The first astronaut sponsored by the British government has arrived in space

ASTRONAUT TIM PEAKE has boarded the International Space Station, where he will live and work until mid 2016. He arrived at the station at 17:33 GMT on 15 December, a few minutes late after a fault required his Soyuz craft to dock manually.

“[Arriving] on the International Space Station and adapting to the zero-G environment, being able to go to the Cupola and look at that amazing view of Earth is way beyond my expectations,” said Peake from the ISS a few days after arriving.

He didn’t have long to adapt though. The day after he arrived, the rail car that moves the ISS’s external robotic arm became stuck, and required a spacewalk to fix. The spacewalk was performed by fellow Expedition 46 crewmates Tim Kopra and Scott Kelley.

The routine tasks have also begun, with Peake giving blood to help monitor the changes to his body and starting on the dozens of experiments he will be working on during his six-month stay. He’s also begun with the day-to-day chores, such as cleaning, and had his first haircut in microgravity.

After the rigours of the Soyuz flight, he was greeted with a taste of home. The crew had a bacon sarnie waiting for him, and he remembered to take the one truly important thing with him: tea bags.

“I have a kind of tea pot and my method of decanting it from one pouch to another is working really well. So I’m enjoying my tea up here,” says Peake.

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