Much appreciated... I see I have some way to go and much to do and so little time to go and do it in!
Some of you asked if I was doing a model of Tim Peake's Soyuz given the recent publicity of his trip to the ISS. The answer is no, I'm attempting to do that of the 'Juno' mission of Dr Helen Sharman. Here in the UK we're very proud to have Tim Peake as our first official astronaut, something long overdue! Several other Brits have flown into space on the Shuttle but they have enjoyed both British and American citizenship but we mustn't forget our very own Dr Helen Sharman, the first British Cosmonaut who was part of the TM-12 'Juno' mission over two decades ago. (Helen explained why the mission was named Juno, “It was a marketing associate of mine who came up with the name. In ancient Rome, 'Juno' was the goddess who watched over women and marriage. My Flight was seen as a marriage of East and West like the Apollo Soyuz Mission so the name stuck)
When the media had initially realised that Helen was going into space, enthusiasm grew, after all it was something new and exiting, yet when she and her back-up Tim Mace met the then prime minister Margaret Thatcher her response was typical “We the British don’t do that sort of thing” so no government funding was forthcoming. The entire mission had to rely on corporate sponsorship and that remained the attitude of successive governments until now. Despite this, Helen's mission was a great success and as the lead mission specialist, she made a valued contribution to understanding more about the long term effects of spaceflight during her stay at the ISS. So while we celebrate Tim's great achievement, let us not forget Dr Helen Sharman who defied the odds and became the first Brit in space.
PS Remember, you can take a break from the modelling bench and watch Tim do his spacewalk tomorrow... live!
