World News for Students of English

26-11-2015 15:00

British astronaut Tim Peake and crewmates Yuri Malenchenko and Timothy Kopra have completed their training ahead of next month’s mission to the International Space Station. The trio visited Red Square and the Yuri Gagarin Museum at Star City in Russia on Monday, laying flowers at the graves of Russian cosmonauts.

In just a few weeks’ time, the crew will board a Soyuz rocket like this one and blast off into space on a mission expected to last seven months – one month longer than originally planned.

“The International Space Station really serves two main functions and that’s scientific research, research for the benefit of people back here on earth, but also scientific research for future space exploration. And something else that really is inherent in what we do in the International Space Station is this international partnership which has also been so successful and so important over a long period of time.”

Peak will be the first British astronaut in space for 20 years, and the first ever to board the ISS. Drawing inspiration from Winston Churchill, the former test pilot last week tweeted, “Final exam passed! Now this is not the end, it’s not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning…”

And as Tim prepares for his trip, the astronauts already on board the ISS have been enjoying a Thanksgiving meal.

“Smoked turkey… Kjell, I don’t know if you want to open that up, and some candied yams here, some rehydratable corn.”

No doubt, Tim Peak is looking forward to the delights of cosmic cuisine, his mission is expected to launch on December 15th.

“They are delicious!”
“Good stuff!”

“Happy Thanksgiving, everybody!”

Difficult words: crewmate (colleague on a ship), blast off (to take off from launching site), inherent (essential, very important), former (-ex), yam (a sweet potato), rehydratable (able to absorb water after it was dried), doubt (a feeling of not being certain), delight (something nice), cosmic (relating to space), cuisine (food).

Source: www.ondemandnews.com