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The rocket
carrying the Soyuz TMA-19M spaceship lifted off at 1703 p.m.
local time (1103 GMT), beginning its six-hour journey to the
International Space Station, and successfully reached its
designated orbit about nine minutes later.
As well as Peake, the crew includes commander Yuri Malenchenko,
a former Russian Air Force pilot and a veteran of long-duration
space flights, and NASA astronaut Tim Kopra.
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 traveled 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.
The same trio of Malenchenko, Kopra and Peake are set to return
to Earth on June 5 next year.
(Reporting by Shamil Zhumatov, Writing by Olzhas Auyezov;
Editing by Dmitry Solovyov and Angus MacSwan)
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