British astronaut Tim Peake is just hours away from embarking on the ride of his life as he blasts off to the International Space Station (ISS).
Major Peake will take off at 11.03am UK time from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
The 43-year-old will spend six months on the ISS and has said he is most looking forward to looking at Earth from space.
"I don't think anything can truly prepare you for that moment and that will occur in the Soyuz spacecraft once we get injected into orbit I'll be able to look out the right window and see the beautiful view of Planet Earth."
He added: "This isn't a one off mission.
"We have a serious project in the European Space Station to land on the moon, and that is part of an exploration of the solar system that will eventually take us to Mars."
Major Peake's two young children and his wife will be watching as he and his two colleagues - Russian commander Yuri Malenchenko and NASA astronaut Tim Kopra - take off in the Soyuz FG rocket.
He will launch from the same spot which Yuri Gagarin became the first man in space in April 1961.
The crew have a tense wait of around an hour in the tiny capsule before the leave for the ISS.
And Major Peake has chosen three songs to listen to keep him entertained - Queen's Don't Stop Me Now, U2's Beautiful Day, and Coldplay's A Sky Full Of Stars.
After lift-off, it should take six hours for the crew to reach the ISS, which travels around the Earth at 17,500mph at an average altitude of 220 miles.
During his time aboard the space station, Major Peake will take part in hundreds of experiments aimed at finding out the effects of microgravity on his own body.
In April he will run the entire 26.2 mile London Marathon on a treadmill aboard the space station.
Other maintenance duties could see him taking space walks.
:: Watch Tim Peake blast off into space at 11.03am on Sky News TV - channels Sky 501, Virgin Media 602, Freesat 202, Freeview 132 - and on our mobile apps.
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