15/12/2015 Victoria Derbyshire


15/12/2015

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It's 9.15. I'm Victoria Derbyshire.

:00:00.:00:08.

British astronaut Tim Peake is preparing to blast off

:00:09.:00:28.

He'll spend six months in space carrying out scientific experiments

:00:29.:00:41.

When you see the Earth, it's a sensation that's incredibly hard to

:00:42.:00:56.

grasp and quite emotional. It is really very impactful to see the

:00:57.:01:03.

place where the entire human history has occurred below you, looking

:01:04.:01:06.

quite a lot like it does on maps and globes but actually being real.

:01:07.:01:08.

We'll be counting down to the launch at exactly 11.03

:01:09.:01:11.

In one hour and 46 minutes, the British astronaut Tim Peake,

:01:12.:01:37.

a former army helicopter pilot from Chichester,

:01:38.:01:39.

will blast off from earth in a rocket, headed into space.

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You will be able to watch the launch life here on the BBC at 1103. This

:01:44.:01:51.

is the scene live, lots of relatives... Oh dear, that's a bit

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of a wonky camera shot. Lots of relatives of the three astronauts

:02:00.:02:01.

going into space and lots of journalists there at the moment. He

:02:02.:02:06.

will make history as the first official British astronaut to live

:02:07.:02:09.

and work on the International Space Station and the first official

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British astronaut in space for over 20 years. This moment is a rare

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moment in history. Since Neil Armstrong became the first man on

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the moon in 1969. The Eagle has landed. One small step

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for man, one giant leap for mankind. Sometimes it's important to do a bit

:02:59.:03:05.

for yourself at the end. Looking at the stars is just magical. I'm soon

:03:06.:03:12.

to take over as the new space station Commander. Collaboration

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between any group and countries is far more profitable for everybody

:03:18.:03:25.

than reservation and competition and being antagonistic. Go ahead, Mr

:03:26.:03:32.

President. This is Houston. Hello, I'm talking to you by telephone from

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the Oval room at the White House. I just can't tell you how proud we all

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are of what you have achieved, for every American, this has to be the

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proudest day of our lives because of what you have done. The heavens have

:03:46.:03:52.

become a part of man's world. For one priceless moment, in the whole

:03:53.:03:58.

history of man, all the people of this earth are truly one. Thank you,

:03:59.:04:07.

Mr President. It's a great honour and privilege for us to be here

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representing not only the United States, that all nations and those

:04:14.:04:21.

with interest and curiosity and with a vision for the future. The

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International Space Station orbits 250 miles above the Earth. Tim Peake

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is due to spend the next six months on board when the carry out a series

:04:33.:04:36.

of scientific and medical experiments.

:04:37.:04:37.

Tim Peake only became an astronaut in 2009 after being chosen

:04:38.:04:40.

by the European Space Agency from 8,000 candidates.

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Pretty proud to be the first Brit going to the Space Station.

:04:44.:04:48.

I got into aviation at an early age and I was really focused on that

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and passionate about it, but I never imagined at all I'd be

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here weeks away from a launch in space.

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I decided to be an Army helicopter pilot, had a career for 18 years

:04:58.:05:01.

Have you been preparing a David Bowie cover?

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We've seen astronauts give us songs, give us dances.

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What have you got up your sleeve, Tim?

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I'm not going to be playing the guitar and singing,

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I ended up being a helicopter instructor and then a test pilot,

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and then working for AgustaWestland as a test pilot, as well.

:05:27.:05:30.

I saw the advert and realised that I was at the right age,

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I had the qualifications the agency was looking for.

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It was too good an opportunity not to apply.

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To be selected to be an astronaut for myself is absolutely

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Six month's deployment is not that long.

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I know it sounds like a long time, but it's something that many

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Tim Peake says the best advice he's been given so far is to "look out

:05:58.:06:04.

Fewer than 600 people have seen that view - of Earth from space.

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Former astronaut Michael Lopez-Alegria talks us

:06:11.:06:13.

When you see the Earth, it's a sensation that is incredibly

:06:14.:06:22.

It's really very impactful to see the place where the entirety

:06:23.:06:29.

of human history has occurred below you, looking a lot like it does

:06:30.:06:34.

on maps and globes but actually being real.

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But there is a sense of the enormity of the Earth and the population

:06:39.:06:42.

of humanity, compared to the seven or how ever many of us are onboard

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You can absolutely see effects of human presence on the planet.

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Because if pollution, contamination by a different hue

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From my first flight in 1995 to my last in 2007,

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a lot of bodies of water have noticeably become smaller.

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I think it gives you a greater awareness of the fragility

:07:13.:07:14.

of the planet and the ecosystem and gives you a better sense of how

:07:15.:07:18.

Tim Peake is taking off from Russia's cosmodrone

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in Kazakhstan with a NASA astronaut, Tim Kopra,

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and Russian Commander Yuri Malenchenko.

:07:30.:07:33.

They're all onboard the Soyez rocket, awaiting take-off.

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A man who knows that feeling well is Gregory Olsen,

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an American entrepreneur who paid for his own trip

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to the International Space Station ten years ago, it cost him around

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Hello. How do you think Tim Peake will be feeling right now? One hour

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and a bit to go before take-off? If he's like me, you'll be anxious and

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ready to go. It's something you work very hard for. I worked for over

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seven months. He put in much more time and now it's the fruition of

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all his labours, so he's going to be excited and ready to go. You were

:08:17.:08:23.

only slightly anxious? Yes, I had a medical disqualification so I was

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out of the programme and, rather than being afraid, to me, this was,

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yeah, I'm finally going and the next ten days belong to me and no one

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else. What was the training like? A typical day, up at 6am, eat

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breakfast, I would start with a run. Classes, 9-4. Emergency procedures

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in my case. Physical training. Dinner, homework. Like being a

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college student. You make it sound so easy, actually. It's under ten

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minutes to reach orbit and then about six hours or so to get to the

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International Space Station. What did take off the like? Saying it's a

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blast would be too obvious, but it was. The vehicle began to rumble and

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all of a sudden I slowly felt myself being pushed back in my seat harder

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and harder. We could not see anything outside because we had a

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shroud around us. About 50 miles above the Earth, an explosion and

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the shroud blew away and all I saw was this big sphere slowly receding

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in the distance. Stay there, Gregory. I'm going to bring in Libby

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Jackson from the UK space agency. How excited are you? Hugely excited,

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an amazing day for Britain. As someone who's always enjoyed working

:09:56.:10:00.

in this industry, I've been dreaming of this day since a child. Why is

:10:01.:10:04.

this so significant for this country? It shows that the UK is

:10:05.:10:11.

serious about space. We've only recently joined the International

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Space Station programme, publishing the National space policy on Sunday.

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The UK space industry is a hugely unsung hero, worth over 11 million

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to the UK economy at the moment and that figure is growing. By bringing

:10:24.:10:28.

Tim Peake today space station it's an inspirational thing. It will get

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children involved, excited about science, and we need them, not just

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for the space centre but for everything in the UK. You have been

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involved in the preparations in his preparations. Tell us what they have

:10:44.:10:48.

involved. Yes, I've been working in the human space flight visit with

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Tim since he was selected. He's been training since 2013 when his flight

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was announced and gone through all sorts of simulations to prepare for

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this moment. Right now, here's strapped into the Soyez in his space

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suit, going through his last couple of hours, focusing on the mission

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ahead. In terms of the training, he spent time living in caves,

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underwater. Yes, he's been doing all sorts of things for the Cave

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training and going underwater, both of those prepare him for living away

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from somewhere where it's not easy to get home. When he was working on

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the floor of the sea bed of Florida, they will admit how an asteroid

:11:32.:11:35.

mission might work. He has done training in, it where it you have to

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get used to feeling weightless and he has been doing lots of training

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in a big swimming pool. This has been getting him ready for a

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spacewalk. OK. As close to weightlessness as possible but

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obviously it can't absolutely replicate that on Earth. In terms of

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the scientific side of this, what kind of experiments will he and his

:12:00.:12:03.

colleagues be doing in the next six months? They will be doing over 200

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experiments on a space station while he's there. Over 30 are space agency

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experiments, ranging from all sorts of things. A lot of them and medical

:12:16.:12:18.

experiments looking at the effects of human body when Tim is

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weightless. We have got things that lipid material sciences, how allies

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working space, how plants grow, things like protein crystals,

:12:30.:12:31.

experiments on the outside of the space station, there are so many

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different aspects up there and it's a unique laboratory. You can't do

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these experiments on Earth. By taking gravity out of the equation,

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we can understand how these things work better and all benefits as back

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here on Earth. Explain how it can benefit us because we don't have

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weightlessness down here, so how can you apply what they discover 250

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miles above Earth to our lives here? For example, when astronauts go into

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space, your bones dissolve back into your body and that's very similar to

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osteoporosis. By understanding how we can counter those effects in

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space, we are learning much more about how bones cope here on Earth

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and not as direct impact to osteoporosis which, of course, fact

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many people as they get older. Let me go back to Gregory. The space

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station is as big as a football field, soccer field, you might call

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it. Enough space inside, the same as a large six bedroom detached house.

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Tell us more about the space station itself, Gregory. It is certainly

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longer than a football field for the not quite as wide. But compared to

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Soyez, which is very crowded, it is spacious. There's lots of room to

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manoeuvre around. After Soyez, you will feel liberated. What was the

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hardest thing to get used to? Probably, just not being able to put

:14:08.:14:13.

something down. What will happen is eventually it will just crawl away

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by weightlessness. I lost a camera up there, believe it or not. I had a

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digital pocket camera and I lost it, couldn't find it, after I left, Bill

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McArthur, an astronaut, founded and downloaded the photo to me. Tim

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Peake 's wife has been talking about their husbands mission. We're going

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to play it right now. I'm so happy to get to this point. We are really

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excited to get to the stage in the game and I know he is and he looks

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so ready for it. It's great. Thomas feels calm about it? Hugely

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laid-back about it. He knows exactly what's going on. He's just ready for

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lunch, I think. I buy, guys. -- bye-bye, guys. What you think the

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biggest surprise awaiting Tim Peake is? The weightlessness. Even though

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you train for it, when you are at equilibrium and you are weightless,

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it's like magic. And it's wonderful. I loved it and most people do.

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Libby, what are the risks were the mission like this? Anything goes

:15:35.:15:40.

wrong on the launch pad, there is a risk. Soyez has an escape rocket on

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top, so they have an extra level of security. But there are risks,

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always risks to things like that, but the Russian record is excellent.

:15:52.:15:59.

Libby Jackson, what would you say about the risks?

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Libby, what would you say about the risks? Everybody is working hard to

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reduce the risks. Whilst they are up in space the crew are very well

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trained to deal with any emergencies that might crop up, such as fire.

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The spacecraft they are launching today stays on the spacecraft with

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them as a lifeboat, so they could get back to birth in an emergency.

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Everybody is working really hard and we have procedures in place to make

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sure everything is very safe. I know that you are at the science Museum

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all morning, Libby Jackson. Also thank you to Gregory. There is major

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Tim Peake in his space suit. Hopefully they will pull out a bit,

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there is one of his colleagues. There is the Russian commander.

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Away, they look really calm. If he spent two and a half years training

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I bet he is thinking, come on, let's start. Major Tim Peake just taking a

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moment. There are his relatives. I am assuming they are just sitting in

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front of him. The Russian colleague is the commander and he sits in the

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middle on the Soyuz rocket. The American and the Brit are on either

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side of them. There are major Tim Peake's children with his wife

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Rebecca. Are they on consoles? I am hoping they are taking pictures of

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their dad, rather than playing on their PlayStation is! Let's see if

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we can listen in to their conversation.

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Relatives and journalists getting a last look at their loved ones before

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they are taken to the Soyuz rocket and before a blast off at three

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minutes past 11 which you will be able to watch live on BBC News. Do

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not go anywhere. You will be able to watch history in the making. Libby

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Jackson, I have to say major Tim Peake and his colleagues look

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unbelievably calm. Maybe after two and a half years of training you

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think, come on, let's get on with it. They will have run through this

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many times in training. They were at the launch six months ago and they

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have seen all of this. It is an astronaut's job to be prepared. They

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are very cool, calm and collected. You will have seen Tim waving to

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everybody before he gets into the spacecraft. They will be running

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through their checklists and focusing on the moment and be very

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calm, cool and collected. He is smiling away as his children take

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photographs of him. Major Tim Peake is waving and looking incredibly

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happy. It is just under an hour and a half until they blast off. All the

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build-up throughout the morning. All the build-up

:19:47.:19:47.

throughout the morning. For the latest live updates

:19:48.:19:49.

on the mission, head to: A couple of messages. Alan and Morag

:19:50.:20:01.

say, best wishes, we, the British public, are proud of you and your

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courage to travel to infinity and beyond.

:20:06.:20:09.

Kim texts is to say, ground control to Major Tim.

:20:10.:20:15.

I am envious, I remember watching the moon landings when I was young

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and I find this all amazing. I can barely contain myself, it is

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I can barely contain myself, it is awesome.

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We'll keep a close eye on the countdown to the Soyuz rocket

:20:25.:20:27.

launch and Major Tim's lift off throughout the programme.

:20:28.:20:31.

Final preparations are being made in Kazakhstan for the launch

:20:32.:20:37.

of the Soyuz spacecraft which will carry the British

:20:38.:20:39.

astronaut Major Tim Peake to the International Space Station.

:20:40.:20:41.

The former army platoon commander, who joined the European Space Agency

:20:42.:20:44.

six years ago, will be the first British member

:20:45.:20:47.

The body which inspects police forces in England and Wales says

:20:48.:20:55.

they're on the verge of being "overwhelmed" by a surge

:20:56.:20:58.

It says Chief Constables should assign more officers to the problem

:20:59.:21:03.

to ensure that investigations aren't delayed.

:21:04.:21:08.

The American comedian, Bill Cosby, who's been accused of sexual assault

:21:09.:21:11.

on more than forty women, has begun legal action

:21:12.:21:13.

He says they've lied for financial gain and caused

:21:14.:21:17.

Mr Cosby has repeatedly denied the accusations and has not been

:21:18.:21:23.

Saudi Arabia says it's formed a military coalition of 34

:21:24.:21:29.

mainly Muslim nations to combat terrorism.

:21:30.:21:33.

A joint operations centre is to be established in the Saudi capital,

:21:34.:21:36.

Countries from Asia, Africa and the Arab world

:21:37.:21:41.

are involved in the alliance but Saudi Arabia's main regional

:21:42.:21:43.

With a march past of stormtroopers, and the robots C-3P0 and R2-D2

:21:44.:21:52.

rolling down the red carpet, the seventh Star Wars film has

:21:53.:21:55.

The movie - The Force Awakens - stars many of the actors

:21:56.:22:01.

who appeared in the original science fiction trilogy more

:22:02.:22:04.

Let's catch up with all the sport now and join Ore and the poor form

:22:05.:22:15.

continues in the Premier League for Chelsea.

:22:16.:22:21.

Either a 20 points behind Leicester, I say with a big smile on my face.

:22:22.:22:31.

Chelsea fans will have upside down smiles in disbelief at what is going

:22:32.:22:36.

on in the Premier League. 2-1 for Leicester over Chelsea last night

:22:37.:22:41.

and both clubs in complete contrast in positions. Jose Mourinho says he

:22:42.:22:45.

is ashamed of the position the club is in. They are one point of the

:22:46.:22:51.

relegation zone. He says there is no chance of reaching the top four at

:22:52.:22:56.

the end of the season and he says the players have betrayed his work.

:22:57.:23:01.

On the flip side Leicester are enjoying a fairy tale of a season.

:23:02.:23:06.

Look back to this time last season and Chelsea were riding high at the

:23:07.:23:10.

top of the table and Leicester were rock bottom. How about that for

:23:11.:23:16.

changing fortunes? But in 2004 Claudio Ranieri was sacked as

:23:17.:23:23.

manager and was replaced by Jose Mourinho. 11 years on his team are

:23:24.:23:31.

now 20 points above Chelsea who look like relegation candidates at this

:23:32.:23:35.

stage. I will give you this before I go. Leicester are having their best

:23:36.:23:42.

start to a top-flight season in their 131 years as a club. Chelsea

:23:43.:23:48.

have not lost more than nine games from their opening 16 games of the

:23:49.:23:53.

season since 1978 and 1979 when they were relegated. Gary Lineker,

:23:54.:24:01.

England and Leicester legend, says he will do the first match of the

:24:02.:24:06.

Day next season in his underpants if Leicester win the Premier League. If

:24:07.:24:11.

that is not incentive, I do not know what is!

:24:12.:24:12.

We'll be live at the launch site as astronaut Tim Peake

:24:13.:24:19.

makes his final preparations before take off.

:24:20.:24:23.

It is now on our 24 point ten seconds.

:24:24.:24:34.

A woman whose ex-boyfriend was the first man to be convicted

:24:35.:24:37.

of "revenge porn" is calling for a change in the law to give

:24:38.:24:40.

all other victims the right to anonymity in such cases.

:24:41.:24:42.

At the moment the law automatically gives all victims of sexual offences

:24:43.:24:45.

anonymity, but it doesn't include victims of revenge porn.

:24:46.:24:48.

Keeley Richards-Shaw says she was left humiliated

:24:49.:24:50.

when she was publicly named and pictured after her ex

:24:51.:24:54.

was convicted of sending naked pictures he'd secretly taken

:24:55.:24:58.

She's launching her campaign on our programme this morning

:24:59.:25:03.

alongside Julia Mulligan, the Police and Crime Commissioner

:25:04.:25:06.

Welcome to both of you. I wonder, first of all, for our audience, if

:25:07.:25:20.

you could tell us how you came to discover your ex-boyfriend had these

:25:21.:25:26.

images of view. We had been together all through school, so I thought it

:25:27.:25:29.

was somebody I could trust and the relationship came to an end after

:25:30.:25:33.

about a year and a half of getting back together after school and then

:25:34.:25:40.

I received a text message of some pictures of myself which I did not

:25:41.:25:45.

know he had taken and they were from his new girlfriend who said I needed

:25:46.:25:49.

to be aware of what he was doing. When you first look at them, what

:25:50.:25:55.

did you think? I was shocked because I had no idea the pictures had been

:25:56.:26:00.

taken. He had had them on his telephone for some time. I felt

:26:01.:26:06.

ashamed, degraded embarrassed. What did you do? I went to the police.

:26:07.:26:12.

How did they treat you? They were brilliant, they were shocked at how

:26:13.:26:19.

he had betrayed my trust. Did you know this was a crime? No, I had no

:26:20.:26:27.

idea. He had been stalking as well, so it was the final thing with the

:26:28.:26:31.

photographs and I'd told the police the whole story and they told me

:26:32.:26:36.

there was a new law, revenge porn, so there would be two offences,

:26:37.:26:42.

stopping and revenge porn. People will have heard of the new

:26:43.:26:45.

legislation, but they might assume that for an offence to be committed

:26:46.:26:50.

you have to load pictures to the Internet, but it is an offence for a

:26:51.:26:55.

present to publish a private, sexual image of another person without

:26:56.:26:58.

their consent where this disclosure causes distress to the person who is

:26:59.:27:04.

the subject of the image. Interesting in this particular sense

:27:05.:27:07.

how it has been used. During his court case I think you were trying

:27:08.:27:13.

to keep what had happened to you privately, but that in the end was

:27:14.:27:21.

impossible. Very few people knew what was going on. A few close

:27:22.:27:25.

family friends, but I did not want anybody to know. Then the day before

:27:26.:27:30.

we got through on court hearing and the day before sentencing I got the

:27:31.:27:35.

message warning Meet the Press had got hold of it and it would be there

:27:36.:27:41.

and it went from bad to worse. In terms of coverage of you and your

:27:42.:27:47.

identification, what was out there? My picture, my job, they were

:27:48.:27:57.

waiting on my doorstep the next morning, I had got letters. I had

:27:58.:28:02.

gone from being stalked by him to being stalked by the media. I wanted

:28:03.:28:07.

to forget the whole thing and left alone. If my name had not been out

:28:08.:28:14.

there, I would not be doing this. I had the opportunity to do a lot when

:28:15.:28:18.

it first started and I said no. But now to give victims the other

:28:19.:28:23.

opportunity to get on with their lives, I feel it needs to be done.

:28:24.:28:28.

Why do you think anonymity for victims of this kind of crime is

:28:29.:28:37.

crucial? For them, their family and children, to keep their personal

:28:38.:28:41.

life and their personal life. Even if people were allowing people to

:28:42.:28:45.

take photographs of them, which I did not, even then it is personal

:28:46.:28:50.

and it should not be shared. Julia, it seems to be beside that this is

:28:51.:28:56.

broadly speaking sexual offences legislation, but yet victims do not

:28:57.:29:01.

have a right to anonymity. It is odd. I think talking to people it

:29:02.:29:07.

has been categorised more as a domestic abuse offence as opposed to

:29:08.:29:12.

a sexual offence. If you look at it in the sexual offences category,

:29:13.:29:15.

anonymity would have been thought about when the legislation was being

:29:16.:29:20.

passed. We want ministers to hear what Keely has to say and take

:29:21.:29:25.

action to change the law. Do you think you will get a reasonable

:29:26.:29:31.

hearing? I cannot see what the downside is. You have heard her

:29:32.:29:35.

story today and there is a precedent set and I would hope they would

:29:36.:29:41.

listen. I wonder if you think the fact that is not automatic

:29:42.:29:44.

anonymity, and I take the point that it is under domestic abuse

:29:45.:29:50.

legislation, but maybe it is not being taken seriously enough yet.

:29:51.:29:56.

Not enough people know about the offence. Anybody who is watching

:29:57.:29:59.

today who thinks they are a victim of this type of offence, go to the

:30:00.:30:03.

police because hopefully you will get the same service. It is also men

:30:04.:30:11.

and women. That is the first thing. Secondly, it is important that

:30:12.:30:15.

people have their privacy respected and some of the media have said we

:30:16.:30:20.

will respect somebody's privacy, but in this case they did not. Some

:30:21.:30:28.

newspapers are taking the decision upon themselves not to publish

:30:29.:30:33.

victims' names, but it is not automatic and not across the board.

:30:34.:30:37.

If there is somebody watching right now, a man or a woman, who is being

:30:38.:30:42.

blackmailed or threaten or who feels like they are being stalked with the

:30:43.:30:47.

threat of private pictures being loaded to the Internet or passed

:30:48.:30:50.

around friends and colleagues, what would you say to them? Go straight

:30:51.:30:56.

to the police and they have done nothing wrong, they should not feel

:30:57.:31:01.

ashamed. I feel I have done something I have not. Why do you

:31:02.:31:11.

feel that? Yes. Even though he has been convicted? I feel embarrassed

:31:12.:31:15.

and degraded and I have no trust now. I wish you all the best with

:31:16.:31:23.

your campaign. And remember to go and sign the petition. Of course, it

:31:24.:31:28.

Still to come today, we'll be live from LA where fans

:31:29.:31:34.

have been queuing for up to 12 days to get the first tickets to see

:31:35.:31:38.

We'll be speaking to one hopeful a little later.

:31:39.:31:46.

We will bring you the countdown to lift off as the final preparations

:31:47.:31:53.

are being made for the launch of the Soyuz spacecraft which will carry

:31:54.:31:57.

major Tim Peake to the International Space Station. He is the first fully

:31:58.:32:01.

British member of the European Space Agency to visit the space station.

:32:02.:32:11.

He beat thousands and thousands of other applicants. What does it take

:32:12.:32:13.

to get to this point? It's about one hour to go. Let's

:32:14.:33:56.

talk to our correspondence at the launch pad. Not far from it in

:33:57.:33:59.

Kazakhstan at the Baikonur Cosmodrome. Behind you, Major Tim

:34:00.:34:05.

Peake and his two colleagues, what will they be doing right now? They

:34:06.:34:12.

are behind me in the side the Soyez spacecraft, the top section of this

:34:13.:34:16.

50 metre rocket which is on the launch pad behind me. This is where

:34:17.:34:23.

you regard in blast off into space in 1961. Tim Peake and his two crew

:34:24.:34:29.

members are about to follow in his footsteps on board that rocket so

:34:30.:34:31.

huge moment of footsteps on board that rocket so

:34:32.:34:39.

first flight into space. -- Yuri Gagarin the others are more

:34:40.:34:42.

experienced. Tim Kopra has been up once and Yuri Malenchenko has been

:34:43.:34:46.

on five previous space flight but still, this is a big moment. Most of

:34:47.:34:51.

the final preparations have already been done. The crew are in their

:34:52.:34:56.

spacesuits, said their farewells to their families and are now inside

:34:57.:35:00.

the spacecraft. Just making their final checks to make sure everything

:35:01.:35:03.

is in order. Liftoff will now take place in one hour. There are various

:35:04.:35:09.

traditions going back years. 50 years. And possibly superstitions

:35:10.:35:14.

you could say. Talk is through those. Yes, there's quite a few. In

:35:15.:35:24.

fact, I think astronauts are pretty superstitious people as we have come

:35:25.:35:25.

to understand and they basically superstitious people as we have come

:35:26.:35:29.

follow the same rituals Yuri Gagarin first did in 1961 and that goes back

:35:30.:35:35.

to things like the fact he planted a tree before he went into space,

:35:36.:35:39.

that's one of them. He also had a haircut a couple of days before

:35:40.:35:42.

gumming up an astronaut still do that today. Also, more

:35:43.:35:46.

entertainingly, apparently he stopped the bus on the way to the

:35:47.:35:49.

launch pad and had a wee on the back wheel. Even to this day, every

:35:50.:35:52.

single male National going to space still does the same. They had to

:35:53.:35:57.

take office space it from and to do that as well. It's all about making

:35:58.:36:01.

sure if it was safer Yuri Gagarin, they believe if they follow this

:36:02.:36:05.

list of rituals, it will be safe for them, too. Yuri Gagarin was a little

:36:06.:36:10.

anxious and asked for a bid of music to be played to him, didn't he? Yes,

:36:11.:36:15.

apparently when he was about at this point in preparations for the

:36:16.:36:20.

flight, in the capsule, having done all the checks, he was feeling

:36:21.:36:23.

nervous and asked for music and apparently what the Russians had at

:36:24.:36:28.

hand was Russian love songs so they piped about into his headphones. The

:36:29.:36:32.

crew actually get to choose songs these days they want played to them

:36:33.:36:35.

and Tim Peake is chosen three. One of them is Don't Stop Me Now, Queen

:36:36.:36:42.

and also song by Coldplay and another one by one of his favourite

:36:43.:36:55.

bands U2. Beautiful Date. Tell us about the mission. The rocket behind

:36:56.:37:01.

you, 80 minutes and 48 until it reaches orbit and then six hours to

:37:02.:37:04.

the International Space Station. What do they do when they get there?

:37:05.:37:12.

Yes, it's quite a long ride up but a lot shorter than it used to be. It

:37:13.:37:16.

used to take two days to get there but they've chosen a different

:37:17.:37:19.

flight path now and that should get them there within six hours from

:37:20.:37:23.

blast off. A couple of hours from docking until they're actually enter

:37:24.:37:27.

the space station. I've spoken to astronauts who made that journey

:37:28.:37:30.

before and they said it is a real relief because it's pretty chilly

:37:31.:37:37.

and cramped. After they reach there, they can have a warm meal, take off

:37:38.:37:42.

their space gay, so a good moment of relief of course for everyone --

:37:43.:37:50.

space gear. Once they finally acclimatised to zero gravity, it's

:37:51.:37:55.

down to work which is a very big programme of scientific experiments.

:37:56.:38:00.

Tim Peake has more than 265 he will be conducting up that in

:38:01.:38:05.

microgravity. Lots of them about health issues, people back on Earth,

:38:06.:38:09.

but the kinds of experiments which should help to expand space travel

:38:10.:38:16.

even further. If they can look into the impact of space travel on the

:38:17.:38:20.

human body, they can look into possibilities for man to go back to

:38:21.:38:24.

the moon to perhaps colonise it and eventually one day to fly to Mars.

:38:25.:38:30.

Sarah, thank you very much for now for that we will talk to you now.

:38:31.:38:33.

The American comedian Bill Cosby has filed a counter-claim against seven

:38:34.:38:36.

of the women who accused him of sexually assaulting them.

:38:37.:38:41.

According to the lawsuit his accusers set out to cause damage

:38:42.:38:44.

More than 50 women have come forward in recent years to make allegations

:38:45.:38:50.

against him, which he has repeatedly denied.

:38:51.:38:58.

We are now taking steps in order to right a wrong and the burden of

:38:59.:39:03.

proof is supposed to be on the people who are making the

:39:04.:39:06.

accusation. The media has not required these accusers to have to

:39:07.:39:08.

do. The lawyer Jo Camarada represents

:39:09.:39:10.

all of the seven women. My seven clients and vigorously

:39:11.:39:19.

proceed with their case, each confident their good name and

:39:20.:39:25.

reputation will be restored at the end of the day.

:39:26.:39:27.

Let's talk now to Laurie Levenson, a law professor at Loyola Law School

:39:28.:39:30.

Good morning. Why is he is suing just seven? I think these are the

:39:31.:39:41.

ones he wants to focus on because they are in Massachusetts where Bill

:39:42.:39:46.

Cosby has his honorary degree and can claim he has had the most damage

:39:47.:39:50.

from these declamatory remarks. So perhaps later he will bring other

:39:51.:39:54.

lawsuits. These are the ones front and centre and probably has the

:39:55.:40:00.

largest amount of damage. What chance does he have of success is to

:40:01.:40:06.

mark this will all come down to a swearing contest, who do you

:40:07.:40:09.

believe? His chances depend the same as they did in him being sued. Who

:40:10.:40:17.

would you believe? Bill Cosby, who said these things never happen to or

:40:18.:40:20.

the seven women who brought the lawsuit? No one can determine that

:40:21.:40:24.

until there was testimony before a jury. Where is the police

:40:25.:40:30.

investigation up to? There is a police investigation of criminal

:40:31.:40:34.

charges, but this is not a criminal case. These are lawsuits and, for

:40:35.:40:38.

the criminal charges, it's very difficult because these events

:40:39.:40:42.

occurred two or three decades ago according to the plaintiffs. In

:40:43.:40:50.

terms of the threshold, it will come down to who we believe, is it beyond

:40:51.:40:55.

reasonable doubt? Is it probability? What is the threshold? It is

:40:56.:41:00.

different depending on whether the women's case go forward or Bill

:41:01.:41:04.

Cosby's. For the women, they just have to prove in fact he has made

:41:05.:41:08.

false statements regarding them. But they also have to prove that there

:41:09.:41:14.

was malice, because he is a high figure. So it's going to be

:41:15.:41:19.

something along the lines of what we would call negligent behaviour. That

:41:20.:41:22.

someone is intentionally making false statements, don't forget,

:41:23.:41:27.

these are not case is about the actual sexual assault. The time has

:41:28.:41:31.

elapsed for those, so everybody has changed these into defamation

:41:32.:41:38.

actions. OK, thank you very much. It is coming up to ten o'clock. Time

:41:39.:41:42.

now for a look at the weather. Considering it over one week until

:41:43.:41:47.

Christmas, it is warmer. It certainly is. My heating is. I love

:41:48.:41:51.

these conversations we have about your heating. You can keep it for

:41:52.:41:57.

the rest of week. Next week, it will be on and off as the temperatures

:41:58.:42:01.

change. Still quite chilly in Scotland and northern England but

:42:02.:42:05.

over the next few days, this plume of milder conditions sweep across

:42:06.:42:10.

us. Even warmer, not just by day, Victoria but by night as well. To

:42:11.:42:15.

show you how confusing it must be for spring plants, here they are.

:42:16.:42:21.

This picture came in from Egham. Look at this one. This is in

:42:22.:42:27.

Somerset. Fantastic. We still have some snow in Scotland in contrast.

:42:28.:42:31.

But this week, these are the temperatures, 16 in London. 13 in

:42:32.:42:37.

Cardiff. Although today won't be anything like 13 in Aberdeen, in the

:42:38.:42:44.

next few days, it will be. What do you think the average should be for

:42:45.:42:48.

this stage of December in London? 11? Not far off, good guess. Nine

:42:49.:42:59.

Celsius. Leeds, seven, Cardiff, nine, Aberdeen, seven, as well, so

:43:00.:43:04.

we are way above but as we head into next week, we will flip-flop between

:43:05.:43:07.

milder conditions and colder conditions. So for example the

:43:08.:43:15.

moment, the jet stream is pseudo- stationery so there's still some

:43:16.:43:17.

movement in it but it's basically oscillating like that which means we

:43:18.:43:23.

are on the milder side of it. Next week, it moves a little bit more so

:43:24.:43:26.

we will get onto the colder side at times and then we will come onto the

:43:27.:43:32.

milder side and in the colder side. Pseudo- stationery, that was the

:43:33.:43:37.

phrase, was it? Not many people will remember that. Well done. Today it a

:43:38.:43:41.

different story for many of us. Starting off on a cloudy note. The

:43:42.:43:45.

cloud will prevail through the day. Mild for some of us and we had some

:43:46.:43:50.

rain and drizzle in the forecast. As we go through the course of today,

:43:51.:43:54.

there's a weather front reduces showery outbreaks of rain moving

:43:55.:43:58.

slowly northwards. Some drizzle moving out of the thicker cloud and

:43:59.:44:02.

then the next cluster of fronts coming our way introducing wet and

:44:03.:44:04.

windy conditions from the south-west. You can see it advancing

:44:05.:44:09.

north eastwards nicely to the morning and into the afternoon. For

:44:10.:44:13.

the rest of the UK, yes, some brighter breaks in north-west

:44:14.:44:17.

England, south-west Scotland, a bit of sunshine here. That will continue

:44:18.:44:21.

on and off as we go through the course of the afternoon with bits of

:44:22.:44:26.

cloud flirting with those areas. Chilly in Aberdeen and also where we

:44:27.:44:29.

have lying snow in Scotland but for Northern Ireland, northern England,

:44:30.:44:33.

a lot of cloud, the rain knocking on the door of Southern Ireland and

:44:34.:44:39.

then all this cloud, hill fog, across the Pennines, the peaks, and

:44:40.:44:45.

then the rain in Wales, heading through Dorset and Somerset and some

:44:46.:44:50.

of that is likely to be heavy. It will be mild for many this afternoon

:44:51.:44:54.

and as we head to the evening and overnight, a band of rain sweeps

:44:55.:44:58.

northwards to be replaced by another one coming in accompanied by gusty

:44:59.:45:03.

wind. Very gusty across the South Western approaches. We could have

:45:04.:45:08.

severe gale force over the Bristol Channel. I'm showing you the

:45:09.:45:15.

night-time temperatures. 8-13dC. These temperatures are more

:45:16.:45:18.

reminiscent of what we would expect to see overnight, mid July. Not as

:45:19.:45:23.

we head into Christmas. At this time of year, overnight, we would expect

:45:24.:45:27.

around about freezing all one Celsius to about four in the south,

:45:28.:45:31.

so fastly different. For tomorrow, all this rain continuing, moving off

:45:32.:45:37.

eventually into the North Sea. Leaving behind it, quite a lot of

:45:38.:45:42.

cloud. Some drizzle and showery rain. Lighter wind tomorrow and a

:45:43.:45:46.

greater chance of more of us seeing brighter spells than today.

:45:47.:45:51.

Temperatures continuing to climb and the milder conditions pushing up

:45:52.:45:54.

towards the north-east of Scotland but look at London, 15. As we move

:45:55.:46:00.

into Thursday, we start off on a dry and bright note in the East. The

:46:01.:46:04.

weather front comes in introducing some rain but it will also get that

:46:05.:46:10.

of the low cloud and fog we have got and, behind it, a return to showers

:46:11.:46:14.

but the temperatures predicted for this stage in December. -- pretty

:46:15.:46:18.

good for the stage in December. I'm Victoria Derbyshire,

:46:19.:46:24.

welcome to the programme. And liftoff. British astronaut Tim

:46:25.:46:45.

Peake is preparing to blast off to the International Space Station.

:46:46.:46:51.

Lift off is in one hour and two minutes.

:46:52.:46:57.

How do you feel? We are ready to go. He will make history as he spends

:46:58.:47:02.

the next six months in space carrying out scientific experiments

:47:03.:47:07.

and looking at views like this. When you see the earth it is a sensation

:47:08.:47:11.

that is incredibly hard to grasp and quite emotional. It is really very

:47:12.:47:18.

impactful to see the place where the entire human history has occurred

:47:19.:47:23.

below you looking a lot like it does on maps and globes, but being very

:47:24.:47:29.

real. We will count down to the launch. At exactly three minutes

:47:30.:47:32.

past 11 and you will be able to watch it live here on the BBC.

:47:33.:47:39.

Final preparations are being made in Kazakhstan for the launch

:47:40.:47:43.

of the Soyuz spacecraft which will carry the British

:47:44.:47:45.

astronaut Major Tim Peake to the International Space Station.

:47:46.:47:47.

The former army platoon commander, who joined the European Space Agency

:47:48.:47:50.

six years ago, will be the first British member of the station's

:47:51.:47:53.

The body which inspects police forces in England and Wales says

:47:54.:48:02.

they're on the verge of being "overwhelmed" by a surge

:48:03.:48:04.

It says Chief Constables should assign more officers

:48:05.:48:12.

to the problem to ensure that investigations aren't delayed.

:48:13.:48:15.

The American comedian, Bill Cosby, who's been accused of sexual assault

:48:16.:48:18.

on more than forty women, has begun legal action

:48:19.:48:20.

He says they've lied for financial gain and caused

:48:21.:48:25.

Mr Cosby has repeatedly denied the accusations and has not been

:48:26.:48:30.

New figures out this morning show inflation has returned to positive

:48:31.:48:37.

territory for the first time in four months,

:48:38.:48:38.

but remains close to zero, as it has for most of this year.

:48:39.:48:42.

The mild weather drove a record fall in clothing and footwear prices

:48:43.:48:46.

amid widespread discounting on the high street.

:48:47.:48:52.

Saudi Arabia says it's formed a military coalition of 34

:48:53.:48:55.

mainly Muslim nations to combat terrorism.

:48:56.:48:58.

A joint operations centre is to be established in the Saudi capital,

:48:59.:49:01.

Countries from Asia, Africa and the Arab world

:49:02.:49:04.

are involved in the alliance but Saudi Arabia's main regional

:49:05.:49:07.

With a march past of stormtroopers, and the robots C-3P0 and R2-D2

:49:08.:49:17.

rolling down the red carpet, the seventh Star Wars film has

:49:18.:49:20.

The movie - The Force Awakens - stars many of the actors

:49:21.:49:25.

who appeared in the original science fiction trilogy more

:49:26.:49:28.

Let's catch up with all the sport now and join Ore.

:49:29.:49:40.

Thank you very much. Not many Chelsea fans will want to show their

:49:41.:49:48.

faces in the office this morning. They suffered their ninth defeat in

:49:49.:49:52.

the league last night, but the praise has to go to Leicester City

:49:53.:49:57.

whose fairy tale season continues after an impressive 2-1 win. Jamie

:49:58.:50:04.

Vardy bagged his 15th goal of the season. Loic Remy's late goals set

:50:05.:50:15.

up a tense Nish, but Chelsea sit a point above the relegation zone and

:50:16.:50:18.

Leicester return to the top of the table. For us it is important to

:50:19.:50:27.

achieve five points more and we look how long it takes to the finish of

:50:28.:50:33.

the Premier League and then it is another goal. This is the first

:50:34.:50:38.

important goal for us. At this moment we are in a bad position, but

:50:39.:50:44.

our urgency is to win points, to get out of this zone where we are not

:50:45.:50:58.

afraid to be. So, Jose Mourinho is ashamed and Chelsea Towers are

:50:59.:51:01.

embarrassed. Let's talk to Dan Levene. You watched the game last

:51:02.:51:09.

night. Surely the writing is on the wall if it continues the way it is

:51:10.:51:16.

going? I think last night felt like a watershed moment in terms of Jose

:51:17.:51:21.

Mourinho's comments. He said for the first time that fourth place is

:51:22.:51:25.

gone, which we have never heard before. It has been the death knell

:51:26.:51:30.

for the Chelsea manager. He said he felt betrayed by his players. This

:51:31.:51:35.

takes us into a territory where you have got a manager who may have lost

:51:36.:51:40.

the dressing room. This is a difficult place for his comeback.

:51:41.:51:47.

The problem they have got, well, they have got quite a few, but on a

:51:48.:51:53.

weekday, on a midweek game in Europe they seem to do well and are through

:51:54.:51:57.

to the knockout of the Champions League, but they cannot replicate it

:51:58.:52:02.

at the weekend. What do you put that down to? It is a curious phenomena,

:52:03.:52:11.

although Chelsea have had not very strong opposition in the Champions

:52:12.:52:15.

League. They won over Porto and Porto did not come out and fight.

:52:16.:52:20.

Teams have taken the game to them. They have seen the champions side

:52:21.:52:25.

that is a wisp of what was last season. But Leicester attacked

:52:26.:52:30.

Chelsea from the off and they had guile and ambition. Chelsea had very

:52:31.:52:38.

little idea of what they were doing. Individual performances have been

:52:39.:52:40.

wanting and there is no team at the moment and that is a big problem.

:52:41.:52:46.

Dan Levene in Leicester, he follows Chelsea, thank you very much indeed.

:52:47.:52:51.

Chelsea are a long way from where they were last season. They had 39

:52:52.:52:57.

points at this stage last season. It is a 50 point swing if you look at

:52:58.:53:03.

where Leicester are now. They are top of the Premier League and

:53:04.:53:12.

enjoying a fairy tale. Not long to go, within the next hour 43-year-old

:53:13.:53:19.

father two called Tim Peake from Chichester will make history,

:53:20.:53:24.

preparing to go to the International Space Station. He will spend the

:53:25.:53:28.

next six months conducting scientific experiments which

:53:29.:53:31.

potentially should lead to improvements in our lives on Earth.

:53:32.:53:36.

In the next hour or so we will bring you all the build-up and you will be

:53:37.:53:40.

able to watch the Soyuz rocket carrying him and his colleagues take

:53:41.:53:49.

off at exactly three minutes past 11 from the Baikonur cosmodrome in

:53:50.:53:55.

Kazakhstan. It will take under ten minutes to get into orbit and a

:53:56.:54:00.

further six hours to reach the International Space Station which

:54:01.:54:05.

orbits the Earth at 17,500 mph. It is something like 16 sunrises and

:54:06.:54:14.

sunsets every day. We are going to spend the next hour talking about it

:54:15.:54:17.

and build it up to the launch because it is history in the making.

:54:18.:54:22.

While the astronauts are waiting to take off they can request music to

:54:23.:54:27.

be played into their headphones, a tradition going back 50 years. Major

:54:28.:54:34.

Tim Peake has asked for this. # And the world is turning inside

:54:35.:54:46.

out, yes, turning around in ecstasy. # So don't stop me now, don't stop

:54:47.:54:54.

me now. # Cause I am having a good time,

:54:55.:54:59.

having a good time. # I am a racing car that is inviting

:55:00.:55:12.

like Lady Godiva. I am going to go, go, because there

:55:13.:55:18.

is no stopping me. # I can travelling at the speed of

:55:19.:55:22.

light. He has also chosen Beautiful Day and

:55:23.:55:33.

a Coldplay track. Mark Thompson is an author and contributed to the BBC

:55:34.:55:38.

Stargazing live programme. Mark Thompson, what do you think of

:55:39.:56:04.

his choice of music? I have got to say I am a bit envious of him. Tell

:56:05.:56:12.

us what you know about his preparations and what he will be

:56:13.:56:17.

most looking forward to. I know he has been training for six years to

:56:18.:56:22.

get into space, a huge amount of training for anyone. He has had to

:56:23.:56:27.

wait a long while for this day. But now it is in the hands of the

:56:28.:56:31.

mission controllers and the engineers and the flight crew on the

:56:32.:56:35.

ground. Tim will be saying goodbye to his family and preparing for the

:56:36.:56:41.

trip ahead. You have got this event at the science Museum and various

:56:42.:56:46.

schools will be watching it on TV. I have told my kids that I do not care

:56:47.:56:50.

what lesson they have got, tell your teachers to put television on

:56:51.:56:58.

because that will be inspirational for this generation. Yes, he will be

:56:59.:57:05.

doing lots of scientific experiments, but he is very keen as

:57:06.:57:10.

well to use his time to do teaching and he is doing lots of work with

:57:11.:57:14.

schools and he is doing science experiments that schoolkids can get

:57:15.:57:18.

involved in. That is one of the key things. Let me bring in Professor

:57:19.:57:27.

David southward. Can we just pause for a moment. A British man blasting

:57:28.:57:36.

off into space who, by the end of the day, will be on the

:57:37.:57:40.

International Space Station. Oh, my goodness, it is history. It is. The

:57:41.:57:44.

first British person was Helen Sharman back in 1989. I should have

:57:45.:57:56.

said 20 years. It is the first British official astronaut. Eight

:57:57.:58:00.

people born in the UK have been up, but this is the first British

:58:01.:58:05.

astronaut. It must be the greatest day for the US gay as well. It shows

:58:06.:58:12.

Britain stepping up to be one of the true space missions. -- USA. We have

:58:13.:58:19.

always had a big space industry here, but we have been a bit

:58:20.:58:22.

standoffish about the business of putting people into space. There was

:58:23.:58:27.

a time when Britain thought and manned space flight was the future,

:58:28.:58:32.

is that right? That is how it behaved, I am not sure that thought

:58:33.:58:39.

was the right word. It is cheaper to do unmanned spacecraft that it is to

:58:40.:58:44.

do human beings on board. When you take away the budget and put in a

:58:45.:58:50.

patch of inspiration and a bit up British shoe winder vivre, you have

:58:51.:58:55.

got a fantastic launch ahead. Can we talk about the money? Tax payers do.

:58:56.:59:04.

The space station was $100 billion? No one is quite sure because it's

:59:05.:59:08.

been concluded to buy a variety of nations that we don't know how much

:59:09.:59:12.

it cost but it's an enormous sum of money until you divided by the

:59:13.:59:16.

population of the countries in question and recognise that we did

:59:17.:59:21.

it over 20 odd years to build. I mean, everybody got together to do

:59:22.:59:27.

it. I think a lot of people will be saying, why are we spending so much

:59:28.:59:30.

money up there when there is so much to do down here? But the amount to

:59:31.:59:35.

spending divided over the number of people, the cost of the space

:59:36.:59:43.

programme, we are putting into the European Space Agency is about

:59:44.:59:47.

roughly the amount we spend on Mars bars in the UK. A tiny amount

:59:48.:59:51.

compared to what we spend on other things. So what do we get back from

:59:52.:59:57.

it? I got a list of space advances what space expiration has given us,

:59:58.:00:02.

the kind of experiment Tim Peake will be doing. People usually throw

:00:03.:00:07.

in nonstick frying pans, it's not just Teflon, is it? What have we

:00:08.:00:11.

learned from space which has improved our lives on Earth? If you

:00:12.:00:20.

ever use GPS, that came from a couple of American scientists

:00:21.:00:25.

tracking Sputnik. It gave them the idea of using spacecraft. I'm sorry,

:00:26.:00:31.

I'm going to pause because we're going to dip into the European Space

:00:32.:00:37.

Agency commentary. An astronaut is talking as to the pictures. -- is

:00:38.:00:46.

talking us through the pictures. And so, this is, you get up in the

:00:47.:00:53.

talking us through the pictures. And morning... After last night, yes.

:00:54.:01:00.

Going through the door. Pictures. Residents in this room. There are

:01:01.:01:06.

many people in the room. The tradition is to sign the door from

:01:07.:01:12.

the very first space flight of Yuri Gagarin. How well do you sleep the

:01:13.:01:17.

night before the launch? Is it that might not be perfect of course. A

:01:18.:01:22.

lot of excitement going on. On the other hand, you want to get some

:01:23.:01:25.

sleep because of course you have a busy day. It's important to get some

:01:26.:01:31.

sleep but the important thing is I don't think they have a lot of sleep

:01:32.:01:36.

shifts, so they might have had a better night. Today we are going to

:01:37.:01:45.

the space station,. This is a blessing on the spacecraft. A more

:01:46.:01:49.

recent addition. It is not the case before, by the way. This is the crew

:01:50.:01:57.

leaving the hotel where they stayed last week. Last night on Earth. Yes,

:01:58.:02:09.

yes, we hope so. They are still not in orbit. Yes, we should assume,

:02:10.:02:14.

should we? We are going to leave that now because we're going to show

:02:15.:02:17.

you live pictures from inside the capsule. Any second now. Let's have

:02:18.:02:26.

a look. There we go. OK, can be recognise them? I'm trying to but

:02:27.:02:33.

it's quite difficult, isn't it? Is that Tim on the left? I'm not sure.

:02:34.:02:39.

Usually they have their names on their spacesuits. They are suited up

:02:40.:02:47.

and are waiting a couple of hours waiting for it all to happen so, at

:02:48.:02:52.

this stage, I mean, they are trained not to get too nervous and they have

:02:53.:02:58.

been through it so many times. He must be apprehensive sitting there.

:02:59.:03:02.

You can't not be and be human, really. You are sitting on top of

:03:03.:03:07.

tonnes of fuel knowing that there have been failures. I think it's

:03:08.:03:10.

only human to be apprehensive, as we all are. But the Soyez is one of the

:03:11.:03:17.

most reliable launches so I'm sure that's not on their minds. I think,

:03:18.:03:23.

actually, they have been trained so well, you are not thinking about

:03:24.:03:28.

that but thinking about making sure you've got your schedule right, and

:03:29.:03:31.

thinking what you got to do next. The job in hand. This guy flew

:03:32.:03:40.

helicopters. Could escape from helicopters, underwater, upside

:03:41.:03:43.

down, he has got to keep his mind on what he's doing next to make sure no

:03:44.:03:50.

mistakes. And so, I suspect he is not apprehensive at all. He is going

:03:51.:03:57.

through his check list. Certainly, I had nothing like his kind of job. I

:03:58.:04:06.

used to launch spacecraft. You know it's going to be a Rhyl disaster if

:04:07.:04:09.

something goes wrong but you are thinking, what happens

:04:10.:04:11.

next? Keeping my mind on the job. Mark,

:04:12.:04:20.

you can see these live pictures, too. What's going on here? What I

:04:21.:04:28.

can see it I had Tim Peake on the right-hand side of the picture. They

:04:29.:04:33.

are going through their preparation, pre-flight checks, to make sure the

:04:34.:04:36.

spacecraft systems are operating as a suspect and making sure things are

:04:37.:04:41.

ready for launch just after 11am this morning. Let me read some

:04:42.:04:46.

measures to you from some of our viewers. On Facebook, Ian says," why

:04:47.:04:53.

are the BBC making such a huge story out of one man going into space?" I

:04:54.:05:02.

think it's incredible. What it does show is that, although we've had

:05:03.:05:05.

space flights for the last 50 years, we still can get inspired by people

:05:06.:05:12.

like Tim Peake who are carrying the hopes and desires and aspirations of

:05:13.:05:16.

the nation and it brings people together and it's a feel-good story,

:05:17.:05:21.

as well. Ian goes on to say there are so many problems on earth to

:05:22.:05:26.

sort out, rather than give a few people a six-month holiday, finding

:05:27.:05:33.

out if you can grow cress in space, big deal expiration of David, what

:05:34.:05:38.

kind of experiments will they do? Both scientific and medical? We are

:05:39.:05:46.

human and we got to recognise the human race is evolving. We should

:05:47.:05:49.

change, we should learn things. Going off the planet is something

:05:50.:05:55.

one day maybe the whole race will have to do. It's more than just

:05:56.:06:01.

taking rocket seeds up there. It's also about the human body. You can

:06:02.:06:06.

do an awful lot and learn about osteoporosis and that a lot of the

:06:07.:06:09.

medical research being done on the space station because the rate at

:06:10.:06:13.

which your bones age is accelerated in space, so they have been able to

:06:14.:06:18.

make an awful lot of progress in space to a disease which affects a

:06:19.:06:22.

lot of people on earth. That's exactly right. So to Ian and Denise

:06:23.:06:27.

on Facebook who say it's fascinating but should we send people up there

:06:28.:06:31.

and over 40 is what has it gained us? Some things they will be doing,

:06:32.:06:38.

his body will be studied to reveal changes in his bones that mimic

:06:39.:06:41.

osteoporosis. Researchers on hope it develop them develop interventions

:06:42.:06:47.

to help people with this condition and prevent bone loss. Research into

:06:48.:06:54.

ageing. Astronauts skim often cracks and ages. We can now understand how

:06:55.:06:58.

to better protect people's skin on earth. Research into body clocks and

:06:59.:07:05.

human diet. He will be studied to see how he coped with 16 sunsets and

:07:06.:07:10.

Sunrise is a day and go on an 11 day diet to test how humans could

:07:11.:07:16.

survive a mission to Mars. Probably not but useful to people down here.

:07:17.:07:21.

What has space exploration already given us? Laser eye surgery. GPS,

:07:22.:07:28.

vaccines for bacteria, mobile phone cameras, one third use the

:07:29.:07:32.

technology developed by Nasa engineers who first met quality

:07:33.:07:36.

camera is small enough to fit on spacecraft, so there you go. Tom on

:07:37.:07:43.

Facebook says, have a saver flight, mate. Justin says, is an

:07:44.:07:47.

inspiration. Tepee on Facebook says this is amazing, bravo to the

:07:48.:07:54.

scientists. Robin, tried to describe why this is a special occasion for

:07:55.:07:59.

you and your society? You can see it in the sky. If it's not clouded

:08:00.:08:04.

night, you can see it going over at about 5:15pm over the UK. It will be

:08:05.:08:10.

visible over the next United -- cloudy night. Carol said by the

:08:11.:08:14.

weekend we may well get a chance to have a look it. You can sit in the

:08:15.:08:22.

sky and it unmistakable. A very bright object moving very steadily

:08:23.:08:27.

with no associated noise or whatever. You can see it in the sky.

:08:28.:08:32.

We are going to interrupt and go back to commentary from the European

:08:33.:08:35.

Space Agency because Wigan hit a final chapter in the astronauts and

:08:36.:08:39.

their family. That's because we can hear the final chat but in the

:08:40.:08:52.

astronauts and the family. -- we are going to go back to the commentary

:08:53.:08:55.

from the European Space Agency because we can hear the final

:08:56.:09:00.

chatting between the astronauts and their families. He is either

:09:01.:09:07.

concentrating or smiling. He is just a chronic, really, to astronauts.

:09:08.:09:13.

And to the European Space Agency. -- here's a credit. When you are in

:09:14.:09:19.

space, you are working a lot but you have a lot of public relations

:09:20.:09:26.

events and also contacts with schools and children so you have to

:09:27.:09:33.

be prepared to smile. This is our general director. These are really

:09:34.:09:45.

final messages from families and from the agencies. Of course, they

:09:46.:09:48.

will be able to speak to them every day in space. Yes, true. And there

:09:49.:09:54.

are representatives from a different space agencies at the head of the

:09:55.:10:09.

programme. And now, this is them walking out to the bus, again.

:10:10.:10:14.

APPLAUSE Yes, their last trip to the rocket.

:10:15.:10:17.

What are these bags they are carrying? Ventilation. A small bag

:10:18.:10:26.

of ventilators, it's not that warm but inside the suit it is warm,

:10:27.:10:27.

especially when walking. but inside the suit it is warm,

:10:28.:10:34.

generally see them in this line-up with Tim Peake on the left-hand

:10:35.:10:39.

side, Yuri Malenchenko in the centre seat as the Commander. And the other

:10:40.:10:46.

Tim on the right-hand seat. If you look back at the pictures, that's

:10:47.:10:50.

almost exactly how they always appear in every formal situation.

:10:51.:11:04.

True. A final moment with family. Nearby, at least. So that is

:11:05.:11:15.

commentary from Richard Holling and is astronauts guessed, from the

:11:16.:11:19.

European Space Agency. Those images from earlier because the three

:11:20.:11:24.

astronauts are strapped in to the Soyez rocket which is due to launch

:11:25.:11:30.

at 1103 exactly. You will see a take-off live here on the BBC so

:11:31.:11:34.

don't go anywhere. Here in the studio we have Professor David

:11:35.:11:42.

southward who knows Tim Peake. Sue Nelson. And Robin, vice president of

:11:43.:11:45.

the Society of popular astronomy. David, we heard Richard on the

:11:46.:11:50.

commentary saying every picture you see of Tim Peake he's either smiling

:11:51.:11:54.

or concentrating. You know him better than any of us. Is that

:11:55.:12:00.

right? Yes, he is very focused about, at the same time, he has got

:12:01.:12:05.

this very open, pleasant personality. He really knows how to

:12:06.:12:10.

communicate, so the smile, absolutely helps get rid of that

:12:11.:12:15.

feeling that he is an astronaut. He is going to be thinking very hard.

:12:16.:12:20.

He is going to be very serious. He smiles and you relax. He is, I

:12:21.:12:26.

think, a credit, as somebody said, to the astronauts. He hasn't

:12:27.:12:31.

actually been a national for that long and sometimes, you can wait

:12:32.:12:35.

years will become an astronaut to go on a mission like this, can't you?

:12:36.:12:39.

You can. He's been an astronaut for six years. I think, in the fact that

:12:40.:12:46.

he even got accepted as a Briton for the programme shows something

:12:47.:12:52.

exceptional about him. He must've stood out of the crowd. For me, he's

:12:53.:12:57.

always stood out of the crowd. When you meet him, he has got a

:12:58.:13:02.

personality you warm to. So I think he is going up now for a long, long

:13:03.:13:08.

time. This is a long trip for astronauts. I think that is a mark

:13:09.:13:16.

of the confidence placed in him by the European Space Agency and by the

:13:17.:13:20.

partners. It's a six-month mission although when they get there, three

:13:21.:13:24.

of the guys already up there have been there for a year, isn't that

:13:25.:13:30.

right? Almost. Two of the guys, Scott Kelly and the Russian, whose

:13:31.:13:38.

name escapes me, they are doing a year-long in space so they can

:13:39.:13:44.

really do these tests and see a long duration, and extreme length of time

:13:45.:13:48.

compared to normal stays on board the station and particularly

:13:49.:13:50.

interesting because Scott Kelly has a twin brother who is also an

:13:51.:13:58.

astronaut and he's on the ground so you have got a control, somebody

:13:59.:14:01.

with the same genetic make-up as you, so they can really check those

:14:02.:14:08.

differences. That is fascinating. How much muscle wastage there's been

:14:09.:14:14.

in the bone mass, the eyesight, as well, and compare it with the

:14:15.:14:19.

astronaut twin the ground. I think you made a documentary recently

:14:20.:14:21.

about the International Space Station and you spent time with

:14:22.:14:25.

astronauts. What do they say about Tim Peake? They are all incredibly,

:14:26.:14:31.

the entry. The wonderful Italian European astronaut who spent time

:14:32.:14:39.

around six months, and came down in June, she said he is a fun guy, he

:14:40.:14:44.

gets on with a team, which comes up a lot, he's a good team player and,

:14:45.:14:48.

for national, that's important because if you are stuck in a tin

:14:49.:14:53.

can effectively, even though it's quite spacious compared to the Soyez

:14:54.:14:57.

capsule, psychological testing is also part of this. You don't only

:14:58.:15:00.

need to be physically fit but mentally have the right stuff, as

:15:01.:15:05.

well. Doug Millard is at the science Museum, the space curator at the

:15:06.:15:10.

science Museum. Good morning. Must be tremendously exciting for you at

:15:11.:15:14.

the Museum this morning? I have been working here a few years and I've

:15:15.:15:17.

never seen anything like this before. Quite astonishing. In terms

:15:18.:15:24.

of inspiring primary school children right now, this is the kind of

:15:25.:15:28.

moment that is going to get them into doing the sciences, into

:15:29.:15:36.

engineering? Well, we've got about 2500 kids in the museum as we speak

:15:37.:15:39.

and this is something they will take away with them for the rest of their

:15:40.:15:44.

lives. Actually being part of such an important national event, I don't

:15:45.:15:47.

think we can underestimate the effect it's going to have on some of

:15:48.:15:48.

them. In terms of view being inspired as a

:15:49.:15:59.

young boy, do you recall what it was? I certainly can. It was Apollo.

:16:00.:16:05.

These amazing television pictures from the moon and then thinking how

:16:06.:16:10.

sad it was, Apollo 17, the final mission to the moon. We have moved

:16:11.:16:17.

on since then. Why is that so significant? The UK, as we know,

:16:18.:16:25.

does a lot of space activity, we build many satellites and our space

:16:26.:16:30.

science is second to none, but we have always hesitated with human

:16:31.:16:35.

space flight. Being the first time Britain has visited the ISS, it is

:16:36.:16:40.

long overdue and it is a very special occasion and it is high time

:16:41.:16:45.

we arrived at that top table. We can hear the kids cheering now. What are

:16:46.:16:53.

they cheering for because there is half an hour to go? They are getting

:16:54.:16:58.

very excited and we have got Brian Cox whipping them up as well. It is

:16:59.:17:06.

to do with Brian Cox. We can see pictures of the International Space

:17:07.:17:11.

Station. Sue, you have done a documentary on it recently. What are

:17:12.:17:17.

we seeing now? It is 400 kilometres above the earth. It is travelling

:17:18.:17:24.

around 17,500 mph. It is a wonderful piece of engineering. Let's listen

:17:25.:17:28.

to the European Space Agency commentary. It weighs in at 6000

:17:29.:17:42.

?993. It is approximately ?110 that can be returned to Earth in this

:17:43.:17:46.

module. It is the only portion of the Soyuz that returns to Earth. It

:17:47.:17:57.

is a very different view compared to the cruise who went to the moon. It

:17:58.:18:04.

is like being in a very high altitude are playing. But the speed

:18:05.:18:11.

is nothing you can see on an aeroplane, it is much faster. And it

:18:12.:18:18.

is compelling to watch. This is the control centre and we are in the

:18:19.:18:24.

gallery overlooking that. We are live at Baikonur. The launch is on

:18:25.:18:33.

the launch pad. It is a beautiful, clear day. We are coming up towards

:18:34.:18:40.

the end of day. The launch is due an hour before dusk. We should get

:18:41.:18:47.

quite a good view, particularly as the rocket disappears, assuming

:18:48.:18:53.

everything goes to plan. You can see these towers around the rocket. Some

:18:54.:18:58.

of them stay until quite near the last few seconds. Yes, because we

:18:59.:19:06.

are still feeding the rocket stages. And the crew has no window, they

:19:07.:19:14.

cannot seek out. Not yet, they will have windows after the jettison.

:19:15.:19:18.

They will feel the launch in the first few minutes on their body and

:19:19.:19:26.

then after four or five minutes, they will see the Earth finally.

:19:27.:19:33.

That is if they are not in the dark, they might be in the dark at that

:19:34.:19:39.

moment. They will see a black earth. Soon after they will see the light

:19:40.:19:43.

because they are travelling very quickly around the Earth. Let's find

:19:44.:19:48.

out more about the European Space Agency astronaut on board that

:19:49.:19:54.

spacecraft, Tim Peake, and his training for that mission. We will

:19:55.:20:00.

lead that therefore a second. A final thought, Doug. You have got

:20:01.:20:06.

2500 children to look after. You are showing the launch and after that

:20:07.:20:11.

what happens with all the children? Well, they have got so many events

:20:12.:20:15.

to visit around the museum today. Some of them will be lucky enough to

:20:16.:20:21.

go around the cosmonaut exhibition and have a look at a real Soyuz

:20:22.:20:26.

spacecraft, just like the one that Tim Peake is squashed up in right at

:20:27.:20:30.

this moment. They will be able to see what it is really like. Thank

:20:31.:20:35.

you for talking to us. I know you have got a busy morning. Doug

:20:36.:20:41.

mallard is the space curator at the science Museum. We will be talking

:20:42.:20:47.

to Helen Sharman in the next few minutes, the first Britain and the

:20:48.:20:51.

first woman to visit the mere space station, as the countdown to blast

:20:52.:20:54.

off at three minutes past 11. Tim Peake and his fellow astronauts

:20:55.:21:08.

are reportedly listening to music at the moment.

:21:09.:21:09.

The inspectorate of police says forces in England and Wales

:21:10.:21:19.

are 'close to being overwhelmed' by an increase in reports

:21:20.:21:22.

It's praised officers for improving their handling of such

:21:23.:21:25.

cases, but says more specialist staff are needed.

:21:26.:21:27.

Saudi Arabia says it's formed a military coalition of 34

:21:28.:21:30.

mainly Muslim nations to combat terrorism.

:21:31.:21:33.

A joint operations centre is to be established in the Saudi capital,

:21:34.:21:36.

Countries from Asia, Africa and the Arab world

:21:37.:21:40.

are involved in the alliance but Saudi Arabia's main regional

:21:41.:21:42.

With a marchpast of stormtroopers, and the robots C-3P0 and R2-D2

:21:43.:21:53.

rolling down the red carpet, the seventh Star Wars film has

:21:54.:21:56.

The movie - The Force Awakens - stars many of the actors

:21:57.:22:00.

who appeared in the original science fiction trilogy more

:22:01.:22:02.

Let's catch up with all the sport headlines now and join Ore.

:22:03.:22:13.

Let's bring you some of the top stories, and Leicester have returned

:22:14.:22:19.

to the top of the Premier League after a 2-1 win over Chelsea. They

:22:20.:22:26.

are 20 points clear of the defending champions. This stunning goal

:22:27.:22:29.

secured their victory last night. Chelsea are a point of the

:22:30.:22:33.

relegation zone. England's cricketers have got the

:22:34.:22:39.

winter tour against South Africa off to a stuttering start. The tourists

:22:40.:22:46.

have been reduced to 90-3. Alastair Cook and Alex Hales were out for two

:22:47.:22:55.

and eight respectively. Alex Bairstow has signed a new contact

:22:56.:23:01.

with the county champions Yorkshire. And a trust fund has been set up to

:23:02.:23:06.

support Jonah Lomu's children after it was revealed he had almost no

:23:07.:23:10.

savings when he died last month. The New Zealand rugby players'

:23:11.:23:16.

Association who started the plan said he had helped others at the

:23:17.:23:20.

expense of himself and his family. We have Professor David southward,

:23:21.:23:30.

who has worked with Tim Peake. Sue Nelson is a presenter of a pod cast

:23:31.:23:35.

and we have the vice president of the society or popular astronomy.

:23:36.:23:40.

Blast off is at three minutes past 11. Joining us from the science

:23:41.:23:46.

Museum is Professor Lucy Green from University College London. How

:23:47.:23:54.

excited are you on a scale of 1-10? About 15. I cannot describe how

:23:55.:23:58.

excited I am also the thousands of other people here in the science

:23:59.:24:05.

Museum. As a space scientist, what does this morning mean to you? This

:24:06.:24:12.

morning means so much. This is about getting humans into space, getting

:24:13.:24:16.

Britain to be a European Space Agency astronaut, and it is also

:24:17.:24:22.

about doing research and science. There will be lots of experiments

:24:23.:24:26.

that Tim Peake will be carrying out, looking at the conditions of the

:24:27.:24:30.

human body in space, testing robotics and also looking at

:24:31.:24:35.

something called space weather and the effects of high energy,

:24:36.:24:39.

dangerous particles that come from the sun. What will it do for the

:24:40.:24:46.

2500 children in the science Museum? What effect would you like it to

:24:47.:24:53.

have on them? I would like it to showcase what is possible if you

:24:54.:24:57.

study science, mathematics and engineering and if you work hard in

:24:58.:25:03.

any area at school. If you are hard-working and determined, you

:25:04.:25:11.

never know where it will take you. Zoo, David and Robin, what got you

:25:12.:25:15.

interested as young children in this sector? In my case it was seeing

:25:16.:25:21.

Jupiter and Saturn through a telescope. How old were you? I was

:25:22.:25:28.

always interested and I know Lucy is the same. She was fascinated by

:25:29.:25:33.

seeing things through a telescope as a kid. This mission will stimulate a

:25:34.:25:38.

lot of those kids there and around the country to look up in the sky

:25:39.:25:43.

and see things through a telescope. Looking at the moon in binoculars is

:25:44.:25:48.

a fantastic sight. People will be inspired to maybe follow in the

:25:49.:25:53.

footsteps of Tim Peake. Kids in the schools near and maybe we will have

:25:54.:26:02.

more than one astronaut. For me it was Star Trek. Women scientists were

:26:03.:26:06.

constantly featured on the programme. I had a huge crush on

:26:07.:26:13.

Captain Kirk. That set me off. I even wrote to Nasser when I was

:26:14.:26:18.

about 13, saying I love physics and I would like to be an astronaut, can

:26:19.:26:23.

you recommend what to do? They wrote back and they said keep studying

:26:24.:26:30.

physics, which I did, and for you here are some technical instructions

:26:31.:26:36.

from our latest vehicle, and it was from the space shuttle. I have still

:26:37.:26:40.

got it in the attic somewhere from the 70s. David, did you have a crush

:26:41.:26:47.

on Captain Kirk? I managed to escape that. I am earlier than that. Dan

:26:48.:26:54.

Dare was my hero, but he had a female scientist, Professor Peabody,

:26:55.:27:01.

and this was in the 50s. It was absolutely the only female scientist

:27:02.:27:06.

I have come across. See how important it is to have a role

:27:07.:27:12.

model. The big shock to me was the Russians going into space first. I

:27:13.:27:17.

can remember where I was on October the 4th, 1957. How old were you? I

:27:18.:27:26.

was 12. Why was it a shock? Because I thought it would be the British or

:27:27.:27:31.

the Americans. The Russians were so far away. I remember being at school

:27:32.:27:37.

and looking out the window and thinking, I will never have anything

:27:38.:27:42.

to do with space. And yet as it happens, in the end I launched

:27:43.:27:46.

rockets from Baikonur. I never dreamt I could do it. It is the same

:27:47.:27:53.

launch pad that Tim Peake is an that Yuri Gagarin, the first man in

:27:54.:28:01.

space, was launched. If it ain't broken, do not fix it. Lucy, what

:28:02.:28:11.

was your first inspiration? I remember going out and looking at

:28:12.:28:16.

the stars. That was the inspiration for me and having a question about

:28:17.:28:19.

what they were and what was happening in space. I turned to the

:28:20.:28:23.

world around me to explore because I was curious. When I started learning

:28:24.:28:29.

about physics at school that gave me a means to understand the universe

:28:30.:28:32.

around me and that is something I have been passionate about ever

:28:33.:28:35.

since and have never stopped doing it. I hope you enjoy the launch.

:28:36.:28:42.

Professor Lucy Green, a space scientist at University College

:28:43.:28:47.

London. A few moments ago we had this coming from the Soyuz rocket.

:28:48.:28:57.

Have a listen. The music you are hearing right now is going on

:28:58.:29:06.

inside, and it is being played to the astronauts in the Soyuz capsule.

:29:07.:29:16.

A little bit of Queen being played for Tim Peake. That was one of major

:29:17.:29:23.

Tim Peake's choices to be played. We also found out earlier he is having

:29:24.:29:40.

Beautiful Day By U2. It Also Chose A Sky Full Of Stars by

:29:41.:29:46.

Coldplay. And has said, it's addictive

:29:47.:29:55.

television, all the Best wishes to Tim and his colleagues. Aaron on

:29:56.:29:59.

text message says, wide of the missions take off in Kazakhstan? Any

:30:00.:30:04.

specific reason? You referenced at the moment ago because it was the

:30:05.:30:08.

Russians who went there first. Yes, because it's very far from anywhere

:30:09.:30:14.

else. I'm sad to say the site is also used for intercontinental

:30:15.:30:19.

ballistic missile is, so it secret, the location was secret and, in

:30:20.:30:25.

fact, its location was first identified I think by people

:30:26.:30:29.

tracking it from a school in England. Jeffrey Perry and to school

:30:30.:30:35.

back in the 70s, I think it was. They tracked where the spacecraft

:30:36.:30:39.

had come from using fairly simple equipment. The Russians did not want

:30:40.:30:44.

the West to know where Baikonur Cosmodrome was. The name is an

:30:45.:30:51.

illusion. It is near a lake and they deliberately chose the name which is

:30:52.:30:57.

nowhere near this lake. And it was all part of a cover-up to try to

:30:58.:31:02.

hide from the Americans with their sites where and of course, they have

:31:03.:31:06.

to launch from rocket sites from such a site, so it takes us back to

:31:07.:31:13.

the Cold War, which, happily, is now over. There's no space shuttle now.

:31:14.:31:22.

And that, we haven't fully talked about that. This is an amazing

:31:23.:31:26.

example of international cooperation, isn't it? Even though

:31:27.:31:32.

the USA and UK and Russia may not be the best of friends when it comes to

:31:33.:31:39.

diplomatic circles, the fact is the Russians are having the only

:31:40.:31:41.

launcher which can get men into space at the very moment. It's not

:31:42.:31:47.

their only trump card. The Russians have a credit for having an

:31:48.:31:52.

excellent experience in long duration space flight and the

:31:53.:31:57.

cooperation with the Europeans and Nasser and Russia. It puts the UN to

:31:58.:32:04.

shame sometimes, I think. Let me read some more messages. What a

:32:05.:32:08.

fantastic day, my kids are excited. I'm tired of people about people

:32:09.:32:12.

moaning about how the money should be spent on other things. This will

:32:13.:32:16.

lead to life-saving breakthroughs. The whingers should direct their

:32:17.:32:22.

comments on countries the poverty spending millions on nuclear

:32:23.:32:29.

weapons. Tim, don't forget to look for Father Christmas when you are up

:32:30.:32:33.

there. Tim Peake will get a phone call on Christmas Day to his family.

:32:34.:32:38.

Frank says, being ex-military, I wish him and his fellow astronauts

:32:39.:32:43.

the very best. I'm very envious. Roger says the critics seem to be

:32:44.:32:47.

saying forget the universe, what we're getting up to on earth is much

:32:48.:32:53.

more important. We can talk now to the first Briton in space, who was

:32:54.:32:58.

actually a former chemist, Helen Sharman who visited the mere space

:32:59.:33:02.

station in 1991. That was made possible by a private programme,

:33:03.:33:09.

paid for jointly by the USSR and a consortium of British companies.

:33:10.:33:12.

Good morning to you. How are you feeling right now? Ten minutes to

:33:13.:33:19.

take off. It's all getting very exciting here at the science Museum.

:33:20.:33:24.

We got children, adults, people from all walks of life really supporting

:33:25.:33:29.

Tim. I can't hear much of what's going on in the studio because

:33:30.:33:33.

there's so much excitement here. You are the only person who can give us

:33:34.:33:38.

an insight into how Tim Peake and has two colleagues will be feeling

:33:39.:33:43.

just minutes from take-off. It ironically very calm right now. They

:33:44.:33:49.

have been training for six years, preparing for this day over and over

:33:50.:33:52.

again together and they know it's not just them but people below in

:33:53.:33:58.

mission control in Moscow, teams and teams of people around the world

:33:59.:34:02.

supporting them, so all they have got to do is get on with the job

:34:03.:34:07.

they have been training to do now. They are listening to music and

:34:08.:34:10.

every so often there will be a communication from the bunker saying

:34:11.:34:14.

two minutes to go, five minutes to go. They will say, I heard you, and

:34:15.:34:20.

then they just have to wait for the launch now. Does your heart beat

:34:21.:34:27.

faster than near it gets? We have our hearts monitored during the

:34:28.:34:30.

launch and breathing rates, so I'm sure everybody's heartbeat will beat

:34:31.:34:35.

a bit faster. You are undergoing quite a bit of GeForce and it's

:34:36.:34:44.

lumpy and bumpy. That journey to orbit is under ten minutes. That's

:34:45.:34:52.

presumably a rough ride, is it? You feel the different rocket stages, so

:34:53.:34:57.

as the fuel is used up, the rocket gets lighter so the speed increases.

:34:58.:35:05.

When you jettison, you drop down to half a GB for the next stage kicks

:35:06.:35:11.

in some of lumpy and bumpy. 3.5 G is the most you ever feel, being pushed

:35:12.:35:16.

back into your seat. All of their physical training, it's all paying

:35:17.:35:26.

for them. I think you go from North to 25 times the speed of sound --

:35:27.:35:36.

you go from North -- zero. The speed of sound is an interesting factor.

:35:37.:35:41.

Its relative in some respects but you do eight: it is a huge speed.

:35:42.:35:48.

Before you go, can you tried to describe weightlessness for us? The

:35:49.:35:55.

most natural relaxing feeling you can imagine. Humans just adapt so

:35:56.:36:01.

readily to being weightless. You can just float in nothing, in a swimming

:36:02.:36:06.

pool, the water keeps you buoyant. If you're orbiting the earth, you

:36:07.:36:10.

just float through the air and you forget what it's like to stand on

:36:11.:36:15.

the floor, to feel the seats beneath you. Astronauts lose the hard skin

:36:16.:36:19.

on the bottom of their feet when they are in space for a long time.

:36:20.:36:23.

You quickly learn to move in a different way and people are trained

:36:24.:36:30.

for this in an aeroplane but never for more than 20 odd seconds at a

:36:31.:36:34.

time. Now you can experience that long time. Alan viewers are seeing

:36:35.:36:41.

pictures of you experiencing weightlessness. You have a huge

:36:42.:36:43.

smile on your face. It looks fantastic. Catching water? That's

:36:44.:36:55.

right. Superb. What was the most stunning moment for you on your

:36:56.:37:03.

trip? On your mission? For me, launches exciting but actually the

:37:04.:37:06.

launch itself over quickly and the people watching on earth, for the

:37:07.:37:12.

Arsenal, then continues. I spent two days on board Soyez and hopefully

:37:13.:37:19.

Tim will only spend six hours before he gets onto the space station. It

:37:20.:37:24.

is the docking when you open the hatch and float inside, that is so

:37:25.:37:28.

beautiful. You know it's going to be your home for the next months. We

:37:29.:37:33.

are getting nothing from the European Space Agency. They say that

:37:34.:37:38.

the rocket at Kazakhstan is now standing without a service structure

:37:39.:37:44.

attached to it. Ready to be blasted into orbit. Duelling is still

:37:45.:37:49.

ongoing. What does that mean, it is standing without a service

:37:50.:37:54.

structure? It basically means it's using its own electrical supply.

:37:55.:38:00.

Essentially, it ready for the gantry to be pulled back and then it will

:38:01.:38:05.

be free to launch so they are separating all other connections,

:38:06.:38:08.

the fuel has been in there for some time now and it's going to be

:38:09.:38:13.

working on its own. Helen, thank you very much. We have got about ten

:38:14.:38:18.

minutes to go so I'm going to let you go. Thank you for talking to us

:38:19.:38:23.

this morning. Helen Sharman, live from the science Museum. You can see

:38:24.:38:27.

the joy on her fate as she is recalling what happened to her back

:38:28.:38:32.

in 1991. It obviously clearly not something you forget in a hurry.

:38:33.:38:36.

It's great to share hit brother centrifuge because I've been on a

:38:37.:38:42.

centrifuge and experienced that GeForce Tim Peake is about to

:38:43.:38:47.

experience. -- it's great to hear her talk about centrifuge. I did it

:38:48.:38:52.

over three stages and they build it up over three times and to begin

:38:53.:38:55.

with, it's like a fairground ride and you feel the pressure. By 3.5 G,

:38:56.:39:02.

it's getting a little more uncomfortable. When the person in

:39:03.:39:05.

the control room was saying try and move your hand, I sort of went like

:39:06.:39:10.

that and I couldn't. I could barely move my hand. You feel that much

:39:11.:39:18.

pressure. We now know what they look like when they look 75 because your

:39:19.:39:23.

skin is pushed back. Does it feel like your stomach has detached from

:39:24.:39:29.

the rest of your body? No, I was like, more, more, more, I loved it.

:39:30.:39:34.

It starts to feel uncomfortable absolutely. Some more messages from

:39:35.:39:44.

viewers. 10.4 by the way. This is inside. Hang on.

:39:45.:39:52.

Obviously they are playing The Final Countdown. What else would it be?

:39:53.:40:06.

The launch is at 11.03, so don't go anywhere, about eight minutes away.

:40:07.:40:14.

There they are inside the capsule. They are breathing and their heart

:40:15.:40:20.

rate is being monitored as we speak. I spoke to an astronaut and he said

:40:21.:40:29.

his advice was make sure you enjoy it and look through the window.

:40:30.:40:34.

Coverage on the space mission continues now on BBC News with Anita

:40:35.:40:36.

McVeigh. You are watching our continuing

:40:37.:40:49.

special coverage on BBC News of the build-up to the moment when Tim

:40:50.:40:52.

Peake blasts off with his fellow crew members from the Baikonur

:40:53.:40:58.

Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on their mission to the International Space

:40:59.:41:01.

Station. These images of course as you can see, coming to us live from

:41:02.:41:08.

Kazakhstan. We are going to take you inside the capsule, the close

:41:09.:41:12.

confines, certainly very cosy, where major Tim Peake and his colleagues

:41:13.:41:19.

Tim Kopra and Yuri Malenchenko, the Commander of this mission,

:41:20.:41:23.

offsetting ready for launch. You may have been able to see the flag on

:41:24.:41:33.

his arm. Very close confines for this six-hour journey as it will be

:41:34.:41:39.

to the International Space Station. Tim Peake, the first official UK

:41:40.:41:43.

astronaut. We are just under eight minutes to launch at 1103 GMT.

:41:44.:41:49.

Exactly the length of time, eight minutes it will take them to reach

:41:50.:41:53.

orbit and then, onwards on that six-hour journey to the IS S. 250

:41:54.:42:01.

miles above the Earth. We can cross now to the Baikonur Cosmodrome in

:42:02.:42:08.

Kazakhstan and join Sarah. Take us through what is going on in these

:42:09.:42:15.

final few minutes before launch. Well, really, these are the very

:42:16.:42:21.

final checks and preparations before they blast. In the last couple of

:42:22.:42:26.

hours, we have seen Tim Peake and his crew climb inside the capsule,

:42:27.:42:31.

the top section of that 50 metre rocket behind me here in Kazakhstan.

:42:32.:42:38.

Inside there, they have been running through their last checks. They have

:42:39.:42:43.

had music played to them. They chose tracks themselves which would be

:42:44.:42:47.

pumped into the capital for them to enjoy as they calm their nerves

:42:48.:42:51.

ahead of this huge flight. Before that, they had their last farewell

:42:52.:42:57.

to their family. They also put on of course their pressurised suits,

:42:58.:43:02.

spaces, to make their way to the launch pad but we are now of course

:43:03.:43:07.

in the final minutes before this flight. You could say it will be

:43:08.:43:10.

nerve wracking moment but Tim Peake is shown himself to be an extremely

:43:11.:43:15.

relaxed man right up until now and, as he walked out of a hotel this

:43:16.:43:20.

morning, he said he felt fantastic and was ready to go. This is the

:43:21.:43:25.

moment he had been preparing for, of course, for many years. For this

:43:26.:43:30.

mission, he's been training for 2.5 years, so it is absolutely on top of

:43:31.:43:34.

his game, he feels ready for liftoff, and he said to us before he

:43:35.:43:37.

is extremely excited about this mission. I think you as close to

:43:38.:43:42.

that market as it's safe to be because the force that come into

:43:43.:43:46.

play when it launches are quite incredible, aren't they? They are,

:43:47.:43:52.

and we have been told to expect a deafening roar as the rocket behind

:43:53.:43:57.

me blasts off into space. It obviously needs huge power to make

:43:58.:44:01.

it into orbit, so we are pretty much as close as you can safely get

:44:02.:44:06.

although, in a bunker belief the launch pad itself are the people who

:44:07.:44:10.

will control this blastoff, the ones who will press the button, who will

:44:11.:44:15.

make this Soyez rocket begin its journey into space. As far as I

:44:16.:44:18.

understand it, the people inside are pretty much on autopilot assuming

:44:19.:44:22.

everything goes well until they reach the International Space

:44:23.:44:26.

Station. It's going to be an exhilarating ride, nine minutes

:44:27.:44:30.

almost until they reach orbit from here at ground level, nine minutes

:44:31.:44:34.

before Tim Peake gets his first breathtaking view of Earth. That's

:44:35.:44:39.

the moment, he said he's looking forward to most. The minute of a

:44:40.:44:42.

breakthrough into orbit and he looks out the right window of his Soyez

:44:43.:44:48.

capsule back down at birth. He said everyone told him it's the best

:44:49.:44:52.

moment but obviously, it's not a moment you can ever prepare for but

:44:53.:44:56.

it's the one he wants to experience -- birth. Bear with us as we look at

:44:57.:45:01.

these live shots in closer detail of that rocket behind you -- planet

:45:02.:45:10.

Earth. We saw him a few moments ago inside that capsule. We are going to

:45:11.:45:14.

hear some of what mission controllers saying to the three

:45:15.:45:18.

astronauts and a cosmonaut as they take off. As we watch this launch,

:45:19.:45:27.

and watch the Soyez head towards orbit, we will, of course, tried to

:45:28.:45:32.

keep our charter to the minimum and really take in what is an

:45:33.:45:34.

awe-inspiring

:45:35.:45:35.

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