Out of this world: Britain's first astronaut visits Southampton

Did you know it takes just 530 seconds – less than nine minutes – to reach space in a rocket?

Helen Sharman, Britain’s first astronaut, shared fascinating insights into her experiences as a space explorer in a captivating speech at the University of Southampton.

From developing ice creams to venturing into outer space, Helen’s career path took a surprising turn when she heard the call for astronauts – ‘no experience necessary’ – on the radio. She told the University audience about her experiences of astronaut training, and what it’s really like to be in space.

“I never expected to be an astronaut,” she said. “I was a shy teenager, I kept my head down, and I didn’t know what I wanted to do as a career.”

Helen studied chemistry to “keep my options open” and embarked on a career in manufacturing, landing a job at Mars Confectionary, where she was part of the team that invented the Mars Ice Cream bar.

Hearing a radio advert inviting applications to be an astronaut, Helen responded, thinking that the selection process might be fun. This included medical and psychological tests, and being whizzed around in a centrifuge to test g-force tolerance. Helen passed these tests and went to Star City, north of Moscow, for 18 months of astronaut training, first learning to speak fluent Russian, as the entire mission was conducted in Russian. She learned about the technology of the rocket, ballistics and astro-navigation, and spent three days at sea in a simulator to practice escaping should the return trip end in the ocean. She trained in a spinning chair to build motion sickness tolerance, and experienced parabolic flights to replicate zero-gravity conditions.

On 18 May 1991, Helen and her fellow cosmonauts, Anatoly Artebartsky and Sergei Krikalyov, boarded the Soyuz capsule which would take them to the Mir space station. In just 530 seconds, they were 400km above the Earth, in space.

Helen and her team spent six days on Mir, conducting medical and agricultural experiments.

Tackling the debris

Reflecting on advances made since her expedition, and today’s challenges, Helen said: “One of the biggest problems is the huge amount of space debris. It’s a problem to humans in space, and it’s a problem to all the space equipment that monitors what’s happening on Earth.”

Experts such as Professor Hugh Lewis, of the University’s Astronautics Research Group, are leading the way on tackling space debris. Professor Lewis said: “Space provides us with data services that we could not do without now, but the legacy of 60 years of space flight has left a lot of debris – it’s a harsh reminder of how humans have treated their environment.

“There are millions of man-made objects in space and only a small fraction of those are operational space craft. If we consider the Earth’s environment to be at risk and we are doing something about it, we should be doing the same for the space environment.”

Helen Sharman shared her story at the Space at Southampton event in February 2022.

Helen Sharman with Professor Mark Spearing, Vice President (Research and Enterprise), and Lorna Colquhoun, Director of Research and Innovation Services