Today’s Soyuz Launch Was ‘Flawless.’ International Space Station Docking Up Next

The Soyuz space capsule is carrying Russian Yuri Malenchenko, American Tim Kopra and “Major Tim”, who will spend six months on the station.

After an automatic docking was aborted for an unspecified reason, Malenchenko moved the ship back a bit to assess its systems and then performed a neat docking on manual controls.

First and foremost, they stress that you have to be okay with having roomates – even though the International Space Station is about as long as a football field, it’s quite cramped inside, and astronauts have to share the tiny space with other crew members for extended periods.

His mission should last six months-if all goes well, he will return on June 5, 2016.

“The launch, the sights, the plume of the rocket below you, the speed – the unconceivable speed – from which you are lifting from the earth”, he said.

Fire from the boosters of the Soyuz rocket cut a bright light through the overcast sky at the Moscow-operated cosmodrome in Kazakhstan as the spacecraft launched on schedule at 1103 GMT.

A Russian space rocket with American, British and Russian astronauts on board successfully blasted off Tuesday for the International Space Station, the European Space Agency said.

Peake works for the European Space Agency.

Scots were able to take in views of the International Space Station yesterday, as it passed twice over the UK.

Peake himself was relaxed ahead of his first voyage into space, talking about his expectations of a festive season aboard the ISS during a pre-flight news conference at the Cosmonaut Hotel in Baikonur on Monday.

Sharples High School live streamed the launch so pupils could witness Major Peake, aged 43, making history as the first fully British professional astronaut to be employed by a space agency.

British astronaut Tim Peake and his companions on the Principia space mission joined their new co-workers on the International Space Station (ISS).

The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh have also congratulated Major Peake on his arrival at the ISS this evening.

During the mission, Peake said he would take part in the London marathon from space on April 24, harnessed to a running machine on the ISS – some 400km above Earth.

The capsule will remain attached to serve as a “lifeboat” if the ISS has to be evacuated in the event of a major disaster, such as a fire or collision with space debris.