The first British ESA astronaut Tim Peake spoke to ESA Director General Jan Wörner and UK Minister for Universities and Science Jo Johnson at the flag-raising ceremony of ESA's European Centre for Space Applications and Telecommunications (ECSAT) in the UK on 9 July 2015. Tim spoke to them and the crowd from Star City in Russia, where he is training for his mission to the International Space Station. The Minister asked him how his training was progressing, while the DG hinted at Tim's mission logo and name, "Principia", which refers to Isaac Newton’s world-changing three-part text on physics, Naturalis Principia Mathematica.

ECSAT is the youngest of ESA's centres across Europe, and has a special focus on telecom and partnerships with industry. One hundred ECSAT staff and contractors will be housed in the brand new "Roy Gibson" building on Harwell Campus, the UK Space Gateway, by the end of 2015.

Over two hundred space industry leaders from all over Europe joined the raising of ESA's Member State flags at ECSAT on 9 July.