Peake is Britain’s first publicly funded British astronaut and the first Briton to visit the International Space Station.
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The first Briton in space was Helen Sharman, who was chosen by British companies to travel in the Soviet Mir space station for eight days in 1991.
Colonel Timothy L Kopra spent three months aboard the International Space Station taking with him a signed copy of the Bunnymen’s 1984 classic.
Major Tim Peake is embarking on a six-month stint on the ISS, leaving Earth on a Russian Soyuz rocket.
Esa director general Jan Woerner said: “Today for us is a very great day because it’s a great day for the European Space Agency”.
Major Peake said: “It was a handsome launch and we got straight into the work”.
The launch was from the same place where Yuri Gagarin became the first human in space in 1961. The space flight will take six and a half hours.
Like every astronaut on ISS, the time of Peake will probably be full of experiments that are scheduled.
Crew members spend about 35 hours each week conducting research in many disciplines to advance scientific knowledge in Earth, space, physical, and biological sciences for the benefit of people living on our home planet.
A Russian spacecraft carrying three astronauts from the United States, Britain, and Russia has docked successfully at the International Space Station, and the docking was drawing special attention in Britain.
David Cameron expressed prime ministerial “admiration and wonder” at Major Peake’s achievement, tweeting a photograph of himself watching the launch from Number 10 and later issuing a video message thanking the ex-army aviator and helicopter test-pilot for “doing us proud”.
Kelly and Kornienko are on the first joint U.S.-Russian one-year mission at the space station.
Her Majesty added that the “thoughts and prayers of the whole country are with him and the crew, especially at this time of year”. It is expected that the spacecraft will be able to perform an autonomous rendezvous with the space station and line up on the Russian Rassvet module and dock at around 12:24 PM EST.
“We have a serious project in the European Space Station to land on the moon, and that is part of an exploration of the solar system that will eventually take us to Mars”.
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Recent data has shown that some crew members on the ISS return to earth without losing muscle, bone and equally fit as when they left, he said.
