First British Astronaut

SwingsitlikeHogan

SwingsitlikeHogan

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Actually feeling some of the excitement I felt back in July 1969 in the lead up to the launch of the Saturn V rocket taking Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins to the moon. I still have the pull out from the Scottish Daily Record from then that gave a full page map of the (near side) of the moon and cut out USA and USSR flags to mark the positions of all the moon landings that were to come.

I watched the Horizon programme on Tim Peake - our astronaut - and was impressed by the both the guy and the International Space Agency Space Station - the size of a football pitch. Some of the shots of it and earth were straight out of a science fiction movie - except it's real!

But we and our children don't get exposed to how fabulous this sort of science and engineering is. Hopefully Tim Peake - Astronaut will inspire more children to go into science, mathematics and engineering - for sheer excitement I can't imagine any profession we can realistically choose comes close.
 
He isn't really the first British Astronaunt though
 
Someone best tell Helen Sharman that this chap is the 1st British astronaut then. She'll be livid......
 
I think there have been some guys as well, but i think they are calling them the first as its the first that is the paid for by the UK gov.
 
Anyway, snarky comments aside, it was pretty inspiring seeing it and I agree that it would be great if he can inspire kids to get interested in engineering and science instead of doing a btech in nail technology or media studies. Which is mostly what colleges seem to offer nowadays.
 
SwingsitlikeHogan said:
Yes - Helen Sharman - maybe it's because she went up in the Shuttle - which seems more prosaic than a rocket. Anyway - WOW! that was fab :)
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Nope, she went up in Soyuz TM12, a proper rocket with thrusters and everything to the MIR space station. Although to be fair one part of it was painted pink in her honour.

Keep digging...;)
 
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freddielong said:
I heard it's due to nasa regulations and the way its funded all previous British astronauts had to take on either US or Canadian citizenship prior to launch.
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Nope, Helen Sharman, a boy without a winkle, went into space and did not take US or Canadian citizenship and stayed British all the way.

On the space station she even wore a football shirt as a leisure item, drank several pints of flavourless lager every Saturday night and then got into a fight to prove how British she was. All done with a stiff upper lip.
 
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Glad it all seemed to go smoothly, I was actually nervous watching it. Couldn't have taken the reaction of all those kids at the BBC if anything had gone wrong.....

Was chuckling at the footage from the capsule - it looked like he was doing his knitting during the launch..... Although I'm sure it was some high tech space-gizmo. :p
 
Reminded me of when I were a lad watching the Apollo Missions with Patrick Moore & James Burke on the Beeb.

Anyway, that aside - Well done everybody!!

Mr Grace.jpg
 
Ok - I'll ask a few questions

What will the mission achieve to say that the billions spent will be worth it ?

What are we getting from keeping ISS going ? Do we gain benefit ?

Couple of questions that were asked on Radio 5 this morning
 
Liverpoolphil said:
Ok - I'll ask a few questions

What will the mission achieve to say that the billions spent will be worth it ?

What are we getting from keeping ISS going ? Do we gain benefit ?

Couple of questions that were asked on Radio 5 this morning
Click to expand...

*Sticks fingers in ears*

Yeah but come on! It's boys stuff! Spacemen, Rockets, Star Trek and all that.

What's not to like ;)
 
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