Peterborough visitor numbers for Tim Peake’s space ship were out of this world

The Russian craft, which took the British astronaut to the International Space Station and back to Earth, was at Peterborough Cathedral between August and November last year. The visit was part of a tour which took it to eight cities - Peterborough,Edinburgh, Belfast, Cardiff, York, Manchester, Bradford and Shildon. A total of 171,361 people visited in Peterborough, second only to Edinburgh, where 542,575 people saw the historic craft. The Dean of Peterborough, the Very Revd Chris Dalliston, said: “It was a great privilege to be part of this remarkable tour. The presence of the Soyuz spacecraft in the Cathedral not only attracted large numbers of visitors, but also prompted questions about the relationship between science and faith and humanity’s place in the universe. To have such a wonderful exhibition during the Cathedral’s 900th anniversary year was the icing on the cake.” During the exhibition in Peterborough, The Museum Of The Moon also visited - with a huge scale model of the moon installed in teh historic building. In total, more than 1.3 million people saw the exhibition, which also included Tim’s spacesuit, the parachute which eased the spaceship back to Earth, and a VR experience. The craft will now go on display at the Science Museum in London.