Tim Peake will be able to add "spacewalking" to his list of personal achievements, having emerged from the International Space Station (ISS) a history maker.
The father-of-two, 43, became the first British citizen to walk in space, shortly after 12.55pm GMT on Friday.
It was a career-defining moment for the former Army test pilot.
Major Peake graduated from Sandhurst in 1992 as an officer in the Army Air Corps. He served as a platoon commander in Northern Ireland before beginning flying training, being awarded his Army Flying Wings in 1994.
Between 1994 and 1998 he served as a reconnaissance pilot and flight commander in Germany, the former Republic of Yugoslavia, Northern Ireland, Kenya and Canada.
The keen reader and cross-country athlete qualified as a helicopter flying instructor in 1998 and was selected for an exchange posting with the US Army, flying Apache helicopters at Fort Hood, Texas, from 1999 to 2002.
On his return to the UK, he was employed as an Apache helicopter instructor from 2002 to 2005, when he played a key role in introducing the Apache into service with the British Army.
On retirement from the Army in 2009, he was employed as a helicopter test pilot for AgustaWestland, flying Apache, Lynx, EH101 and A109 aircraft.
He was selected as a European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut in May 2009 and completed basic training in November 2010. He has Eurocom certification which allows him to be responsible for the communication between the astronauts in orbit and the ground during spaceflights.
He was appointed as an ambassador for UK Science and space-based careers in 2009 and is involved in working with the UK Space Agency in developing the UK's microgravity research programme. He is currently based at ESA's European Astronaut Centre in Cologne, Germany.
Major Peake, who lives with wife Rebecca and sons Thomas, six, and Oliver, four, was born in Chichester.
He completed his secondary education at Chichester High School for Boys in 1990, before going to Sandhurst.
In 2005 he graduated from the Empire Test Pilots School in Boscombe Down, where he was awarded the Westland Trophy. He received a Bachelor of Science in flight dynamics and evaluation from the University of Portsmouth in 2006.
He was awarded a Certificate for Meritorious Service for exemplary and dedicated service to the Army in 2006.
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