There was a round of applause for Major Peake as the rocket carrying the Soyuz module blasted off from a Russian space centre in Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, at around 11am.
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United States astronaut Scott Kelly and Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko, at the time of writing, are spending their 263rd day in space together in the ISS – if you’re the kind of person who could cope with living in a space station with the same person for around nine months, then you might make a good astronaut.
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The 305-tonne Soyuz launch rocket took off into a clear sky from the same spot on the Baikonur Cosmodrome where the first man in space Yuri Gagarin was shot into orbit in 1961.
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The mission, capped by delivery of all 11 satellites to orbit for launch customer ORBCOMM, unfolded in just over 30 minutes. Landing rockets upright is crucial to cutting the cost of space travel, since that means the rockets can be reused.
“Major Tim”, and fellow crew members Russian Yuri Malenchenko and American Tim Kopra, are due to dock with the ISS at 17:24 GMT.
In a tweet posted on Sunday, Peake disclosed that the International Space Station (ISS) will be treating the astronauts with a Star Wars screening to be projected onboard.
Space fever is gripping the nation today (Tuesday December 15) with the opportunity for Cestrians to gaze up at the International Space Station (ISS) just minutes before the arrival of the Soyuz rocket carrying British astronaut Tim Peake.
In under 10 minutes he was in space, and after a tense few minutes when the automatic docking system had to be diverted to manual control, his orbiting capsule locked on to the ISS.
“Wasn’t it an wonderful sight?” There have been other UK-born astronauts, but they either held US citizenship or were privately funded.
A Russian orthodox priest walked around the 162ft (49m) high rocket which carried Major Peake into space, sprinkling holy water on its fuselage and boosters and muttering prayers.
His first scientific task is already underway: During his transit from Earth to ISS in the Soyuz rocket, Peake was expected to fill out a questionnaire on any headaches he experienced. The astronauts that are journeying to the International Space Station today will have the opportunity to watch the latest movie while in orbit.
But they made it, and Peake is now beginning his six-month stay aboard the space station. A message to Tim Peake.
Don’t Stop Me Now by the rock group Queen was blaring in the Soyuz roughly half an hour before blast-off as the astronauts listened to their favourite music in preparation for the mission.
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Aside from being in space (fairly cool) he has the prospect of running a London Marathon on a treadmill to look forward to.
