Dr Michael Foale
As a boy, his heroes were the likes of Sir Ernest Shackleton and Captain Scott,
pioneers in the great days of world exploration.
Now Dr Michael Foale is famous for taking that intrepid British spirit out of this
world, helping Nasa in the conquest of the final frontier- space. Michael, 43, decided
at the age of six that he wanted to be an astronaut but was fully expected to follow
his father, Colin, into the RAF.
But after gaining a degree at Cambridge and completing a doctorate in astrophysics,
he found himself knocking on Nasa's door in Houston, Texas.
Starting as a technician, he applied for astronaut training twice before being accepted
in 1987. Now he is Britain's most accomplished space explorer with six Space Shuttle
missions under his belt.
At Christmas, as thousands of us struggled to plug in our new personal computers,
Michael was 370 miles above the Earth, repairing the £1.8 billion Hubble Telescope
with a "PC" that cost £4.3 million.
The complex repair job took place during an eight-hour marathon space walk while
orbiting at 18,500mph. Amazingly, in just over a week he travelled 3.2 million miles,
orbiting the Earth 120 times.
He became a household name in 1997 when he helped to repair Mir, the stricken Russian
space station. And his exploits have led to him becoming known as the "Mr Fixit"
of space. Michael says, "It is the spirit of exploration that made Britain great.
The purity of that ideal is what really captures the human spirit and lights up
the eyes of schoolchildren."
He is the pride of his parents Colin and Mary, the pride of his wife Rhonda and
children Jenna, eight, and Ian, five. And, most of all, the pride of Britain.