Prince Charles Tweets Letter Of Thanks From ‘Ground Control To Major Tim’ Peake

The Prince of Wales has sent a letter of thanks to astronaut British Tim Peake via Twitter because the Royal Mail can’t deliver quite that far.

Tweeted from the the official @ClarenceHouse Twitter account, the letter is typed out on headed notepaper and is addressed from “ground control to Major Tim”, a play on the ‘Major Tom’ lyrics from David Bowie’s Space Oddity.

The letter thanks former Army Air Corps pilot Peake for being a ‘splendid ambassador’ for The Prince’s Trust - a charity that helps youngsters to get into jobs, education and training, which was founded by Prince Charles.

A selfie taken by Tim Peake on his spacewalk ( ESA/NASA)

Peake’s ambassadorship is being used to highlight the work that the Trust is doing to help young people acquire STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) skills.

In the letter, The Duke of Cornwall thanks Peake for completing the London Marathon in space on behalf of the Trust - along with 74 members of Team Astronaut who completed the Marathon back on Earth, describing the endeavour as ‘out of this world’.

The light-hearted note also explains the method of delivery, saying: “Knowing that the Royal Mail operates in an entirely different space, I have been told that you are keeping up communications with Planet Earth via Twitter, so I thought I might try this method to send you my kindest wishes and appreciation”.

European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Tim Peake blasted off to the International Space Station in December and in January became the first British astronaut to complete a spacewalk.

Image credit: REX/Shutterstock