A Russian, an American and a British national have arrived at the International Space Station on board a Soyuz spacecraft.
A Soyuz spacecraft carrying a Russian, an American and a Briton has docked with the International Space Station , slightly more than six hours after blasting off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
Commander Yuri Malenchenko manually controlled the approach and docking process. Two other crew members are NASA astronaut Tim Kopra and Briton Tim Peake.
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Peake, 43, a former army major who is on a six-month mission for the European Space Agency (ESA), became the first Briton to go into space since Helen Sharman travelled on a Soviet spacecraft for eight days in 1991.
He is also the first astronaut officially representing the British government and wearing a Union Jack flag on his arm.
Peake said he hoped his mission would inspire young Britons to one day journey to Mars.
"After a gap of 24 years since Helen Sharman flew to the Mir space station, the Union (Jack) flag is going to be flown and worn in space once again," Peake said.
"What that means is that there's nothing to stop the schoolkids in Great Britain today from being amongst the first men and women to set on foot on Mars in the future."
Peake said he would be carrying out a series of scientific experiments, including some medical research where he would be a "human guinea pig".
Britain originally opted out of the European programme for human space flight but decided to reverse its decision in 2012.
The space station is a laboratory in which an international crew of six people live and work while traveling at a speed of five miles per second, orbiting Earth every 90 minutes.
It was launched in 1998 and has been continuously occupied since November 2000. In that time, more than 200 people from 15 countries have visited.
