We have lift-off! British astronaut Major Tim Peake gives the thumbs up as he heads towards the International Space Station for start of historic six-month odyssey

Major Tim Peake became Britain's first official astronaut today. The Soyuz rocket took off at 11.03GMT (pictured left and right) and Major Peake (pictured inside the capsule inset) should step on to the ISS at around 7.25pm GMT. The married father of two, from Chichester, West Sussex, has spent six years in training for the mission, which will see him spend six months aboard the ISS - an orbiting laboratory that speeds through space at 17,500mph some 248 miles above Earth