A capsule carrying British astronaut Major Tim Peake has successfully docked with the International Space Station.
He and two colleagues will now spend around two hours making sure the connection is stable so they can enter the ISS which travels around the Earth at 17,500mph at an average altitude of 220 miles.
Earlier, the Major Peake, Russian commander Yuri Malenchenko and NASA astronaut Tim Kopra took off in the Soyuz FG rocket at 11.03am UK time from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan.
The 43-year-old Briton looked at the on-board video camera and gave a thumbs up gesture as the spacecraft completed its first booster stage and the boosters fell away.
Zero gravity was reached by the Soyuz spacecraft after nine minutes of travel. The gravity indicator inside the capsule could be seen floating away in the on-board footage.
It followed an emotional farewell with his family and friends, during which his young son cried loudly, saying: “I want to go with daddy.”
The Briton told a news conference on Monday he was most looking forward to looking at Earth from space.
The launch was watched by Major Peake’s young children and his wife Rebecca.
She said afterwards: “Wasn’t it an amazing sight? I had the biggest smile on my face.”
Major Peake launched from the same spot from which Yuri Gagarin became the first man in space in April 1961.
The crew had a tense wait of more than an hour in the tiny capsule before the scheduled launch time
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