Helen Sharman, the first British astronaut (2016)
The Life Scientific
BBC
4.6 • 1.4K Ratings
🗓️ 15 March 2016
⏱️ 28 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Before Helen Sharman replied to a rather unusual radio advertisement her life was, in many ways, quite ordinary. She was working as a chemist in a sweet factory, creating and testing flavours. Much to her surprise, her application to be an astronaut was successful and two years later, following an intense 18 month training course at a military base just outside Moscow, she was selected for Project Juno, the 1991 mission to the Soviet space station, MIR. And so became the first British astronaut. On the 25th anniversary of this historic mission, Helen talks to Jim about her life before MIR; some of the less glamorous aspects of being in space; and the difficult process of coming down to earth. Producer: Anna Buckley.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to the podcast of the Life Scientific. |
| 0:03.6 | First broadcast on BBC Radio 4. |
| 0:06.3 | I'm Jim Alleili and my mission is to interview |
| 0:09.2 | the most fascinating and important scientists alive today and to find out what makes them tick. |
| 0:15.0 | Before Helen Sharman replied to a rather unusual radio advertisement, |
| 0:20.0 | her life was in many ways quite ordinary. She was 26 years old and working as a chemist on chocolate and ice cream for Mars confectionery. |
| 0:29.0 | But her application to be an astronaut was successful and after an intense 18-month |
| 0:35.3 | training course at a Soviet military base she strapped herself into a Soyuz |
| 0:39.7 | TM12 capsule and blasted into orbit. |
| 0:43.0 | Miss Helen Sharman has become the first Britain in space, |
| 0:47.0 | a Soyuz spacecraft with the 27 year old from Sheffield and two... |
| 0:51.0 | Helen spent eight days in orbit visiting the Soviet space station Meir in 1991. |
| 0:56.9 | On her return she was heavily involved in outreach work, inspiring millions of people, school |
| 1:01.5 | children in particular with her talks. In 1998 she was |
| 1:05.2 | shortlisted but not selected for the European Space Agency astronaut corps. |
| 1:09.4 | Today she's the operations manager in the chemistry department at Imperial College London. |
| 1:14.4 | Helen Sharman, welcome to the Life Scientific. |
| 1:16.6 | Thank you. |
| 1:17.6 | I think you'll agree Helen, there's a tendency to glamorize life in space. |
| 1:21.9 | So if you don't mind, can I ask you what's the worst thing |
| 1:24.7 | about being an astronaut? Oh the worst thing what can it be? I mean there are so many |
| 1:28.3 | lovely things it's hard as I say what's the worst thing it probably is the five |
... |
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