Good Luck Tim!

[Dave]

Major Tim Peake will become the first British astronaut to live on the International Space

Station when he blasts off today.

He is scheduled to take off from the Baikonur spaceport in Russia at 11.03am our time, docking with the ISS at around 5.23pm this afternoon.
Major Tim, 43, will journey on a Soyuz rocket that will take almost nine minutes to reach orbit before embarking on the eight hour flight to bring it into docking range of the ISS.
He is the 221st person to live and work in the space station and will be up there for six months before returning to earth.
He is travelling to the ISS with two fellow astronauts, American Tim Kopra and Russian Yuri Malenchenko.

Click Here for the live launch at 11:03 our time. [Live stream now, playing U2!]

http://www.roscosmos.ru/317/

 

[bobnewboy]

Good luck to them all. I hope everything goes perfectly for the whole 6 months!

 

[sandbender]

Twelve mins to launch!

 

[GGTBod]

Live launch 11.03 @11.05 service temp unavailable on that website, lets hope the rest of the system around his launch is more reliable

 

[Klenchblaize]

BLAST OFF!

http://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknew...tation/ar-BBnxpKt?li=AAaeUIW?ocid=binganswers

K

 

[wicca]

Wait!!... Too late...he's forgotten his sandwiches...

 

[forrestdweller]

Good luck to them all. I hope everything goes perfectly for the whole 6 months!

6month without campfire or nature [or knifes/axes/natas]?:yikes: uppy_dog

 

[bobnewboy]

6month without campfire or nature [or knifes/axes/natas]?:yikes: uppy_dog

True, but they dont want ANY fire of ANY kind

But think of the upsides! The views and vistas, the 16 sunsets per 24 hour period they will see, the endless auroras (if there are any active). Tim and co will be pretty busy from what I've seen reported, so I hope they get some downtime to marvel at our planet from a view that few humans will ever get. They deserve it after 6 years of training...

 

[forrestdweller]

<strong>True, but they dont want ANY fire of ANY kind </strong><img src="images/smilies/smile.png" alt="" title="Smile" smilieid="1" class="inlineimg" border="0"><br>
<br>
But think of the upsides! The views and vistas, the 16 sunsets per 24 hour period they will see, the endless auroras (if there are any active). Tim and co will be pretty busy from what I've seen reported, so I hope they get some downtime to marvel at our planet from a view that few humans will ever get. They deserve it after 6 years of training...

indeed- transporting firewood into space would be rather expensive....and -as much as i like some company- i doubt i could handle six month crammed into limited space [with humans] without the opportunity to get away on occassion....

 

[sunndog]

Wonder if there anywhere to hang a hammock



Seems odd when you say it, but the space station is only 250 miles away.

 

[Insel Affen]

He's a top bloke Tim, you couldn't meet a nicer chap.

I did a 6 month course with him in 2003 and we joked about helicopter pilots bragging that they were pilots and that the only person with bigger bragging rights would be an astronaut!!

 

[dwardo]

Excellent go on UK!

About time too, dont they know we invented space like everything else?

 

[Goatboy]

Ah, when I read the headers for this I thought they were blasting Tim Henman into space. Thought it a bit harsh just for losing a game of tennis. Good luck to him, hope his time goes smoothly.

Sent via smoke-signal from a woodland in Scotland.