Tim Peake blasts into orbit on space station mission

The Soyuz space capsule launched Tuesday is carrying Peake as well as Russian Yuri Malenchenko, U.S. citizen Tim Kopra.

The UK was in celebration mode on Tuesday as its first British astronaut was shot off into space onboard a rocket to the ISS from a Kazakhstan base.

Travelling with him are Russian commander Yuri Malenchenko and Nasa astronaut Tim Kopra.

The crew will take six hours to rendezvous with the ISS, which passed directly over the launch site just before lift-off.

Image copyright EPA Image caption The timing of the launch was calculated based on the precise location of the International Space Station in its orbit.

As the third brightest object in the heavens, NASA claims the space station is easy to see if you know when to look up.

The trio will join Russians Sergey Volkov and Mikhail Korniyenko, and American Scott Kelly, already on the space station.

Malenchenko was particularly up to the task: He is a veteran of six space missions, both to the International Space Station and Russia’s Mir space station, and he has commanded the Soyuz during launch multiple times.

Kopra, who lived on the space station for two months in 2009, won’t carry the weight of a nation’s expectations to space. “And we certainly have, I think, the most ambitious educational program with this mission of any European space mission”.

Docking with the ISS is usually a completely automatic process, however the Soyuz craft was not properly aligned with the station when it reached 25 metres so manual controls were implemented.

He was working as a test pilot and instructor in 2008 when he saw an “Astronaut Wanted” ad online and applied to become the first Briton in the European Space Agency astronaut corps.

Before they enter the ISS, the astronauts will perform a careful sequence of pressurizing the docking modules.

Major Peake, 43, is the first British astronaut to be sent on a mission to the ISS.

This morning, Major Peake waved goodbye to his family before the Soyuz rocket blasted off into space from Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, at 11.03am.

Queen Elizabeth II’s official Twitter account retweeted the UK Space Agency, congratulating Peake on his journey and wishing him “a productive mission and safe return to Earth”.