A Russian, an American and a British astronaut all took off on board a Russian spacecraft headed toward the International Space Station (ISS) on Tuesday.

USA Today reports the Soyuz space rocket, containing the three astronauts, launched successfully from the Russian facility in Kazakhstan. The trio included American Timothy Kopra, Timothy Peake of the United Kingdom and Yuri Malenchenko of Russia. They soon joined with Russians Sergey Volkov and Mikhail Korniyenko and American Scott Kelly, already at the space station.

The trip was expected to last six-and-a-half hours. Almost ten minutes after the scheduled time, the Soyuz arrived and docked with the International Space Station, according to updates from The Guardian.

It was more than two hours later before the astronauts were able to successfully board the ISS. The group took a photograph confirming they had joined their space colleagues.

Tim Peake, 43, is the first British astronaut to work full-time for a space program, and the first for fly as a U.K. government representative European Space Agency's astronaut corps.

Peake says he hopes his success will influence future Britons to get involved in space exploration.

"It's vitally important now that the U.K. does get involved in human spaceflight, because we're already looking towards 2024 and life beyond the International Space Station," said Peake. "If the U.K. doesn't position itself correctly, then we really will miss the boat."

Queen Elizabeth congratulated Peake on his achievement through the British Monarchy's official Twitter page.