British Astronauts - an FAQ

[major_clanger]

Tim Peake isn't the first British astronaut, is he?

No. By any practical definition that would be Helen Sharman, who flew on the Juno mission to Mir in 1991.

So why is he being described as the first 'official' British astronaut?

Because his flight is formally supported and (via the UK's contribution to the ESA human spaceflight programme - which the UK only recently started funding) paid for by HM Government. This is the first time that has happened.

So Peake is the first astronaut sponsored by the UK?

No, that would be the Skynet 4 Payload Specialist group selected in 1984, all of whom were UK government employees (three military, one civil service) for two missions paid for by the UK. They never flew, because after the Challenger disaster the Skynet 4 satellites were rebooked onto expendable launchers, but they were definitely official British astronauts.

OK, so he's the first official British astronaut to be allocated to a space mission?

No, that would be Squadron Leader Nigel Wood (assigned to shuttle mission STS-61H) as part of the Skynet 4 programme. As noted above, the mission was cancelled post-Challenger, but Wood got to within 6 months of flight.

But even if they never flew the Skynet 4 group were the first British astronauts?

If you mean 'born in the UK' then no, that honour goes to Anthony Llewellyn, born in Cardiff in 1933. He became a naturalised US citizen, was selected as part of NASA's second scientist-astronaut group in 1967, but resigned before being assigned a mission.

Sharman wasn't an 'official' astronaut then?

Yes and no. The Juno mission was privately-funded, or was meant to be, but the basis of the mission had been agreed at a fairly high level (seemingly between Thatcher and Gorbachev). What seems to have happened is that the UK Government was initially happy to support Juno in every respect except paying for it, but when it became clear that there was a lot less appetite for private sponsorship than had been assumed the Government rather distanced itself from the project and the Soviet Union ended up paying the bill. Since then Sharman's flight has been rather conflated with later 'tourist' missions (such as that by British-born Richard Garriot) but in truth it had a fair bit of official support.

Comments

[legionseagle]

Further FAQ:

Had Sharman been male, would the issue of her "firstness" even have arisen?

[major_clanger]

In terms of wider media comments I rather wonder if it would.

As for official UK space policy though, there was always going to be a narrative that whoever flew on Juno would not be an 'official' British astronaut, because to admit that such a thing existed would go against decades of HMG policy of not supporting crewed spaceflight. As I've noted, that policy thawed a bit during the early stages of Juno, but froze up again once it became clear that HMG might be asked to provide actual money.

[legionseagle]

A friend of a friend got to the last 32, if not the last sixteen, and certainly there wasn't much popular dispute at the time that what they were competing for was "First British astronaut".

[major_clanger]

Oh yes, which is why I am sceptical at the line now being presented that Juno was never more than a tourist flight. It certainly did have high-level support to begin with, during the very public selection process, and the media very much took that as official endorsement if not backing. The wheels only started to come off a few months before the flight, when the actual bill for the launch clearly wasn't going to be paid by sponsorship, at which point HMG started to back-pedal very fast from any suggestion that this was in any way an official British enterprise.

Another notable point about Sharman: at 27 during her flight, she was not only the fifth-youngest space traveller ever, but remains the youngest person to have flown into space since 1964.

[major_clanger]

To expand on that, the Skynet 4 astronauts would have been publicised as 'British astronauts' but there was absolutely no intention that this would lead to a permanent British crewed space programme. They were to be delivery crew for two satellites, and would have returned to their normal duties afterwards.

[watervole]

Thanks for an interesting post.

[sunflowerinrain]

Excellent! Thank you.

[vicarage.livejournal.com]

Don't forget dual nationals Michael Foale, Mark Shuttleworth, Piers Sellers, Nicholas Patrick and Richard Garriott, 3 NASA, 2 tourists

[major-clanger.livejournal.com]

Oh, certainly not, although none of them have any claim to be 'first British astronaut'.

I suppose Foale would qualify as 'first British-born person or person holding British citizenship to be employed as a member of an astronaut corps' when he was part of the NASA 1987 selection.

[pauldormer.livejournal.com]

What about Dan Dare?

[major-clanger.livejournal.com]

What about Bedford and Cavor?

Come to think of it, is The First Men in the Moon the first fictional depiction of British space travellers? From the Earth to the Moon and Around the Moon featured two Americans and a Frenchman

[vicarage.livejournal.com]

You can hear old and contemporary interviews with the Skynet-4 people at http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06rf5t8