Women in space
Helen Sharman
Hi! My name is Helen Sharman. I am Britain's first astronaut and I love to present all aspects of science. My job in space was to do experiments, and now I bring science to life for other people by appearing on television and radio, giving lectures and being part of 'science days'.
I was born in Sheffield on 30 May 1963. 1 grew up with my mother and father, sister and brother, a dog, a cat, a budgerigar, hamsters and goldfish, though not all at the same time! I loved cycling and playing the piano, and at school I enjoyed sport, French and German. I liked doing science as well and I decided to study sciences in the sixth form because they would be harder to learn out of school than languages. I did chemistry at university to give me a wide choice of careers afterwards.
My first job was with GEC in London, making the kind of things you see as monitors in ships, in aircraft and on hospital life support machines. This job was great - I was using all sorts of science, not just chemistry, and I loved working in a factory, solving problems so that we could make what we needed to each day and working with lots of different people.
After three years I joined Mars Confectionery. The company wanted to make a new and delicious ice cream and I was to be part of the team that scaled up production from a few bars in the laboratory to tonnes of ice cream every day in a factory. Later, I worked in the chocolate department at Mars, investigating the properties of chocolate and using different ingredients and machinery to make chocolate more quickly, more cheaply and with the same flavour.
Driving home from work one night, I heard on the car radio that a commercial organisation had been set up to send the first Briton into space. Two people were needed to train with the cosmonauts in Star City, in Russia. After 18 months, one person would be launched into space to do experiments aboard the Soviet Space Station. I applied for the job. There was a selection process of medicals, psychological tests and interviews and, in November 1989, 1 left for Moscow as a trainee astronaut.
First I had to learn Russian! There was classroom work understanding astronavigation (in an emergency I might have to steer the spacecraft using the stars as a map), the theory of rockets and space flight. There was emergency training, e.g. how to return to Earth quickly if a meteor struck a hole in the spacecraft or how to cope if we ended up in the sea instead of on dry land. Weightless training was the most fun part, when the aircraft we were inside flew loops in the sky shaped like upside-down parabolas or hump-back bridges - while the aircraft was 'falling down', we felt weightless. There was simulator work, physical training and the experiments to be learned.
On 18 May 1991 I launched with my crew mates, Anatole Artsebarsky and Sergei Krikalev. We orbited the Earth for two days before docking onto the Mir Space Station. There I did a whole range of experiments, including looking at how 'weightlessness' affects people, plants and the growth of crystals. I spent eight days in space altogether and I came back to Earth with two people who had been on the Space Station for six months. It took me a few minutes to get used to feeling heavy again but it took them a few days!
Now I still enjoy science and I would like other people to enjoy it as much as I do. I still play the piano and I listen to music. I also like playing squash and I often run in the local park. I'm more interested in art galleries than I used to be and having my own home means I can cook dinner for my friends.
Science has enabled me to have some terrific jobs. I have enjoyed my life so far, although it is nothing like I imagined it would be and I am sure that the future will be different again. Science opens up new opportunities every day!