Astronaut Tim Peake ready for historic mission

The Soyuz space capsule carrying British astronaut Major Tim Peake has blasted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

Major Tim Peake has become the first Briton to head into space for a mission on the International Space Station after a successful blast-off.

Peake’s mission has been named Principia in honour of Isaac Newton, and he will conduct numerous experiments on the ISS, some on behalf of the European Space Agency and others for station partners, chiefly the USA and Russian Federation.

“The best piece of advice I have been given by many astronauts and cosmonauts is to make sure you get time to look out the window, not for taking a photograph but to enjoy it for your own benefit”. International Space Station rendezvous is expected at 16.58 GMT and hatch opening at 18.33 GMT. In 1991, Helen Sharman spent eight days aboard the Mir space station. I don’t think anything can truly prepare you for that moment and that will occur in the Soyuz spacecraft.

The 43-year-old added that he would be able to call his relatives from space to wish them a merry Christmas.

Peake and his fellow astronauts – Nasa’s Tim Kopra and Russian commander Yuri Malenchenko – will be aboard the ISS at approximately 6.45PM GMT.

From the European Space Agency (ESA) livestream, the astronauts could be heard telling control that everything was “nominal” – basically that everything is okay.

Blast-off is scheduled for 11.03, United Kingdom time, and will take place at the historic Launch Pad 1 from where the first man in space, Yuri Gagarin, rocketed into orbit in 1961.

Prime Minister David Cameron said “it was great” to watch Peake be launched into space.

But he won’t get to the floating lab for six hours – and then spend another two hours doing final checks and work before he can actually leave the capsule.

Another British-born Nasa astronaut, Michael Foale, already had dual citizenship through his U.S. mother.

It’s official – Tim Peake’s mission to the International Space Station has begun.

His wife Rebecca’s hometown is Comrie, Perthshire, and the couple live with their two sons, aged six and four, in Houston, Texas, the home of many astronaut families.

“I have to wear a harness that is similar to a rucksack”, he says.