Being a cosmonaut was ‘just a job’
for history-making Helen Sharman
By Andrew R. Green, Bsc (Hons) FBIS, FRAS
The following article is an
account of several meetings,
chats and short interviews I
have had with the first Briton in
space, Helen P. Sharman
I first met Helen over 15 years
ago at the University of Sheffield
when I attended a lecture
organised by the University of
Sheffield’s Chemistry Society at
which she told an enthusiastic
audience about her “Journey
Into Space” on the Juno mission
with the Russian Soviet Union. I
have since met Helen several
times.
At
our
initial
meeting
her lecture began with an
introduction from a former
member
of
the
current
university Chemistry Society
who reminded us that the
University of Sheffield was
where Helen had taken a
degree in chemistry a few years
ago (I had done my degree in
the building next to hers), he
then continued his introduction
by embarrassing Helen with Helen Sharman’s official cosmonaut portrait
production of her 3rd year
dissertation project which he
I also wanted to know why the
offered to anyone willing to buy him mission had been named JUNO
a pint of beer.
as book and online accounts
Helen introduced her talk by don’t seem to explain so I asked
stating that being a cosmonaut was Helen, “It was a clever marketing
as she put it “just a job” (What a job associate who came up with the
to have, I thought!). After leaving name. In ancient Rome, Juno was
University Helen went on to work the goddess who watched over
in industry and began her working women and marriage. My Flight
career with GEC but then moved was seen as a marriage of East and
in a different direction by taking a West like the Apollo Soyuz Mission so
job with Mars confectionery in their the name stuck.
ice cream department, a fact that
Why become an astronaut/
did not go unnoticed by the media cosmonaut?. This was a question
who readily printed headlines such that she would ask herself many
as “Girl from Mars blasts off to the times in the months to come, but it
stars” and “Mars girl blasts off for the was an unusual way by which she
galaxy” after her selection for the actually did become our first space
mission into space, much to Helen’s traveller. Whilst driving home one
amusement.
evening from work Helen had been
22
22
flicking through the radio
stations in the car when she
heard an advert that made
her really listen. “Astronaut
wanted
no
experience
necessary”. Helen made a
mental note and later sent in
the application form (As did
many thousands of others)
yet after many interviews,
psychological analysis and
medical
examinations,
Helen was selected along
with Timothy Mace from the
Army Air Corps as the two
candidates for the mission.
Both were then given only
4 days notice to resign their
jobs, sell their cars and head
for Star City, a military and
cosmonaut training facility
of 4-5 thousand people just
1 hour’s drive from Moscow.
When the media had
initially realised that a
Briton was going into space
enthusiasm grew, after all
it was something new and
exiting, yet when the pair
met the then prime minister
Margaret
Thatcher
her
response was typical “We
the British don’t do that sort of
thing” so no government funding
was forthcoming. The entire mission
would have to rely on corporate
sponsorship if it was to be a success.
(This attitude does not seem to have
altered in my view, even the Union
Jack no longer flies on Europe’s
most successful launcher Ariane).
After the shock of arriving in an
establishment where no one spoke
any English, Helen and Timothy’s
ability to learn foreign languages
quickly (A fact that played a part
in their initial selection) came to
the fore. Helens personal instructor
could not speak a word of English
at all and one of the pairs lecturers
had even started a class by saying
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