Like other astronauts aboard the orbiting space station, he will be expected to undertake fix work and general maintenance when necessary.
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“The commander switched to manual control and everything went well”, the spokesman told AFP, adding they docked with the ISS at 1733 GMT.
After someone tweeted astronaut Tim Peake that he must be “gutted” to be leaving Earth a few days before Star Wars: The Force Awakens premiere, the British astronaut replied with a revelation that sparked a hint of jealousy in Star Wars fans and space enthusiasts worldwide. @astro_timpeake is on his way to space!
He also revealed that Christmas had almost slipped his mind in the hectic run up to the launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
“Don’t Stop Me Now” by the rock group Queen was blaring in the Soyuz roughly half an hour before blastoff as the astronauts listened to their favourite music in preparation for the mission.
Kopra had been to the space station for two months in 2009. 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.
Peake’s mission has generated excitement in Britain.
A former Army aviator and helicopter test pilot, Major Peake is the first Briton to join the crew of the ISS.
After leaving the Cosmonaut Hotel, where astronauts traditionally stay before missions, Peake honoured the long-standing tradition of space adventurers by signing his bedroom door.
It is the ninth space station to be inhabited by crews, following the Soviet and Russian Salyut, Almaz, and Mir stations as well as Skylab from the US. The International Space Station showed a shot of the Soyuz climbing into space on live television.
Business Secretary Sajid Javid said the new policy will “turn science fiction into science fact” while helping London increase its share of the global space market to 10 percent from seven percent.
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The journey should take about six hours, according to NASA, during which the craft will orbit the Earth four times at 28,800 kilometres per hour. They soon joined with Russians Sergey Volkov and Mikhail Korniyenko and American Scott Kelly, already at the space station.
