Cheers from Tim Peake’s former primary school

The trio has been on the space station since March 2015 and are set to return to earth on Soyuz TMA-18M on the March 1, 2016.

Commander Malenchenko took manual control and backed the capsule away before making a second attempt to re-align it with the ISS docking port.

On board the capsule were Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko, American Tim Kopra and Tim Peake, the first Briton to travel to the ISS.

Image copyright ESA Image caption It was a freezing cold but bright day at Baikonur Cosmodrome. Have a great mission.

Former army aviator and helicopter test pilot Maj Peake comes from Chichester in England while his wife is from Comrie in Perthshire.

Leaving from a Russian rocket in Kazakhstan, Tim Peake became Britain’s first official astronaut to be launched into space.

Peake works for the European Space Agency.

After six years of training, Maj Peake, 43, is ready to forego home comforts for six months. Estimates show the trip to the ISS should last for about six hours after liftoff.

Then there was a technical problem that meant Malenchenko had to steer the craft in manually, using a cross-hair targeting sight.

Mr Peake tweeted that Star Wars: The Force Awakens would be waiting for him onboard the International Space Station, which has a projector and screen onboard. The hatch was opened at 7.58pm, United Kingdom time.

Its UK Twitter feed said: “Wishing @astro_timpeake an fantastic ride on £Principia today”.

Another pupil, Harrison, said of the launch: “I was nervous but in a happy way”. The launch was spectacular and it’s rare to have a day-time launch.

The assistant head teacher said “This is a historic occasion for Britain, we have had talks on it all morning. It was, like, yep, that’s it, they’re on their way”.

We’re not sure what happened here, it looks like there may have been a quick change of mind as one of the astronauts stops the other from doing something during the third stage launch process.

The International Space station (ISS) will welcome its new crews on December 15.

The additional crew will be conducting scientific experiments and research for six months.

“We’ll be enjoying the fantastic view of planet Earth and our thoughts will be with everyone on Earth enjoying Christmas and with our friends and family”, he said.

Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.