British astronaut Tim Peake tells of ‘spectacular sunrise’ on route to

Although, there have been six astronauts of British origin before, Major Tim Peake is the first true British citizen to reach the ultimate goal in space travelling – hence, the first official British astronaut. Among his well-wishers are the Queen and the Prime Minister, in addition to millions of fellow Britons.

It was the first time a crew has landed after sunset and only the sixth night-time Soyuz return from the worldwide space station. “You show up and you jump right into the scientific programme, the technical work, the maintenance”.

Former pilot Tim Peake, of Chichester, blasted off into space from Kazakhstan yesterday morning and touched down at 5.33pm, according to the European Space Agency.

Major Peake, who served in the army for 17 years in Wiltshire and Somerset, is employed by the European Space Agency and is the first British astronaut in space in 20 years – following in the footsteps of the first Brit in space, Helen Sharman, who visited the Mir space station in May 1991 as part of a privately-funded program.

Joining Peake are US astronaut Tim Kopra and Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko. Since NASA stopped its own launching vehicles, Soyuz rockets have been ferrying the astronauts to and from the space station during regular intervals.

The Briton looked at the on-board video camera and gave a thumbs up gesture as the craft completed its first booster stage and the boosters fell away.

Wearing his space suit, Major Peake pressed himself up against a window of the bus taking him to the launch pad and blew kisses and played fist bumps with his sons.

It took just six minutes for the second stage of the rocket to separate and eight minutes for the Soyuz capsule to detach and enter preliminary orbit.

His youngest, four-year-old Oliver, crying out loud, said: “I want to go with daddy”.

And Rebecca told him: “Your launch was well celebrated by everyone”.

Sky’s Science Correspondent Thomas Moore watched from a vantage point a mile across the Kazakhstan steppe. “I had the biggest smile on my face”.

He said: “Despite the distance the light from the rocket’s flames was so bright it hurt our eyes”.

On Monday major Peake said he could not wait to see earth from space.