Pigs In Space: Peake Ate Bacon Sarnie On ISS

The mission marks the culmination of six years of planning since Major Peake, a 43-year-old father of two from Chichester, was chosen to join the European Space Agency’s astronaut corps.

United Kingdom astronaut Tim Peake has given a news conference from the International Space Station.

Tim Peake in space: Want to know more?

There were parties all over the country on Tuesday to celebrate what some clever wit called The Great British Take Off, when a beaming Major Peake and his fellow astronauts completed the six hour journey on board the Soyuz rocket.

Major Peake is due to speak to members of the press for the first time since docking with the ISS via a live link to the European Astronaut Centre near Cologne, Germany.

The British favourites were served to him by American astronaut Scott Kelly, his station commander. But I am amazed how quickly my body has adapted. Preparations for potential space walks are ongoing.

Describing his first 48 hours in space, he said it had been busy but incredible and amidst the busy schedule, he also find time to “find his tea”.

“That is taking a lot of time to unpack that. I think we’re all fans up here and I believe that on the 21st we may get to see that up here on the Space Station, so a little bit later than everybody else but hey what a spectacular place to watch Star Wars”.

Extra points to Peake for his casual use of the hashtag #spacerocks, which no-one will ever be able to use in quite the same way again.

He said: “It does take a while to become proficient, and it also takes a while to get orientated”.

Tweeting from space he wrote: “What makes a good leader?” And adapting to this weightless environment.

In April he will run the entire 26.2-mile London Marathon on a treadmill aboard the space station.

Alongside Malenchenko, a veteran of long-duration space flights who is on his fourth space mission, were NASA astronaut Tim Kopra and Peake, both former Apache military helicopter pilots.

He has also received messages of support from the Queen and Sir Elton John, who said: “From one Rocket Man to another, good luck”.

Open University professor of planetary and space sciences Monica Grady followed the crew before their launch and said they watched the movie White Suns of the Desert and plant a tree in Heroes Avenue, just as Gagarin did.