NASA’s Tim Kopra, an American, Russia’s Yuri Malenchenko and the European Space Agency’s Tim Peake of Great Britain embarked on an estimated journey of more than six hours from Baikonur.
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And yesterday the British astronaut along with Russian commander Yuri Malenchenko and U.S. astronaut Tim Kopra emerged from the Soyuz capsule and joined their new colleagues on board the International Space Station.
The European Space Agency tweeted that fuelling has begun – filling the Russian rocket with 274 tonnes of fuel.
Peake has committed to running the full distance of the London marathon from space, completing 26.2 miles on a treadmill as the ISS orbits the Earth.
Launch time… the Soyuz TMA-19M rocket takes off from Baikonur, Kazakhstan.
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.
“Of course, if the member states of Esa are supporting future human space flights, maybe even more, then we can look for new astronauts, maybe also female astronauts”.
Colonel Timothy L Kopra spent three months aboard the International Space Station taking with him a signed copy of the Bunnymen’s 1984 classic.
The crew will take six hours to rendezvous with the ISS, which passed directly over the launch site just before lift-off.
After nearly a quarter of a century of neglect the United Kingdom returned to manned spaceflight today with the launch of Timothy Peake to the International Space Station.
“We hope Major Peake’s work on the Space Station will serve as an inspiration to a new generation of scientists and engineers”.
Before being strapped into the three-man cockpit of the Soyuz capsule, Major Peake had a final private moment with his wife Rebecca and his sons Thomas, 6, and Oliver, 4, who said goodbye to their quarantined father from behind a glass screen.
A further party is planned for Tuesday evening, when the museum will stay open late in a special celebration, and the first British citizen in space Helen Sharman will give a talk. Elton John, who released the track Rocket Man in 1972, said on Twitter: “From one Rocket Man to another, good luck @astro-timpeake with your launch and mission!”
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It is possible for ISS crew members to return to Earth without losing any muscle or bone strength but, Dr Scott added, this is not the case for everyone.
