The last human to set foot on the moon was Eugene Cernan in 1972.

So, when Britain’s first official astronaut Tim Peake was asked by Amanda Holden on ITV’s This Morning if he had stolen a moon rock as a souvenir on his visit to the lunar surface, he was understandably a little baffled.

Major Peake, 45, who spent six months on board the International Space Station last year, appeared on the ITV daytime show to promote his new book Ask an Astronaut.