Astronaut to be first to run marathon in space
He is due to blast off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, in Kazakhstan, on December 15, and will stay in space for 173 days, until June 5 next year.
When he does the marathon, he will be attached to the treadmill by a harness to combat weightlessness, and will be watching a video of the London course on a big screen.
He said: “The London Marathon is a worldwide event. Let’s take it out of this world. The thing I’m most looking forward to is that I can still interact with everybody down on Earth. I’ll be running it with the iPad and watching myself running through the streets of London, whilst orbiting the Earth at 400km above the surface and going 27,000km per hour. One of the biggest challenges I’ll be facing is the harness system. In microgravity, I would float if I didn’t strap myself down to the treadmill, so I have to wear a harness system that’s a bit similar to a rucksack”.
A seasoned runner on Earth, Major Peake completed the London Marathon in 1999, in three hours and 18 minutes — but he does not expect to beat that time.
