Three more astronauts are set to fly to the International Space Station on Tuesday at 11:03 a.m. GMT. One of the crew members is the first British astronaut named Tim Peake.
The other two team members are Tim Kopra from NASA and cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko from Russia. They will be performing experiments aboard the space station for six months.
Peake, in particular, has created quite a bit of a buzz as he is the first British astronaut to fly under the European Space Agency (ESA). After a long preparation, it is now his time to fly off the planet.
Peake graduated from the the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst and worked as a helicopter test pilot. He saw ESA's online advertisement entitled, "Do you want to become an astronaut?" and tried out. Soon, he found himself a new job as an astronaut. He was chosen from about 8,000 applicants from all across Europe.
Peake trained for a total of six years for his mission called Principia. The said mission is derived from Isaac Newton's "Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica," which tackles the laws of gravity — a topic which, once fully understood, can help enhance knowledge of life on Earth and beyond.
Specifically, Peake will be performing experiments on himself to evaluate the effects of space flight on the human body. Such investigations would be thoroughly helpful to the future human mission to Mars.
Peake is the second engineer of the crew and is also the youngest of the three.
"Tim is a fantastic astronaut," said Libby Jackson, manager of the Astronaut Flight Education Program in the UK Space Agency. He added that Peake is friendly, calm, and thinks logically without putting off the smile on his face.
While aboard the ISS, Peake plans to participate in the London marathon, which is set for April 2016. While the 26.2-mile-run for earthlings may sound difficult, it could not get any more challenging for ISS-bound Peake, who will be running the marathon from space.
"I have to wear a harness system that's a bit similar to a rucksack," said Peake. He further described the device as having shoulder straps and a waist belt to help him stay on the treadmill as he runs. He anticipates getting uncomfortable 40 minutes into the run.
The last time a British national flew in space was in 1991, when Helen Sharman went to the Russian Mir space station via Project Juno. She wishes the best for Peake and even advised the young astronaut to look out the window and remember the colors in sight.
The three-man crew will fly via the 50-year-old Soyuz rocket, which will orbit for nine minutes and circle Earth for about four times before it finally arrives at the ISS. If no delays will be encountered, Soyuz will dock at 5:23 p.m. GMT.
