Russian spacecraft with 3 astronauts docks successfully at International Space Station

A Soyuz spacecraft carrying a Russian, an American and a Briton docked with the International Space Station on Tuesday, slightly more than six hours after blasting off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

Tim Peake has bedded down in history after becoming the first British astronaut to check in at the International Space Station.

A statement read: “We hope that Major Peake’s work on the Space Station will serve as an inspiration to a new generation of scientists and engineers”.

Major Peake – dubbed Major Tim – will fly to the ISS with fellow astronauts Tim Kopra and Yuri Malenchenko.

The European Space Agency tweeted that fuelling has begun – filling the Russian rocket with 274 tonnes of fuel.

Peake is to blast off Tuesday from the Russian manned space facility in Baikonur, Kazakhstan, along with Timothy Kopra of the United States and Russian Yuri Malenchenko. Thanks for all the good luck messages – phenomenal support!

A Russian rocket carrying Peake blasted off from Kazakhstan today in a spectacular display of fire and thunder.

The ISS space laboratory has been orbiting the Earth at roughly 28,000 kilometres (17,500 miles) an hour since 1998.

He said: “I don’t think anything can truly prepare you for that moment and that will occur in the Soyuz spacecraft once we get injected into orbit I’ll be able to look out the right window and see the attractive view of Planet Earth”.

A Russian orthodox priest walked around the 49m high rocket which will carry Major Peake into space, sprinkling holy water on its fuselage and boosters and muttering prayers.

Major Peake’s mission, called Prinicipia in homage to Sir Isaac Newton’s ground-breaking text on gravity and motion, will last nearly six months.

Her husband Nigel said of the docking: “It was great to watch”.

The 43-year-old’s wife, Rebecca, and his sons, Thomas, six, and four-year-old Oliver, and other family members watched the take-off from a VIP viewing area about a mile from the launch pad.

A statement published on the British Monarchy official Twitter account read: “Prince Philip and I are pleased to transmit our best wishes to Major Timothy Peake as he joins the International Space Station in orbit”.

At a press conference yesterday Maj Peake told how he was eagerly looking forward to seeing the Earth from space.