'Hello, is this planet Earth?' UK astronaut Tim Peake calls wrong number from ISS

25 Dec, 2015 06:48 / Updated 8 years ago

Imagine your phone’s ringing, and the first thing you hear is “Hello, is this planet Earth?” That’s exactly what one UK lady heard – but in her case, it was indeed a call from space: astronaut Tim Peake dialed a wrong number.

Peake has already apologized for the incident, and insisted it wasn’t a joke.

“I'd like to apologize to the lady I just called by mistake saying 'Hello, is this planet Earth?' – not a prank call…just a wrong number!” he posted on his Twitter.

It’s not the first time the Brit has had problems calling home: last week, he tried calling his parents, but didn’t catch them in and left a voicemail.

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The astronaut’s father, Nigel Peake, told ITV News that the experience felt amazing.

“It was quite surreal. We'd popped out for about an hour to see our daughter who lives nearby, came home to an answerphone message, 'hello, this is your son from the International Space Station'. We're out when he calls! That message is going to stay there in perpetuity, I can assure you.”

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The 43-year-old Brit is the first UK national in last 25 years, chosen to join the team in 2009. He beat over 8,000 applicants to the job.

During his six-month stay on the space station, Peake go round the Earth 2,700 times, traveling at 17,500mph (28,200kph).