So excited this morning to watch live the launch of the Soyuz rocket, Soyuz TMA-19M, carrying three astronauts, including the UK’s Tim Peake, to the International Space Station. In a few hours, Tim will become the first British astronaut to serve on the ISS.
Soyuz TMA-19M taking off, 15 December 2015. Photo by Reuters.
The launch was covered by the BBC’s Stargazing Live, a 45 minute programme hosted by Professor Brian Cox and Dara Ó Briain. They were covering the event from the Science Museum in London, with ISS stalwart Commander Chris Hadfield joining them to talk them through the technicalities, and with live coverage from Kazakhstan.
I hadn’t realised how historic the Baikonur Cosmodrome is: it was from this launch pad that the first Sputnik – the first ever object to orbit the earth – was sent up in October 1957, and a few years later the first man in space, Yuri Gagarin, and the first woman, Valentina Tereshkova.
Lift off!
The launch was exciting – nailbiting, as these events always are, but all went well, and Tim even had time to do a few thumbs ups to the on-board camera while suffering from the g-forces of the launch.
Thumbs up from Tim. Earth and space out of the window. What a view.
There’s another Stargazing Live at 7.00 this evening on BBC2 which will cover the docking and Tim’s entry in to the space station, along with Russian Yuri Malenchenko and American Tim Kopra. Can’t wait – I love a good space day!
Stargazing Live launch programme on the BBC iplayer