Tim Peake blasted off from Kazakhstan this morning and is currently en route to the International Space Station, where he will spend the next few months. He's the first Brit to go to space since the USSR took Helen Sharman with them in 1991, although there have been a couple of British-born Americans since. I've always found space travel absolutely thrilling; when I was a kid I went to bed with a book about the universe every night. When we got round to learning about space at school, I knew it all off by heart!

Here's a live feed for those of you who want to follow it:

http://www.bbc.com/news/live/science-environment-34985274

its weird how russia helped him to get there.

would not happen anywhere else in my opinion, i think the uk treat them as if they have to be wary. hopefully it will be worthwhile.

China plans to put a man on the moon by 2020. There's a genuine concern that China will actually claim the moon as their territory despite an international treaty that says the moon can never belong to one nation. 

Isn't the moon already divided between those who have visited already? I swear I watched a documentary about how the U.S, GB, Russia and Canada have slices.

China need to relax a little, they remind me of something.

Building islands to claim water/air zones or possibly to attack nearby nations is quite sad.

The moon belongs to its inhabitants only.