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Britain's first official astronaut has been chosen to go on a five-month mission to the International Space Station.

Major Tim Peake has been given the go-ahead for the trip in 2015.

He'll be blasted in to space on a Russian Soyuz rocket and will take part in spacewalks.

Major Peake graduated as a European Space Agency astronaut two years ago, but has yet to be sent on a mission.

Peake was picked as one of six Esa astronauts from thousands of hopefuls in 2009.

He's trained at space centres in Russia, the US and China, where he has practised what to do in emergencies, like when an astronaut falls unconscious during a spacewalk.

In a bid to improve his Russian language skills he's also spent a month living with families in the Russian city of St Petersburg.

He said: " It's an incredible opportunity, obviously a very privileged position and a great responsibility as well."