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The first British person in space
- huzaifasinan 4mo agoThat's a fantastic story. The "no experience necessary" ad is wild to think about now. It really shows how different the space industry was back then—and how a random moment can change everything. Sharman seems genuinely humble about it too. Thanks for sharing.
- rob74 4mo agoI wasn't aware of it until now, and I was surprised to find out that it took until 1991 for a Briton to fly to space - and with the Russians/Soviets no less, not with the Americans. But, if you look at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_space_travel_by_nationality https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_space_travel_by_na..., it looks like the Soviets recognized the propaganda value of giving a ride into space to citizens of "allied" nations (putting it in quotes because the Eastern European nations weren't really given the choice if they wanted to be USSR allies or not) much earlier than the Americans. When the US took West German Ulf Mehrbold into space with them in 1983, the Soviets had already done the same for ten (!) foreign nationals, including East German Sigmund Jähn in 1978 and Frenchman Jean-Loup Chrétien in 1982. OK, to be fair, the US simply didn't have any crewed space launches between 1975 and 1981, that probably goes a long way to explaining this disparity. But still, once they started taking foreign citizens with them, I would have thought that Britain would be among the first on that list. Between 1984 and 1985 there were a Canadian, a Saudi, someone from the Netherlands and a Mexican, and then there was a long pause until 1992, presumably because of the Challenger disaster.
- goodcanadian 4mo agoCanada effectively bought its participation in the US space program with Canadarm.
- neom 4mo agoNot feeling particularly charitable to your country folk this morning eh Good Canadian? The US didn't include Canada in the shuttle program as a favor or because Canada wrote a check, they included Canada because the technology was excellent and necessary. Canada had world class engineering skills at that time, and was invited by NSAS to participate. I don't think we bought our way on, I think our country happened to have an ounce of ambitions during that period and we preformed incredibly well. https://parks.canada.ca/culture/designation/evenement-event/bras-canadien-canadarm https://parks.canada.ca/culture/designation/evenement-event/...
- goodcanadian 4mo agoI did not mean for it to be taken as uncharitable. I am extremely proud of Canada's contribution. My point was more that even when foreign nationals were included, the U.S. did not hand out seats for propaganda reasons. There was a quid pro quo.
- another-dave 4mo agoExactly like the article describes Britain doing with the Soviets - " At the time the British government wasn't involved in space exploration, so paying for a spot on a flight was the only way to get there."
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- nephihaha 4mo agoThe Soviets picked up on this early on. They got the first woman into space long before the USA did. First black man and east Asian too. They took quite a few people from eastern bloc countries including Cuba and East Germany (which is mentioned in the film "Goodbye Lenin".)
- avmich 4mo agoFirst remotely-Turkish descent person in space was Andriyan Nikolaev, the third Soviet cosmonaut (and the husband of Valentina Tereshkova).
- nickdothutton 4mo agoBrits more or less completely abandoned space in any meaningful way. Successive governments didn't value it at all in comparison to other areas of policy. Even after we developed our own independent orbital launch capability. The story is much the same today, a couple of satellite companies, very little real primary capability. Our "spaceports" are mostly artist impressions or computer generated imagery. Meanwhile we will spend £250b annually on the health service by 2028, up from £45b in 2000.
- celticninja 4mo agoWhat is the point re the health service? We should be enriching people like musk instead of looking after the health of citizens? We spend money on loads of stuff just wondering why you think the NHS needs to be singled out as if it is using resources that could be used to find space exploration/launches.
- cs02rm0 4mo agoThe NHS consumes about half of all day to day public service spending. It is singular in its ability to suck spending out of UK government.
- dtf 4mo agoThat seems like a lot. Can I ask where you got that figure? Is "day-to-day" denoting some kind of specific budget? I just tried to Google it and their AI responded with "The NHS and social care account for roughly half (49%) of all day-to-day public service spending controlled by the Westminster government.", linking me to a report from the The King's Fund [1]. But on reading that report, it seems to say only that 49.5% is the cost of staffing the NHS from its own budget, which it states as £205 billion in 2024/25 - that's more like 20% of the year's public spending [2]. Which seems more in line with what I had assumed. [1] https://www.kingsfund.org.uk/insight-and-analysis/data-and-charts/key-facts-figures-nhs https://www.kingsfund.org.uk/insight-and-analysis/data-and-c... [2] https://obr.uk/docs/dlm_uploads/BriefGuide-M23.pdf https://obr.uk/docs/dlm_uploads/BriefGuide-M23.pdf
- TMWNN 4mo ago>But still, once they started taking foreign citizens with them, I would have thought that Britain would be among the first on that list. Between 1984 and 1985 there were a Canadian, a Saudi, someone from the Netherlands and a Mexican, and then there was a long pause until 1992, presumably because of the Challenger disaster. Without the loss of Challenger, a Briton would have flown in space on the shuttle in the 1980s. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zircon_(satellite) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zircon_(satellite)>
- nephihaha 4mo agoI'm sure they had a West German as well, in response to East Germans being taken up by the USSR. I may be wrong.
- throawayonthe 4mo ago> the Eastern European nations weren't really given the choice if they wanted to be USSR allies that's generally how alliances work, out of necessity...
- drumhead 4mo agoIt was really sad how she doesn't get the recognition she deserves for being the first Briton in space. Whether it's because she's a woman or because it was with the Russians she hasn't received the level of respect or adulation you expect for the achievement.
- ascorbic 4mo agoI was a child at the time and I absolutely remember her getting adulation and celebrity. The may have faded from a lot of memories since, but at the time she was definitely recognised
- drumhead 4mo agoI was an adult and other than being on the obvious shows like Blue Peter and newsround, there was nothing. You'd expect a knighthood or a peerage, all she's got is an OBE. England football team in 1990 got a parade through London for getting to the semi finals, and our first astronaut got...nothing.
- ascorbic 4mo agoHah. Well, for a kid then, Blue Peter and Newsround was celebrity!
- SuddsMcDuff 4mo agoSame, I didn't recognise her name immediately, but that iconic image of her was seared into my childhood memory.
- t43562 4mo agoThe public don't care that much about space I think - in the UK. It's not something people can pump themselves up with borrowed pride about. Our media is full of arts students and engineers are the people who come to fix your boiler. When technology is talked about, its only really impressive if it comes from somewhere else and sits in their hand. I'm from one of the other (forgotten) colonies so my perspective is partially from the inside and partially outside. and I think people in the UK care so much about preserving the abundant (and often rather ugly) past that they don't leave any room for the future. Satellites and spaceships and science and technology are horrible things that intrude and change life and change has often not been pleasant. Conversely those that do want change have sometimes taken such a high and mighty approach that the things they did were entirely for themselves and proving some point rather than about creating a place that is wonderful to live in - hence the worship of the past. Anyhow I do know about Helen Sharman and so do all the space enthusiasts generally but people here don't even know we have a satellite manufacturing industry that's quite successful and very sophisticated.
- alansaber 4mo agoI remember Tim Peake being touted as the first British astronaut, and being a little confused (having previously met Helen Sharman at Imperial College London) had to dig this story up myself.
- iso1631 4mo agoI remember Tim Peake being a big thing, but I don't remember anyone saying he was first
- jrmg 4mo agoPeople will argue that Sharman was a cosmonaut because she went into space with the Soviet Union. The distinction is Cold War propaganda that has never made any sense to me. We have two English words to describe the same thing, but one is only used if the act was done or facilitated by Russia?
- philipwhiuk 4mo agoWe also have taikonaut but it's not taken as seriously ;)
- IAmBroom 4mo agoPeople will argue. ESPECIALLY on HN. I've yet to see a discussion that doesn't have a major subthread on an apparently unrelated subject. This is the Internet's vacation spot for "Well, ackshually" interjections. Per the unwritten guidelines, each thread must also contain at least one reference to Musk, AI, or Tim Cook.
- nephihaha 4mo agoTechnically that is correct, because Helen Sharman was a cosmonaut rather than an astronaut or taikonaut. But NASA does that all the time. They recently claimed to perform the first flight and sound transmissions from another planet. The Soviet Venera missions had already done this during the 1980s from Venus. NASA performed the first powered flight on Mars.
- WWWWH 4mo agoThe story I remember is that at the time she worked for Mars (developing the Mars ice cream), so one of the tabloids had the headline: "Woman from Mars goes to space!"
- simonh 4mo agoPeak British journalism.
- KineticLensman 4mo agoNo, that was "Foot heads arms body", when Michael Foot became the chair of CND.
- rob74 4mo agoTBF, that pun was to good to pass up. Although (after looking up the CND) "Foot heads no-arms body" would have been more correct (and maybe even funnier, depending on your sense of humour)... EDIT: looks like this is one of the most well-known headlines that was never actually used: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Foot#%22Foot_Heads_Arms_Body%22 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Foot#%22Foot_Heads_Arm...
- amiga386 4mo agoIf you'd like a real one, try the occasion in 2000 of Caledonian Thistle beating Celtic 3-1, sparking the headline SUPER CALEY GO BALLISTIC, CELTIC ARE ATROCIOUS
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- SuddsMcDuff 4mo agoFunny this should show up today. Tomorrow evening (23rd of May), Helen Sharman is appearing at a live QA session at the National Space Centre - https://www.spacecentre.co.uk/whats-on/an-evening-with-helen-sharman/ https://www.spacecentre.co.uk/whats-on/an-evening-with-helen... It is sold out...
- ThinkingGuy 4mo agoCouldn't help but be reminded of Eddie Izzard's old "Career Advisor" bit: "I want to be a space astronaut, go to outer space and discover things that have never been discovered!" "Look, you're British, so scale it down a bit, all right?" https://youtu.be/xGGeLHnDQk8?si=XNEC8Pg8xER6EBOX&t=12 https://youtu.be/xGGeLHnDQk8?si=XNEC8Pg8xER6EBOX&t=12
- lo_fye 4mo agoEven in space, it's One Group vs The Others. To quote Trump, "Sad."