Kopra, Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko and ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Tim Peake launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 6:03 a.m. (5:03 p.m.in Baikonur) and, after orbiting Earth four times, manually docked to the station at 12:33 p.m.
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Major Peake will be spending six months aboard the ISS, where he will monitor the effects of prolonged time in space on his body.
The former army pilot blasted off from Baikonur, Kazakhstan in a Russian Soyuz rocket on Tuesday morning.
The 43-year-old astronaut set off at 11.03GMT and was watched by his wife Rebecca and sons Thomas and Oliver. The song ends with its subject, Major Tom, adrift in space, but experts say that this real-life Major Tim is fully prepared for his flight into space. “I had the biggest smile on my face”.
But he expected to speak to members of his family on Christmas Day, and was also looking forward to tucking into a Christmas Pudding sent to the space station in a supply delivery.
Colonel Timothy L Kopra spent three months aboard the International Space Station taking with him a signed copy of the Bunnymen’s 1984 classic.
Previous “Brits in space” have either had US or dual citizenship and worked for the American space agency NASA, or were on privately funded or sponsored trips.
Right now, astronauts (who only just got the ability to drink fresh-brewed espresso on the space station) don’t have any way to remove their teabags from their drink pouches once optimal brewing has occurred.
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After six years of training and six hours of flying, the moment has come: Tim Peake has stepped into the International Space Station. “Whatever situation is thrown at him, he’ll be well equipped to deal with it”, Ms. Sharman told the BBC. Analyzing these microbes can help determine whether some are more virulent in space, and which genetic changes might be involved in this response.
