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In fairness, most of the coverage I've seen (at least in reputable publications) has been very clear that he's the first British citizen on board the ISS, rather than the first British astronaut. I'm sure that won't stop half the country reading the headlines and getting the wrong idea, but hey ho.

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Michael Foale (dual American and British Citizen) was on the Internation Space Station in 2003. He still holds the cumulative-time-in-space record for a UK citizen. He was a NASA astronaut whilst on the ISS.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Foale

Isn't he the first to do it as an ESA astronaut instead of through NASA with dual citizenship (but as a US trained astronaut) or through a Russian space tourism junket? It's a pretty big deal to get to send your own astronaut up vs just having a citizen up there but working for a different agency IMO.

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