BRITISH astronaut Tim Peake has landed in the UK and started a new mission helping to promote London's Heathrow Airport.
Major Peake arrived at the airport at 6.55am on Wednesday on a United Airlines flight from Houston, Texas, where he lives with his family.
The astronaut, who was on his own, was immediately launched into a Heathrow marketing campaign focused on welcome posters featuring "iconic" British individuals.
Photos of Major Peake, dressed in his distinctive blue astronaut overalls and with his arms outstretched, are being showcased across all the airport's terminals.
He joins eight other figures chosen to welcome visitors to the UK, including London town crier Alan Myatt, a Red Arrows pilot, a London Zoo keeper, a Globe Theatre actor and a London Underground customer services assistant.
A Heathrow spokesman said: "To celebrate his safe landing back to Earth and to welcome him home to the UK, Heathrow has today unveiled Tim as one of the iconic welcome posters which will be viewed by 75 million passengers a year."
Major Peake returned to Earth from a six-month mission aboard the International Space Station (ISS) on June 18. He was the first British European Space Agency astronaut to be sent into space.
The astronaut makes his first public appearance in the UK since completing his mission at the Farnborough International Airshow on Friday.
Major Peake posted a photo of himself standing in front of his Heathrow picture on Twitter, with the message: "Great to be back in the UK this morning - saw someone who looked familiar at #Heathrow!"
