Astronaut phones home from space... only to get voicemail

British astronaut Tim Peake left an answer phone message for his parents. Photo / Getty Images

Tim Peake, the British astronaut, was forced to leave an answer phone message for his parents after calling them from the International Space Station to find that they had "popped out".

Nigel and Angela Peake, who travelled to Kazakhstan to see the rocket launch last week, said they had gone out for an hour to visit their daughter when Major Tim decided to "phone home" from space.

He was forced to leave a message on their answer phone instead.

His father, Nigel, 74, of Westbourne, West Sussex, told ITV News: "It was quite surreal. We'd popped out for about an hour to see our daughter who lives nearby, came home to an answer phone 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."

Mr Peake also said that they will have a cardboard cut-out of their son at the Christmas table later this week, which they have named "Flat Tim".

"He will be with us around the Christmas festive table as a giant cardboard cut-out which the people in the village very kindly made for the celebration party they had on launch day," said Mr Peake. "We've now borrowed him so he's standing in the corner of the room so he'll be here with us when we carve the turkey."

Major Peake, 43, a former Army Air Corps officer and helicopter test pilot, spent most of the day helping two of his crewmates to embark on a space walk.

US Nasa astronauts Tim Kopra and Scott Kelly left the space station to free a jammed robotic trolley to allow a supply ship to dock later this week.

Major Peake is the first Briton aboard the space station, and the first fully British professional astronaut employed by a space agency.