[citation needed] Foale was born in Louth, Lincolnshire, to a British father, Colin, and an American mother, Mary.

[3] When he left university, he "owned two pairs of jeans, a donkey jacket, a bicycle and a pilot's licence; which shows I had my priorities absolutely right".

[citation needed] While a postgraduate student at Cambridge University, Foale participated in the organisation and execution of scientific scuba diving projects.

After the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster in January 1986, Foale changed his application essay from writing about his dreams to focusing on the realities of leadership faced by NASA, and was selected in 1987.

[9] Using knowledge from his physics degree Foale made calculations of how the stars were moving past his fixed-point thumb reference on a window, and was thus able to advise Russian ground control of how to stop the resulting roll.

The problems encountered by Foale and his predecessor aboard Mir, Jerry Linenger, resulted in intense political pressure on NASA.

During their six-month tour of duty on the station, Foale and Kaleri carried out a 4-hour Russian EVA in Orlan-M space suits to install experiments outside the Service Module.

In August 2013, it was announced that Foale was leaving the agency after a 26-year career to work on developing an electric aircraft to advance green aviation technology.

[12] Since leaving NASA, Foale has become actively involved in the running of the International Space Schools Education Trust, especially their Mission Discovery and trips to Star City, Russia, giving unique experiences to students around the world.

[citation needed] His father, Colin Foale, wrote a book in 1999 titled Waystation to the Stars about the astronaut's experiences on Mir.

This involvement is through him taking up the role of the resident astronaut during many of the Mission Discovery programmes operated by ISSET, when Foale shares his experiences of being in space with teenagers, while at the same time helping them to learn new skills.