Tim Peake: a man on a (space) mission

The former helicopter test pilot is used to danger, but on Tuesday the British astronaut will face new challenges aboard the Soyuz rocket, bound for the ISS

The area cleared around the Soyuz rocket at Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan extends for more than a mile before reaching the observation area where family and colleagues gather on launch day. To watch from afar has several advantages. It is easier on the neck, for one. The roar of the 26 million horsepower engines is bearable that far out, too. The main reason, though, is more sobering. At such distance, the crowd should be safe if the Soyuz, a machine that burns 270 tonnes of fuel and oxygen in nine minutes, explodes.

On Tuesday, Tim Peake, the first Briton admitted to the European astronaut corps, will ride a coach into the heart of Baikonur's exclusion zone. After a short stop to urinate on the coach's rear right wheel, a tradition embraced since Yuri Gagarin did the same more than 50 years ago, Peake will take his seat in the capsule on top of the rocket. At 11.03am UK time, the engines are due to light up, blasting Peake and his two crewmates into the sky. He is not expected back until June.