The Russian rocket launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan in front of the world’s media following weeks of preparation.
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The crew had to resort to manual docking after the automatic system didn’t work as planned.
THE first British astronaut to travel to the International Space Station has docked with the orbiting laboratory, to cheers and excitement back home.
Their launch from the Moscow-operated Baikonur cosmodrome went according to plan.
The trip to the ISS is expected to take about six hours and will dock at around 4:25am (AEST).
But a determined effort in the United Kingdom to rewrite history has seen this belated achievement inaccurately described as the launch of its first astronaut into space when the first Briton in space was in fact Helen Sharman, who was sent into orbit in a similar Russian spacecraft atop a similar Russian rocket to the Mir space station in 1991.
A Russian Soyuz FG rocket blasted Major Peake, 43, into a clear sky over the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 11.03 GMT, precisely on time.
Major Peake gave the thumbs up from inside the capsule as they raced towards space.
Once in space, Major Peake and the other crew members moved from the cramped middle section of the Soyuz space capsule into the slightly more spacious spherical “orbital module” which attaches to the space station.
The two astronauts are huge fans of the iconic Liverpool rock and roll band – so much so the last time Kopra visited the ISS he took this incredible picture of the Bunnymen’s Ocean Rain from space.
Major Peake is employed by the European Space Agency and sports a Union Jack on his sleeve.
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“We join with his friends and family in wishing him a productive mission and a safe return to Earth”. Six hours after launch, the spacecraft arrived at the International Space Station. 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.
