Helen Sharman: First British Person In Space

[nanila]

I was going to make a personal post this morning, but I'm so irritated by this that I'm not.

The Guardian apparently decided that one way to honour International Women's Day this weekend would be to publish a headline erasing a woman from history. I'm not going to do the article any favours by linking it here, but the headline was "First Brit in space Tim Peake: 'We phone people because it's just so cool'".

Helen Sharman became the first British person in space in 1991, when she was 27. Yes, she flew as a private individual on a commercial flight rather than as a UK government representative of a space agency. That doesn't make her not British. So I'm afraid that however much certain people seem to want Timothy Peake to be the first British person in space, he isn't. END OF.

The first British person in space was a woman. Her name is Helen Sharman. (I make a point of working this fact into every outreach talk I ever give.) Remember that. Tell everyone. Because this kind of bullshit needs stamping on by many, many feet.

ETA: I note with interest that this morning, the headline has been changed to "First British man in space". I believe this is also wrong. The first British man who went into space was naturalised as an American beforehand. However, I do not think that anyone would enjoy quibbling with me about whether or not dual nationals still count as citizens of their birth countries. >:E

Comments

[cxcvi]

I'm pretty sure that the main (and perhaps even only) reason I know who Helen Sharman is is because she opened the technology building at the secondary school I went to for a few years. I didn't get to meet her at the time, but some of my year-group peers did.

And while I'd ultimately prefer to not remember my experiences at that school, I do still remember some of the positive things I learned. That this country does send people to space occasionally being one of them. The distinction that she wasn't sent by our government is still probably lost on me, though...

[nanila]

I'm glad that this at least took you back to revisit a pleasant corner of your memories.

[rmc28]

This is really weird to me, because I remember Helen Sharman going. My aunt entered the same competition for the place in space. When I was a teenager, I was lucky enough to join a "Space Camp" expedition run by Brunel University to Star City. We saw Helen Sharman's spacesuit there!

(Hmm: a project for my copious free time would be finding and digitizing my photo album from that trip. It's over 20 years ago now ...)

[nanila]

Her space suit apparently lives at the National Space Centre in Leicester. I've been there twice and managed to miss it both times. Guess I'll have to take Humuhumu there.

I would love to see those photos.

[alwayswondered]

Aaaaaaaaargh. It's 'first Brit to win Wimbledon since Fred Perry' all over again. It wasn't Andy Murray, it was Virginia fucking Wade.

[nanila]

*headdesk* YES. That was also very irritating.

[major_clanger]

Peake isn't even the first British person to be selected as an 'official' British astronaut; by any reckoning, the Skynet 4 payload specialist group ticked that box, back in 1984:

BBC: When Britain had a small astronaut corps.

And the first UK-born person to be selected as an astronaut? Anthony Llewellyn. In 1967.

But yes, absolutely undeniably the first UK national (and first UK-born person) to actually fly in space was Helen Sharman. She's also:

- Only first space traveller of any nation to be female;
- Fifth-youngest space traveller (27 at time of flight), and second-youngest female (after Tereshkova)

I am also frankly a bit dubious at claims that Sharman wasn't an 'official' British astronaut. Although the project wasn't sponsored by the UK Government, I recall hearing that a lot went on behind the scenes to ensure that the mission went ahead when the private commercial sponsorship fell short. HMG may not have chosen to send Sharman to Mir, but I'm under the impression it did a fair bit to make sure she got there.

[nanila]

HMG may not have chosen to send Sharman to Mir, but I'm under the impression it did a fair bit to make sure she got there.

Iiiinteresting. There may be people in my lab who can shed more light on this. I shall ask.

[gominokouhai]

AIUI when you naturalize as American you're required to renounce all former citizenship and pledge allegiance to the flag etc., so they're probably right about him (Foale?)---he wasn't British any more at that point. It's different if you gain citizenship in the other direction.

[major_clanger]

Foale has dual US/UK citizenship by birth, so I don't think that would apply. (In fact, my understanding is that the USA has no such requirement, although many other countries do.)

[gominokouhai]

In which case I defer to your greater knowledge.

[major_clanger]

I suspect our gracious host is the expert on this point!

[nanila]

I wouldn't call myself an expert. I know the Supreme Court has ruled that it is possible for Americans to hold dual nationality. But the Oath of Allegiance taken by new US citizens still contains words about renouncing "allegiance and fidelity" to other states. Note the cautiousness of the wording - it is not renouncing "citizenship", because that would probably be unenforceable.

(Here via browsing a friend's network)

[tree_and_leaf]

In any case, the British government only recognises such a loss of citizenship if you renounce it to an officer of the crown. So even if the second country of citizenship didn't recognise you as a British citizen, you would still be one from a British perspective. It wouldn't help you if you were drafted or got into trouble in the county you were naturalised in, because the rules don't let you play your nationalities off against each other, but you would still have a right to a British passport, consular assistance in other countries, etc.

(My husband has dual UK/ US nationality, UK by birth and US by naturalisation through his mother. He has to file US tax returns and use US id to enter the US, but otherwise it doesn't have much of an impact on his life as a British citizen).

Re: (Here via browsing a friend's network)

[nanila]

My daughter holds her dual UK/US nationality through exactly the same means as your husband. What an odd coincidence!

[ankaret]

I was taught Russian by an amazing woman who was part of Project Juno! This led to me spending a memorable evening in Moscow in 1990 getting drunk with cosmonauts.

[nanila]

This is a wonderful story. I didn't think I was going to end up being grateful for having been annoyed enough to make this post, but you've done exactly that. :D