Tim Peake ready for his mission to the space station

Britain’s first astronaut, Helen Sharman, received a congratulatory phone call from Tim Peake aboard the International Space Station during celebrations in London to mark the 25th anniversary of her historic mission to the Mir space station.

Watch live as ESA astronaut Tim Peake becomes the first British citizen to walk in space. He will step outside the International Space Station with fellow astronaut Tim Kopra to perform crucial repairs on the orbiting outpost’s electrical system.

A Soyuz spacecraft carrying Britain’s Tim Peake, Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko and NASA astronaut Tim Kopra, parachuted to the flat grasslands of Kazakhstan on Saturday, returning home from a six month mission to the International Space Station.