A British Astronaut Is Now In Space

    Tim Peake arrived at the International Space Station on Tuesday.

    Kelly Oakes
    by Kelly Oakes

    BuzzFeed Staff, UK

    A British astronaut has begun a six-month space mission.

    Tim Peake has been in astronaut training for six years and today launched to the International Space Station (ISS). The 43-year-old is from Chichester, and before training to be an astronaut, he spent 18 years as a helicopter pilot with the Army Air Corps.

    Tim Peake @astro_timpeake

    Last tweet before launch - GO for flight! Thanks for all the good luck messages - phenomenal support! #Principia

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    Spirits were high during his launch.

    UK Space Agency @spacegovuk

    Wow, what an amazing morning at the @sciencemuseum! So much support for @astro_timpeake on his #Principia mission!

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    Hundreds of schoolchildren gathered at the Science Museum to watch the launch, and there were more launch parties around the country.

    BuzzFeed Science @BuzzFeedScience

    #TimPeake says goodbye to his kids before boarding his rocket to the ISS <3

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    His Soyuz spacecraft set off from Baikonur, Kazakstan, at 11:03am GMT.

    BBC / Scott Bryan / BuzzFeed

    US astronaut Tim Kopra and Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko were also on board. The three of them will join three astronauts already on the ISS.

    At 5:33pm GMT, the astronauts successfully docked with the ISS.

    ESA

    Their spacecraft took six hours to catch up with the ISS, and docked slightly later than scheduled under manual control. The hatch into the space station opened around 8pm and all three astronauts are now safely inside the space station.

    Shortly after entering the space station, the new crew spoke to their families, who were watching from Kazakstan.

    ESA Operations @esaoperations

    .@astro_timpeake on air: "hope you enjoyed the show!" #Principia

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    Good luck, Tim! 🚀