Abstract
“The International Space Station is supposed to be like a three or four-star hotel compared to the old Mir space station. They say it’s a bit like going on a hardship camping trip where you’re really having to live a bit rough. We had blackouts occasionally when we didn’t have enough electrical energy in the batteries. We had an oxygen valve that got stuck open during the launch. There’s always something happening that you’re there to fix. Nowadays, communications are so much better, and I think that’s something all astronauts really enjoy. If you can't communicate with family and friends, you do tend to miss those human relationships much more.”
Helen Sharman, 52, Britain’s first astronaut, speaking at
Imperial College London.
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Notes
- 1.
For those who like trivia, Mace went on to work as South African President Nelson Mandela’s helicopter pilot.
- 2.
And by the intervention of Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev, if the rumors are to be believed.
- 3.
In 1992, Germany, struggling with the horrendous cost of reunification, was still able to find more than $20 million to fly one of its citizens as a cosmonaut.
- 4.
STS-56 marked the first time that radio contact between Mir and the Shuttle was achieved using amateur radio equipment.
- 5.
The previous five missions were STS-71, STS-74, STS-76, STS-79 and STS-81.
- 6.
When Dennis Tito turned up at JSC for training, NASA Manager Bob Cabana told him to go home, saying “We will not be able to begin training, because we are not willing to train with Dennis Tito.”
- 7.
Before STS-113, NASA managers had examined this incident and decided to proceed with launches as scheduled. It proved to be a fateful decision because the following mission – STS-107 – ended in disaster with the disintegration of Columbia on re-entry due to foam strike damage.
- 8.
Because the flight was planned as the last, the STS-132 mission patch featured Atlantis flying into the sunset and into retirement. On her return from STS-132, Atlantis was readied as a rescue Shuttle for the last missions of Discovery (STS-133) and Endeavour (STS-134).
- 9.
The ISS Trusses form the backbone of the station. Some, like the P5 Truss (which measures 3.3 by 4.5 by 3.2 meters and weighs 1,800 kilograms), serve as a mounting location for logistics carriers and hardware, in addition to connecting power and cooling lines between other trusses (there are six port-side trusses and six starboard trusses). The predominantly aluminum structure also provides robotic interfaces and extravehicular translation aids.
- 10.
The ISS crews used 400-mm and 800-mm digital camera lenses during these inspections. The 400-mm lens provided 7.6 cm resolution, while the 800-mm lens provided 2.5 cm resolution. The images taken included those of the elevon cover areas, landing gear door seals and the Orbiter’s underside.
- 11.
At the time of this medical, Garriott also had several other medical conditions that would have disqualified him from serving as a career astronaut. These conditions included previous bilateral photorefractive keratectomy for myopia and a cross-fused ectopic kidney.
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Seedhouse, E. (2017). Britain’s Astronauts. In: TIM PEAKE and BRITAIN'S ROAD TO SPACE. Springer Praxis Books(). Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-57907-8_4
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