Astronaut’s father speaks of pride ahead of space trip

The father of the British astronaut set to travel into space tomorrow has spoken of his pride after watching the Russian rocket that will carry his son into space being lifted onto its launch pad.

Major Tim Peake, 43, will be launched into space tomorrow at the start of a mission to the International Space Station (ISS) along with crew commander Yuri Malenchenko and American Nasa astronaut Tim Kopra. They will spend almost six months aboard the space station, which orbits the Earth at an average altitude of 350km.

Nigel Peake and his wife Angela stood near the 50m-long Soyuz FG rocket as it was manoeuvred into position ready for blast-off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.