The first picture of Peake with his fellow astronauts was released by the European Space Agency, which welcomed him on board in a post on social media.
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This is the second mission to the space station for Kopra, and the first space mission for Peake. The first Briton in space was Helen Sharmen, who travelled on a Soviet spacecraft for eight days in 1991.
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.
That’s no moon… It’s a space station. Six hours after launch, the spacecraft arrived at the International Space Station. “Whatever situation is thrown at him, he’ll be well equipped to deal with it”, Ms. Sharman told the BBC.
Alongside Malenchenko, a veteran of long-duration space flights who is on his fourth space mission, were NASA astronaut Tim Kopra and Briton Tim Peake, both former Apache military helicopter pilots.
He said: “It really has to be the view of Planet Earth”.
The three astronauts will return to Earth on June 5th. The rocket will need to orbit the Earth about four times in order to catch up with its target.
He is also the first fully British professional astronaut.
Peake, 43, docked the Russian Soyuz to the ISS at 12:33 p.m. ET Tuesday, a little over six hours after blasting off from a launchpad in Kazakhstan, NASA said.
He also plans to run the London Marathon while on the space station, by strapping himself to a treadmill and running at the same time as the participants on planet Earth begin running on April 24th next year.
“They’ve seen where I’m going to eat, where I’m going to sleep, where I’m going to go to the loo, which is the most exciting part for them”, said Major Peake.
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“That’s what really prepares you for what’s to come”.
