But on Tuesday, Peake became the first publicly-funded British astronaut to step inside the International Space Station, giving the country its first official representation on ISS.
Advertisement
Saudi Women Elected For First Time After Women Get Right To Vote
Election commission president Osama Al-Bar was quoted by SPA as saying Salma Al-Oteibi ran against seven men and two women . The women were allowed to vote and contest in the municipal election in accordance to the royal decree issued in 2011.
This morning, Major Peake waved goodbye to his family before the Soyuz rocket blasted off into space from Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, at 11.03am.
China spoils soccer legend Abby Wambach’s farewell match at the Superdome
Superstar Abby Wambach retired from soccer this week, bringing her record-breaking career to a spectacular close. Wambach said her mind still processes the game as well as ever, but her body no longer keeps up.
The Russian rocket carries British astronaut Tim Peake, Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko and USA astronaut Tim Kopra.
NORAD helping Santa on journey
Google is also tracking Santa Claus with its own Advent Calendar-style countdown and tracker, also available on Google Play . MST on December 24, they can check out the live ReindeerCam site that allows kids to see a live feed of the reindeer.
The trio has been on the space station since March 2015 and are set to return to earth on Soyuz TMA-18M on the March 1, 2016.
The capsule remains attached to serve as a “lifeboat” if the ISS has to be evacuated in the event of a major disaster, such as a fire or collision with space debris.
Watching the action live at Chichester High School for Boys was 13-year-old Libby Connor from Bognor Regis, who said she felt “privileged” to watch Tim make history.
At 2:25 p.m. EST (1925 GMT) today, the hatches were due to be opened between the Soyuz and the Russian segment of the space station.
Before they enter the ISS, the astronauts will perform a careful sequence of pressurizing the docking modules.
A Soyuz spacecraft carrying Russian, US, and European crew members docked with the International Space Station on Tuesday.
But they made it, and Peake is now beginning his six-month stay aboard the space station. He had gone on five space flights and was once the commander of the Mir station of Russian Federation and had been the International Space Station commander on three occasions.
Among the three, Malenchenko is the most experienced, and has logged in 641 days in space.
Major Peake said: “It was a handsome launch and we got straight into the work”.
For decades, cost-conscious British governments declined to invest in human space flight, confining the U.K.’s space contribution to robotic missions.
Kopra took the picture back in 2009 and Echo & The Bunnymen returned the goodwill today well wishing Tim Peake and Tim Kopra safe trips to the ISS.
He said at a news conference on Monday: “I don’t think anything can truly prepare you for that moment and that will occur in the Soyuz spacecraft once we get injected into orbit”.
Advertisement
During his free time, Peake plans on running the London Marathon (in real time) from space.
