Tim Peake blasts off into space!

This morning, British ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Tim Peake blasted off on his mission to the International Space Station (ISS). Tim was on-board a Soyuz rocket, which lifted off from its launchpad at the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan - the same place Yuri Gagarin became the first human in space in 1961.

Tim has been training for his mission, Principia, for the past 6 years with a total of over 6,000 hours of training! The ISS is a floating research laboratory which orbits the Earth 400km up in space, where Tim will be helping with lots of science experiments during his 6 months on-board. 

Here in At-Bristol we held a very special Planetarium show and screened the launch live on the Big Screen outside on Millennium Square. Since October we have also been running our family show Destination Space! which is all about Tim’s mission and life as an astronaut, part of the national Destination Space! programme. In our Planetarium you can catch up on the latest news from Tim's mission in our Winter Stargazing show. 

Tim Peake, Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko and U.S. astronaut Tim Kopra are due to dock with the ISS at 5.24pm, where they will join the current crew - watch live online.