Major Tim Peake's rocket rolls on to launch pad ahead of Briton's flight to the International Space Station

Preparations: The Soyuz FG rocket that will carry Major Peake to the ISS is positioned on the launch pad at Kazakhstan's Baikonur Cosmodrome
Gareth Fuller/PA Wire
Ramzy Alwakeel13 December 2015

The rocket that will carry Briton Tim Peake into space has been lifted onto its launch pad.

Major Peake, 43, will be the first UK astronaut to leave Earth in more than two decades.

He follows chemist Helen Sharman, who visited the Mir space station in 1991.

His wife Angela and father Nigel Peake were on Sunday morning in Kazakhstan for the rocket’s “roll out” to the launch pad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome.

Mr Peake, from Chichester, said: “We’re immensely proud.

Operation: The Soyuz FG Rocket is transported through the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan ahead of Tuesday's launch
Gareth Fuller/PA Wire

“As you can imagine, it’s quite surreal to think you’re the father of an astronaut, especially a British astronaut.

“So we’re very, very proud, and just a little bit over-awed by the whole operation.

“We're not worried at all. We’ve been following his training and know how thorough it is, so we don't have any fears.”

He joked: “I’m more worried about him driving home on the M27. That’s far more dangerous, believe me, than going up there.”

Major Peake is the UK’s first male astronaut to go into space with government funding.

Previous Brits on space missions have either had dual citizenship and worked for Nasa, or been privately funded or sponsored.

Proud: Nigel Peake, father of British astronaut Major Tim Peake, watches the rocket being rolled out on Sunday morning Gareth Fuller/PA Wire
Gareth Fuller/PA Wire

Father-of-two Major Peake is employed by the European Space Agency and will have a Union Jack on his sleeve.

He and two other men will travel in a small Soyuz TMA space capsule to the International Space Station, where they will spend about six months orbiting the Earth.

Russian crew commander Yuri Malenchenko and American Nasa astronaut Tim Kopra will accompany him in the capsule.

High flyer: Major Tim Peake pictured in 2013 AP Photo/PA/Lewis Whyld
Lewis Whyld

This morning, their 305-tonne rocket was hauled from its assembly hangar by train and shunted 5km to the launch area, before being carefully rotated to point into the air using a hydraulic ram.

It will spend six hours getting to the ISS.

Major Peake said: “Any time two vehicles come in close proximity in space is hazardous.

“The docking needs to be closely monitored and you have to make sure you’re on target and on speed.”

The mission will launch just after 11am local time. Major Peake is in quarantine, conducting press interviews from behind glass.

Additional reporting by Press Association

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