First British government astronaut arrives at ISS
Update, 12:35 p.m.
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Veteran Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko safely steered the Soyuz TMA-19M also carrying Tim Peake and Tim Kopra to a docking at the International Space Station at 12:33 p.m. EST, as the spacecraft flew 252 miles above India.
Malenchenko, the Soyuz commander flying in space for the sixth time, took over the controls after the automated system was aborted for some reason.
Hatches between the station and Soyuz are expected to open around 2:25 p.m. to join the newly arrived crew with the three crew members already on board: NASA's Scott Kelly and cosmonauts Mikhail Kornienko and Sergey Volkov.
Update, 6:15 a.m.:
Tim Peake is safely on his way to becoming the first British astronaut to visit the International Space Station.
The Soyuz spacecraft flown by Peake and veteran space fliers TIm Kopra of NASA and Yuri Malenchenko of the Russian Federal Space Agency safely reached orbit about nine minutes after a 6:03 a.m. blastoff from Kazakhstan.
The crew is scheduled to dock at the station 250 miles up after four orbits, or in just over six-hours, at 12:24 p.m. EST. Watch it live here.
Update, 6:04 a.m.:
Liftoff! The crew blasted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan as planned at 6:03 a.m. EST.
Earlier:
Watching space shuttles blast off from Kennedy Space Center on TV as a kid, Tim Peake remembers being as excited as any American could have been.
He was passionate about aviation, learning to fly solo before earning a driver’s license, but there was little point in dreaming of a career as an astronaut: Though a member of the European Space Agency, the United Kingdom did not participate in human spaceflight.
That changes with Peake’s launch to the International Space Station at 6:03 a.m. EST Tuesday in a Soyuz spacecraft lifting off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
“Obviously, there is a lot of pressure being a British astronaut going to the space station for the first time,” Peake, 43, told FLORIDA TODAY in September. “But, equally, I’m really excited that so many people are so interested in this mission.”
Joining Peake on the planned six-month expedition will be Yuri Malenchenko, one of the world’s most experienced space fliers, and Tim Kopra, a NASA astronaut rebounding from a devastating career setback.
Watch NASA TV’s live coverage of the launch streamed here at floridatoday.com.
Peake will not be the first Briton to fly in space. That was Helen Sharman, who in 1991 visited the Mir space station on a flight funded privately and by Russia. Three NASA astronauts and two more space tourists with British citizenship followed to either Mir or the ISS.
Peake is the first to fly as a U.K. government representative in the European Space Agency's astronaut corps, which he joined in 2009 as part of a six-person class.
The British Army Air Corps major and test pilot hopes his mission — named Principia in honor of Isaac Newton’s ground-breaking physics work — helps inspire young people and position his country for future space exploration missions.
“It's vitally important now that the U.K. does get involved in human spaceflight, because we’re already looking towards 2024 and life beyond the International Space Station,” he said. “If the U.K. doesn’t position itself correctly, then we really will miss the boat.”
Once in orbit, Peake plans to drink two cups of black tea daily, taken with creamer and sugar. He even designed a system to decant the tea from one pouch to another so it doesn’t get too bitter.
"I’m not quite sure it’s going to taste the same," he said. "But I think once you’re up in space, anything that reminds you of home is going to be beneficial and going to be welcome."
Kopra, who lived on the ISS for two months in 2009, won’t carry the weight of a nation’s expectations to space. But he can finally move beyond the disappointment of his lost shuttle mission.
Just over a month before he was scheduled to launch on Discovery's final flight in 2011, Kopra suffered a broken hip in a bicycle wreck and was bumped from the crew, not knowing if he'd get another chance to fly.
“I guess I’m substantially more grateful for the job that I have and appreciate what opportunities I have available to me,” said Kopra, now 52.
The retired U.S. Army colonel, who like Peake flew Apache helicopters, joked in a press conference that he was “trying to live in bubble wrap until we launch.”
Malenchenko, a Russian cosmonaut who turns 54 next week, will have spent more than 800 days in space by the time his sixth spaceflight ends in June, ranking him among the top three people all-time.
“This is my occupation,” he told FLORIDA TODAY. “I am interested in flying. This is what I like to do.”
Malenchenko has flown to Mir and the ISS, in the Soyuz and in shuttles, so often that his nine-year-old daughter will be attending her third launch.
"She’s getting used to me flying," he said.
Malenchenko has fond memories of his time at Kennedy Space Center, where he launched aboard shuttle Atlantis in 2000. He’s sorry to see the shuttle retired now, but applauds NASA’s shift to flying astronauts commercially in capsules now under development by Boeing and SpaceX, which could be ready in 2017.
“I think it’s a good approach,” he said. “I think that decision has contributed considerably to a more dynamic pace of progress in this area.”
During a ceremony Monday in Kazakhstan, Kirk Shireman, NASA’s ISS program manager, told the launching crew that mission controllers in Houston reported the station is healthy and looking forward to returning to its full six-person capacity.
“I was told all was quiet on board, in fact it was too quiet,” said Shireman. “I look forward to you being back up on space station and allowing it to make the noise that it normally should have.”
Contact Dean at 321-242-3668 orjdean@floridatoday.com.And follow on Twitter at@flatoday_jdeanand on Facebook atfacebook.com/jamesdeanspace.