Conference 7.286::space

    see 362.152 for more details but in bief
    
    from the Finacial Times (London) reported on the 3rd of April
    tha the British have just bought a MIR visit for 1991 a the cost
    of 15 Million pounds ($25 Million US).  The contract was to be signed
    during General Secretary Gorbachev's visit to the UK ( however the
    BBC announced it was signed on the 12th of APR ).  A company called
    Britain in Space was created to run this project and the money to
    be donated by private source.  
    
    
    

From: [email protected] (Henry Spencer)
Newsgroups: sci.space,sci.space.shuttle
Subject: Space news from May 29 AW&ST
Date: 10 Jul 89 04:47:22 GMT
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
 
    [The following are from Spaceflight, May issue.]
 
    Agreement due to be signed April 14 for 1991 launch of a British
astronaut to Mir.  This will be a purely commercial launch, funded by
a consortium of British companies, with no government funding...
although the British government clearly approves, since a Cabinet
Minister will attend the signing ceremony.  It will cost about $10M. 
A short list of 5-10 candidates will go to Glavkosmos in September,
and the Soviets will pick a prime and backup, who will both spend
about a year in training (for emergency procedures and the basics of
living on Mir) at Star City. 

    Tass reports that Soviet bureaucrats are trying to prosecute Sergei 
Krikalev for draft-dodging, given that he failed to report for army-reserve 
duty several months ago.  Krikalev has been unable to report as requested 
because he has been in orbit aboard Mir.  The Tass headline was "Space is 
no escape from dim-wit bureaucrats, cosmonaut learns." 
 
$10 million equals 18 PM       |     Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
(Pentagon-Minutes). -Tom Neff  | uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry [email protected]

From: [email protected] (Glenn Chapman)
Newsgroups: sci.space
Subject: UK/USSR cosmonaut's named for Juno mission to Mir
Date: 26 Nov 89 04:27:10 GMT
Organization: The Internet
 
    The British have announced (on Nov. 25) the finalist for the
UK/USSR Juno mission in Apr. 1991.  The first of the cosmonauts is
Miss Helen Sharman from Surrey, UK.  Age 26, she is a research chemist
with Mars Confectionery and has worked in electronics engineering.  The
other is Major Timothy Mace of the Army Air Corps. from Weyhill,
Hampshire, UK.  Age 33, he is a graduate aeronautical engineer, and an
advanced helicopter trainer pilot.  They are heading to Russia for an
18-month training course.  Currently the sponsor money is still being
raised for the mission.  (BBC news Nov. 26, Financial Times Nov. 6 for
the bios). 

     This is the first nongovernmental visitor to the Soviet Mir.
I guess that qualifies Mir as the first space hotel. 
 
                                                   Glenn Chapman
                                                   MIT Lincoln Lab

VNS MAIN NEWS:                                     [Tom Povey, VNS UK News Desk]
==============                                     [Reading, England           ]

    Here is the News at 07:00 GMT on Tuesday 26-February-1991
    ---------------------------------------------------------
    
    UK News
    -------

    The first Britain to go into space is set to be Helen Sharman.  She was
    selected after being one of two Britains who have been training in the
    USSR for many months.  The flight is set for May.  Previous to joining 
    the training for the mission, she was a researcher from the Mars company. 
    {I can't wait to see the headlines ...}

    {News courtesy of the BBC, radio, TV and teletext, plus ITV breakfast news.}

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        Please send subscription and backissue requests to CASEE::VNS

    Permission to copy material from this VNS is granted (per DIGITAL PP&P)
    provided that the message header for the issue and credit lines for the
    VNS correspondent and original source are retained in the copy.

<><><><><><><><>   VNS Edition : 2268     Tuesday 26-Feb-1991   <><><><><><><><>

Article        34289
From: [email protected] (Steve Gamble x3293)
Newsgroups: sci.space,uk.misc
Subject: Helen Sharman receives B.I.S. Medal
Date: 9 Aug 91 13:26:29 GMT
Organization: MRC Human Genome Mapping Project Resource Centre, Harrow, U.K.
 
On Wednesday 7th August a special meeting was held at the Royal
Commonwealth Society in London to present the British Interplanetary
Society's Special Achievement Medal to Helen Sharman in recognition of
her becoming the first British Astronaut. 
 
The B.I.S. is one of the oldest (if not the oldest) societies in the
world for the promotion of Astronautics.  The membership is primarily
drawn from the scientific and technical communities particularly in
the aero-space industry both within the UK and throughout the rest of
the world.  The Achievement Medal has, I believe, only been presented
three or four times in the history of the Society (it was formed in
1933).  Past presentations have been to Yuri Gagarin (first man in
space), Valentena Tereskova (first woman) and (possibly) the Apollo 11
crew (first men on the Moon). 
 
After being presented with the medal by the B.I.S. President, Anthony
Lawton, Ms Sharman gave a presentation about the selection, training,
and the tasks she carried out on the Soyuz TM-12 flight in May 1991. 
 
It is a pity that this event was not picked up by the mainstream news
media.  I hope the B.I.S. or somebody is issuing some form of press
release that might be picked up by some of the weekly or technical
press.  It is not every day the first UK astronaut gets presented with
the BIS medal, which itself is only presented on average every ten
years! 

For membership in the B.I.S. to receive their publications Spaceflight
and The Journal of the B.I.S. (J.B.I.S.), please write to:

        British Interplanetary Society
        27/29 South Lambeth Road
        London
        SW8 1SZ
        England

-- 
(Disclaimer: These are not my employer's opinions, they may not even be mine!)  
Steve Gamble, Computing Services,  
Clinical Research Centre, Watford Road, Harrow, Middlesex, HA1 3UJ, UK.
Phone: 081 869 3293  JANET: [email protected] INTERNET: [email protected]

Article: 37020
From: [email protected]
Newsgroups: sci.space
Subject: News from Flight International
Date: 3 Nov 91 19:59:20 GMT
Organization: British Telecom Labs
 
Space Titbits from Flight International
From: [email protected] (swaraj jeyasingh)
Path: phoebe!sjeyasin
 
Article entitled "Riding Old Reliable" describes the eight day trip to
Mir by Britain's first Astronaut (Cosmonaut)  in May. Some of the more
interesting facts about  Helen  Sharman's  (former  researcher at Mars
Confectionary near London) trip.... 
 
Soyuz TM12 launched from  Baikonur  Cosmodrome,  Pad  1 which is where
Sputnik 1 was also launched.
 
The Soyuz spacecraft and its  boosters  (4)  is  integrated in the MIK
building about 3km  from  Pad  1.  Two  days  before  launch the whole
assembly is rolled out horizontally on  a railway truck. After arrival
it take about 1 hour to to  mate  it  to the tower  and get it hanging
over the pad. It is   suspended  by  its  own weight against four hand
like cradles at the end of  booms.  At  lift off the rocket forces the
cradles away in a spring like action.
 
The prime and back-up crews arrive  at  Baikonur just two weeks before
launch and stay at the Cosmonauts  hotel  close to the town of Leninsk
just  outside  the  Cosmodrome.  The  prime  crew  members  are  named
officially only one day before launch. Then they faced press questions
while seated behind a glass pane. Sharman  faced a lot of silly sexist
and other questions all of which she answered in fluent Russian.
 
Once suited up. the crew  (Artsebarski, Krikalyov and Sharman) emerged
from the MIK building and  planted  their at assigned positions marked
by  a  painted  white  square,  before  the  President  of  the  State
Commission. to request permission to  start  the flight in traditional
style.
 
Although the whole launch sequence is  automatic and crew is powerless
to control it even in the  event  of  a  failure, there was still a 2h
checklist to perform  to  ensure  that  their  pressure  suits and the
spacecraft systems were in  order.  Sharman  was responsible for cabin
pressure, navigation, and TV camera systems [Not just make tea as some
unkind person reported!].   The  checklist  is  more  of  a pushbutton
affair rather than reading off instruments.
 
There is no NASA  style  countdown.  Just  "five  minutes, one minute,
engine sequence start". The crew listens  to Soviet pop music piped in
from launch control. The booster  takes  seconds  to reach full thrust
and and the actual release is so  slow  that  the crew do not feel any
acceleration. G forces start to  build  up  after 10-12 seconds and it
gets up to 3g.
 
Booster separation is at T+118s and acceleration falls to below 1g. At
T+158s g forces are back at 3g.  Core  burn  out is at T+285s and burn
out of the 2nd stage is T+530s.
 
Ground control had been preparing to to order an emergency descent due
to a abnormal rise in cabin pressure  but this stopped on the onset of
weightlessness so they decided to continue.
 
There is a basic toilet on  board.  Food  is cheese, cold meat, tinned
tuna, bread, fruit. [courtesy of Aeroflot ?!?!].
 
The rendezvous is automatic. There  are  six  burns of the engines, on
orbits 4/5, 17/18 and 32/33 lasting  from  30s to 1s. Some firings are
done manually if required.
 
About 40km  from  Mir,  it  was  noticed  that  one  of  the  two Kurs
rendezvous  system  was  not  working.   the  computer  readings  were
incorrect and and differed totally from  from visual references of the
crew. So at about 150m  from  Mir,  Artsebarski  did a manual docking.
This was quite jerky and required  a  team  effort from both the Soyuz
and Mir crews. At rendezvous the Kurs was showing separation as 124m!
 
Sharman's custom made couch was  transferred  to  TM11 for the return,
six days later. After separation the  Soyuz  TM11 did a circuit of Mir
to check for any damage to  the  aft  docking  port. After 3h the main
retro fire was initiated.
 
The reentry was very gentle but  soon  got noisy. The windows were all
blackened by the heat.  At about 200m/s the drogue chute deployed. The
capsule swayed and spun round several  times before settling down. The
final speed slowed down to 2m/s by solid propellent rockets. The craft
ended up on its side and Sharman ended  up at the top of the craft, on
her side and hanging in her straps.
 
The ground crew rightened the  capsule  and  the three exited, sliding
down a chute placed on the  outside  of  the capsule. She then flew by
helicopter to Dzhezkazgan  before  returning  to  Star  City where she
began her training in 1989
 
Now she is looking for  new  job  in  January.  Such  is the fate of a
British Astronaut.
  
Well this is all I have time  for  now. There was a report recently in
Flight about the delays encountered  in readying Endeavour. Seems that
there was a lot of rubbish to cleared  out of her and amongst this was
found a biscuit!. I had not  seen this "titbit" reported elsewhere. At
least it wasn't a 9ft beam this time!
  
Swaraj Jeyasingh        [email protected]
BT Labs
Ipswich
UK

From:	US1RMC::"[email protected]" "Charles Radley" 10-AUG-1993 
To:	[email protected]
CC:	
Subj:	British Astronaut Tour

Available for talks and lectures.

Helen Sharman - Britain's first astronaut.

In 1991 Dr. Helen Sharman became Britain's first person in space,
spending eight days on board Russia's MIR space station, conducting a
range of experiments and other work. 

Selected from over 13,000 applicants, after listening and responding
to a radio advertisement, Helen spent 18 months in training for the
Juno mission.   A Chemical Engineer by profession, Helen Sharman is
considered a role model by anybody who strives for achievement, values, 
training, relies on teamwork, and believes that the sky is the limit! 

Video and slide support material and space artifacts available.

N. American contact:

Charles Radley
P. O. Box 30236
Middleburg Heights
Ohio  44130
U.S.A.

Telephone:  (216) 891-9735

... Internet address:- [email protected]  Ad Astra per Guile !
--- Blue Wave/QWK v2.10

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% Subject: British Astronaut Tour
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% Date: Mon,  9 Aug 93 23:01:00 -0500
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