“Bon jour, J’mapelle” (my name
is) in French as he had trained
the crew before Helens, that just
happened to have a French crew
member. The routine was by now
familiar, each day dawned early
and was set out methodically. Two
hour’s of lectures on mathematics
and lectures on astronomy (carried
out in a planetarium) were followed
by a short interlude and then more
studies every day for almost 18
months.
Helen explained that the Russian
instructors thought that the Russians
were better than the Americans
and that Russian cosmonauts were
also far superior to their American
counterparts, as they had to do “99
exams”, both Helen and Timothy
thought that this was a joke, that
is until exam time came round,
and they realised how serious the
instructors had actually been.
Throughout the lecture Helen
had an underlying philosophy
“Keep your eyes on the end goal
and keep going until you get there”
which no matter what you do in
life or work seems like pretty sound
advice. And it certainly worked in
this case.
The training proper for the mission
began in the Soviet version of the
American KC-135 which is the
aircraft that flies huge parabolic
curves in order to simulate a
weightless environment (A lot of
Apollo 13 The movie was filmed
in the NASA aircraft), something
that Helen really enjoyed, Helen
resumed
“The Russians believe
the best people to fly in space are
women, although leg-less ones
would be better (Just like being in
the Union bar on a Friday night I
thought) but in all seriousness she
explained that legs are really useless
in space anyway and that it was a
real possibility that we could see
a disabled person fly on a space
mission some time in the near future.
What do the Soviets call their
equivalent “Vomit Comet” I asked?
“The Russians do not actually
have a name for this particular
aircraft. The difference between the
Russian and American version lies in
the fact that the Russian aircraft is
a modified cargo plane, and when
flying the parabolic curve it does
not afford as much time weightles s
as the US version. There is also
another problem because when
manoeuvres such as this are being
carried out, not only are the crew
floating but all the aircraft’s oil and
hydraulic fluid are experiencing the
same effect so we had to return to
base regularly to have the plane
serviced and for safety checks
every time we used it”.
shed with Christmas lights on, it was
trust that played a key role in not
only Helens particular mission but
also each and every mission past,
present and future. However even
more training was required and
Helen spent many hours strapped
into a gyroscope being turned
round and round upside down all in
an attempt to confuse her vestibular
system in the inner ear (organs that
aid balance and that are sensitive
to movement and acceleration)
The Soyuz TM-12 crew, (from left) Helen Sharman, Anatoly Artsebarsky & Sergei Krikalyov,
pause before heading to the spacecraft for launch to the Mir space station.
Helen recalled how the Russians
are very good at planning for
all eventualities, for example.
Although on returning to earth the
mission was supposed to land on
solid ground her training taught her
how to survive in the sea for 3 days
(A real possibility if a forced re-entry
occurred) and there were times
when she thought, how will this
technology get us into and out of
space?, there were also many times
when Helen and Timothy thought of
giving up and quitting the program.
Although the technology is “Poor”
and mission control resembles a
into making her sick. Helen though
never once vomited and she never
did suffer from any sort of motion
sickness at any stage of her training
or during the mission proper.
Eventually selection time arrived
and after the 99 exams Helen was
chosen in preference to Timothy
as prime crewmembers for the
mission. Her role was to be that of
a mission specialist in charge of
experiments, and once the reality
of being Britain’s first citizen in
space had sunk in she went on to
meet the other two members of
her crew along with their families
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