:00:13. > :00:29.Good morning, Ricky here with Newsround on this
:00:30. > :00:36.In less than three and a half hours, British Astronaut Tim Peake
:00:37. > :00:40.will make history and be on his way to the International Space Station.
:00:41. > :00:45.The engines on the 50 foot rocket will roar into action,
:00:46. > :00:49.the boosters will flare and the three-man crew will be
:00:50. > :00:51.forced back into the their seats as they're hurled into orbit.
:00:52. > :01:07.Five. Four. Team Peak had to do a special five-week course learning
:01:08. > :01:12.how to space walk in a space suit. Four. The International Space
:01:13. > :01:17.Station's 400 kilometres above the earth. Three. Tim gets to pick three
:01:18. > :01:25.songs to listen to just before launch. Two. Two seeks in isolation
:01:26. > :01:32.before he blasts off. One. He'll be the first British astronaut to live
:01:33. > :01:36.on board the ISS. Blastoff! We have lift-off.
:01:37. > :01:39.This is Tim Peake leaving the Cosmonaught Hotel in Bakinour
:01:40. > :01:41.in Kazakhstan a few minutes ago; he has signed a door
:01:42. > :01:47.Now he's got his last round of medical checks,
:01:48. > :01:50.he'll put on his space suit and say goodbye to his family.
:01:51. > :01:54.But Tim can only be part of this mission because he's been
:01:55. > :02:00.He's very fit, had lots of medical checks, and has pushed his body
:02:01. > :02:05.He's been underwater for hours to prepare for space walks.
:02:06. > :02:08.He's also trained his body to cope with huge amounts of pressure
:02:09. > :02:14.It's supposed to be the same as six people standing on you.
:02:15. > :02:18.Tim hopes his mission can inspire kids to become astronauts and space
:02:19. > :02:30.But where did the fascination for exploring space all start?
:02:31. > :02:37.Let's take a look. This is the first rocket to reach the boundary of
:02:38. > :02:42.space. The German B2 travelled 100 kilometres up into the earth's
:02:43. > :02:49.atmosphere. No-one knew how the human body would react in space, so
:02:50. > :02:54.in 1947, tests were carried out. Two years later, it was the turn of a
:02:55. > :02:57.monkey called Albert. Further animals followed until 1957 when
:02:58. > :03:07.Russia launched the first ever satellite to orbit around the earth.
:03:08. > :03:11.It was called Sputnik I. American and Russian scientists battled it
:03:12. > :03:19.out to get the first place on the moon. In 1961, the Russes put the
:03:20. > :03:25.first man into space. Cosmonaut Uri goo Guarin. The US President John F
:03:26. > :03:28.Kennedy made a promise. I believe this nation should commit itself to
:03:29. > :03:33.achieving the goal before this decade is out of landing a man on
:03:34. > :03:44.the moon and returning him safely to earth. In 1966, amazing photos were
:03:45. > :03:49.sent back from the moon. Scientists were trying to work out how to land
:03:50. > :04:00.safely there. Finally they made it in 1969. Apollo 11 blasted off,
:04:01. > :04:06.flying 250,000 miles to the moon. Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin made
:04:07. > :04:11.history in July. The Americans landed a special car to explore its
:04:12. > :04:14.surface. Since then, the fascination with space has grown and
:04:15. > :04:20.technology's getting better every day. There have been robots on Mars,
:04:21. > :04:24.a probe has been landed on a comet to take photos of distant moons and
:04:25. > :04:33.planets in the far-reaches of our solar system.
:04:34. > :04:40.The International Space Station's orbited our planet for 15 years,
:04:41. > :04:45.that's where Major Tim Peak is going to carry out experts, he's going to
:04:46. > :04:49.try to encourage people to become astronauts and scientists in the
:04:50. > :04:51.future when it's hoped one day they'll be able to visit other plan
:04:52. > :04:53.es like Mars. Head over to the Newsround website,
:04:54. > :04:56.to find out minute by minute what he's doing today and more
:04:57. > :05:00.about the experiments he'll be doing