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By Keith Walker with REUTERS, JEREMY WILKES Published on 15/12/2015 - 13:03 GMT+1 A Russian Soyuz rocket carrying a three-man international crew, including Britain’s first ESA (European
Space Agency) astronaut, Tim Peake, blasted off on Tuesday from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The rocket carrying the Soyuz TMA-19M spaceship lifted off at 17h03 local time (1203
CET), beginning its six-hour journey to the International Space Station, and successfully reached its designated orbit about 9 minutes later. Major Peake has 17 years’ service as an armed
forces pilot, with 3,000 flying hours. The 43-year-old follows Briton Helen Sharman, who was the first Briton to go into space in 1991 on Project Juno, a co-operative project between a
number of British companies and the Soviet government. Sharman spent a week at the Russian Mir space station. The most experienced British-born astronaut is NASA’s Michael Foale. Tim Peake
is the first British ESA astronaut. WATCH:Tim Peake’s voyage to the International Space Station > First contact in space with astro_timpeake</a>, <a >
href="https://twitter.com/astro_tim">astro_tim and Yuri. Commander > Yuri confirms engine firing went as planned. #Principia > > — ESA Operations (@esaoperations)
December 15, 2015 > Last tweet before launch – GO for flight! Thanks for all the good > luck messages – phenomenal support! > #Principiapic.twitter.com/8jbxejHEEe > > — Tim
Peake (@astro_timpeake) December 15, 2015 THE LAUNCH AS IT HAPPENED