Samsung UK has partnered with London’s Science Museum to take Tim Peake’s iconic Soyuz around the country, in a 20-month long virtual reality tour. After attracting people from all over the UK, the Soyuz is now back in London, to take its place in the Science Museum.

Tim Peake’s Soyuz model spacecraft has come home, after a long virtual reality tour led by Samsung around the UK. In a partnership with the Science Museum in central London, the Korean company brought the Samsung VR bus to schools and areas with low cultural engagement rates, in a bid to inspire younger generations with space travel.

Samsung openly supports education for a better tomorrow, and it is committed to delivering guidance and learning to those in need. Additional ongoing company initiatives include the commitment to share Samsung technologies in schools, in order to motivate students all around the world to realise their dreams. Though the company had to deal with governance scandals and allegations in the past, Tim Peake’s VR experience tour is another solid step in improving its brand reputation, and it proves the company’s commitment toward its social responsibility mission.

The ‘Space descent with Tim Peake VR experience tour bus’ was paired with the iconic Soyuz capsule which brought Peake back to Earth in 2016, after six-months of space travel. It was part of a wider education outreach programme, delivered in partnership with the Science Museum Group’s learning team, and it combined Samsung’s VR technology with science and space education. The experience was narrated by Peake himself, and it consisted of a 360 degree 3D virtual reality space travel experience replicating life on the International Space Station and Peake’s descent towards Earth.

“The students absolutely loved it,” a teacher in Edinburgh said in response to the program. “Low numeracy, low literacy, completely disengaged with STEM students got on the bus and gave it a go and came back talking about space for 20 minutes.”

The Soyuz TMA-19M will be hosted by the Science Museum, alongside with a new ‘Space descent VR’ lounge, created with Samsung’s support. The partnership has been shortlisted in this year’s Corporate Engagement Awards.

For more from Communicate magazine, sign up for the Transform newsletter here and follow us on Twitter @Communicatemag.