathedral. Services and events will carry on as usual during the exhibition, providing an added attraction to the existing programme.

Alongside the capsule itself will be Major Peake’s spacesuit, and the 25-metre parachute used to bring the craft back to Earth safely.

There will also be Space Descent VR - a unique virtual reality adventure that brings the experience alive using Samsung Gear VR technology.

Ian Blatchford, Director of the Science Museum Group, said: “It is rare to see the star objects in Britain’s

great museum collections touring the length and breadth of the country. It is even rarer to see a spacecraft in a cathedral. I am extremely pleased that thousands of people from all around the diocese of Peterborough will have the chance to see this extraordinary artefact of recent space history on their doorstep, and I cannot wait to see the Soyuz take the cathedral’s 900th birthday celebrations out of this world when it arrives in August.”

It will be free to visit the cathedral and see the spacecraft during its stay in the city.