British astronaut Tim Peake just blasted off for the ISS

It's a historic day for the British space sector. On Tuesday morning, just after 11 a.m. GMT, British astronaut Tim Peake successfully blasted off for the International Space Station (ISS) accompanied by American Tim Kopra and Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko. 

The ship will dock with the ISS several hours from now, at 5:23 p.m. GMT (12:23 p.m. ET).

This was the moment Peake and the crew took off:

British Prime Minister David Cameron made sure he saw the moment the rocket launched:

This was the scene on the ground in Kazakhstan with about 15 minutes until launch.

Peake is not the first Briton ever to go into space. But he is the first Brit to be selected by the European Space Agency to become an astronaut, and will be the first British astronaut to visit the International Space Station for a scientific expedition.

In fact, Peake is British astronaut number six. There is also Helen Sharman, who became the first Briton in space in 1991 thanks to a deal between Russia and British businesses. Michael Foale, who has dual British-American citizenship, first flew with NASA in 1992 and became the first Briton to spacewalk in 1999. Pier Sellers and Nicholas Patrick are both also American-British astronauts who flew with NASA. Lastly, there is the British-South African Mark Shuttleworth. He went into space in 2002 as a citizen — the second "space tourist" paying their way into orbit.

Peake is being accompanied by two others on his journey — American Tim Kopra and Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko. 

At 9:16 a.m. GMT, The European Space Agency's Twitter account sent out this photo of the astronauts preparing for take-off:

Peake is a former pilot who attended military college Sandhurst, leaving the army in 2009. He is 43 and has two sons. Peake is also a keen athlete and plans to run the London marathon while in space, The Telegraph reported.

The ISS astronaut team may be orbiting 250 miles above the surface of the Earth, but they won't be missing out on Star Wars this Christmas. Peake says they have the opportunity to watch it on the station using a projector.

Peake's Twitter handle is @astro_timpeake. He has been tweeting in the run-up to the launch, and seems likely he will tweet when on the ISS too — as Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield famously did.

Tributes to Peake appeared across the internet ahead of his historic flight. Just take a look at the homepage of Google: