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Thirty-five years after becoming Britain's first astronaut, Helen Sharman has reflected on her historic mission to the Russian Mir space station and the future of human spaceflight. Speaking ahead of Latitude Festival, Sharman described weightlessness as “the most natural and relaxing feeling you can possibly imagine”, comparing it to floating on your back in a swimming pool.The scientist also discussed the growth of commercial space travel, the importance of international cooperation and the ethical challenges of future missions to the Moon and Mars. Sharman said public debate will play a key role in shaping humanity’s next steps beyond Earth.Sharman speaks at Latitude Festival 2026, taking place 23-26 July at Henham Park, Suffolk. Tickets available at latitudefestival.com
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00:00Welcome to the latest of our videos with Latitude. Today we have Helen Sharman,
00:04Britain's first astronaut. So Helen, it's the 35th anniversary of your trip to space this week.
00:13I'm just keen if we could like kind of start off by rewinding to how you ended up
00:19on the space station and how the journey into space before you'd actually got there,
00:25how that all went. I can hardly believe myself that it is 35 years. Honestly, I mean, it's just,
00:32it feels like it was yesterday in so many respects. And of course, it's such an intense period. And
00:37it's not just that time in space. It is all of the run up that's so focused and so exciting
00:44in many
00:45respects, because, you know, for me, it was so different. I'd been a scientist in industry,
00:52really loving that and enjoyed the variety that that gave me. And the different people I was
00:59working with had no thought about going into space. It just wasn't possible for British people then
01:06until towards the end of the Cold War, President Gorbachev was opening up the Soviet space programme
01:13to Western countries as a way of kind of soft diplomacy, I suppose. But to give different
01:21countries the opportunity to fly somebody from there, you know, from one of their nationals
01:25into space and to do some experiments on the Mir space station, which is the space station that was
01:31in orbit before we had the International Space Station. And so, yeah, I heard this amazing opportunity
01:38actually on my car radio as I was driving home from work. But there was it was basically a job
01:44advert. And so they described this opportunity to go and train with cosmonauts. And then, you know,
01:50subsequently, hopefully, to go into space and do experiments up there. So for me, that whole amazing
01:56joy of really, I think I was thinking about the training, if I'm honest, rather than the time in space.
02:02But that variety of doing a bit of physical training, a bit of language learning, because all the training
02:08was going to be done in the Russian language. And so it's that that combination of culture and science
02:15and really getting to grips with with what human spaceflight was all about. You know, the last time
02:22I'd really thought much about it was probably when I was six years old and the Apollo missions were
02:26going off. So, yeah, it was it was just such a fabulous time. So intense. And yet so still
02:32so clear. But but fun as well. You know, it was such an amazing experience.
02:37I know you've said before that the training was almost as kind of transformative as the trip. Could
02:43you take us a bit through how that intense period, you know, what you were actually up to day to
02:49day
02:49and what that training actually looks like?
02:51We had three months to begin with of getting to grips with the Russian language. I had a lovely
02:58Russian teacher called Igor. I remember him so clearly. And he was a linguist, a Russian linguist
03:06at a big university in the centre of Moscow. And he taught previously other foreign astronauts as they
03:14were doing their training. And so he was he was understood how to teach Russian to people that
03:20didn't understand any. But nonetheless, that was, I think, probably the hardest part of the training
03:24because, you know, just just really feeling so tired. It was Russian all the time. And I spoke,
03:30you know, I would say nothing. I mean, next to little. I think we all know da and net, don't
03:34we?
03:35And I've learned to count up to 10 and some very, very basic stuff. But it's been a very intense
03:41kind
03:41of selection process, really. So. So, yeah. But the Russian language was for me was a joy as well,
03:47because when I was choosing what I wanted to study after school, I really struggled whether I was
03:55going to go down the sciences route or the languages route or something else, because I just love
03:59variety in life. And and I chose the sciences, but missed the languages a bit. So this was just a
04:06joy
04:06to be able to speak, learn to understand them, of course, and speak Russian. But when we'd got three
04:11months of language learning under our belt and some physical training as well, and I say our belt,
04:16because there were two of us doing all this training, two British people, one of us would
04:21actually fly into space and the other one would remain on the ground as a backup. But we didn't
04:25know for most of the training who was going to get which role. So, yeah, so we, but we were
04:30going
04:31through it together. But yes, after we'd done the three months of language learning, of course,
04:34that language training continued throughout the whole mission, the whole training. And but then we
04:39had started what I'd call proper training. So learning about astronavigation. So really using the
04:45stars as a map, looking at orbital mechanics, fortunately, very maths based, because then
04:52I didn't need so much language to understand what the tutors were talking about. And it got
04:57more practical. So we'd learn about the electronic systems, life support systems, we'd go in the
05:02simulators, the Soyuz simulator, the spacecraft that actually sits on top of the rocket and gets
05:07us to the space station. And then, of course, there was the simulator of the space station
05:11itself. So that was all wonderful. And, you know, great. I love practical stuff as well.
05:16And then the emergency training. So what would happen if instead of coming back to Earth and
05:22landing on a nice flat part of Kazakhstan, where we intended to land, what would happen if there was
05:28an emergency in space? And we ended up returning to Earth in the sea. So that was also, you know,
05:34for me, a really interesting, I suppose, partly physical endurance thing, but also understanding,
05:40you know, how to get winched up into a helicopter. So, you know, I haven't come out of the army
05:45or
05:45anything like that. So even that kind of experience was quite a novelty for me. So yeah, so I just
05:50loved
05:50it. And I thought it was just such an amazing opportunity to experience all those different
05:57kind of, I'll say challenges, but I felt as though I had all the support. So I didn't feel as
06:02though it
06:02was in any way a real, how can I, my Russian's coming back to me now, sort of a true
06:08musty,
06:09I was going to say, a real sort of a real, a real mental and physical effort, not too, not
06:13too much.
06:14Yeah. And does that have the effect? Because I imagine most people, I certainly would, if I had
06:19to think of, of all of those things. I mean, both, both are perfectly, you know, a takeoff and landing
06:26that went perfectly well. But as you say, there's always the threat of it not doing, feels like a
06:30terrifying prospect. But is it the case that once you've done all that work, and you know what's
06:35happening, that you've got that sense of control, it's not so terrifying? Or was that, was that
06:39element still there? No, you're absolutely right. I mean, it's, it's, I think we're fearful of the
06:44unknown, aren't we? That's what we're scared of. And when we do find out about not only the actual
06:51situation, but I think it's feeling comfortable that you know yourself what to do. So it's, yes,
06:58it's what's, it's what the situation is, but it's what's going to happen. Which of course,
07:03the simulator told us a lot of how I needed to first, I mean, I suppose obviously react,
07:08but it's some of it is a reaction. So some of it, if it's an emergency, you're trained how to
07:13react to
07:13that particular emergency. And we trained for a number of different types of emergencies. And one,
07:18for instance, was a docking onto the space station. So we ended up having to carry that out,
07:23although it was, was an unplanned thing. It wasn't such, what I call an emergency that needed
07:30to be, to be done in split seconds time. Many of actually many of the systems very complex.
07:37And yes, you need to know what to do, but you've got time to work out the nuances of the
07:43situation.
07:44And again, because you've got that background knowledge of the training, it's one of the reasons
07:47why if you, some of the astronaut training is still quite long. If you're just going to go up into
07:52space as a passenger, as you know, increasingly astronauts can do, if you've got very, it's an
07:57automatic space spacecraft. If you've got a commander that can do anything else that's
08:02necessary with the spacecraft, then you can just train for a few weeks on the work that you
08:07personally need to do and how to be safe. But, but yes, for us very much, it was part of
08:12operating
08:12the spacecraft. So yes, so in a manual docking scenario, we each had our own jobs to do,
08:19but we were working together as a team, something we trained to do in the, in the simulators. But
08:24of course, you never know exactly what scenario it's going to be. So yes, you discuss that with
08:28your, with your crew, you give your own input, you listen to their input, you work out who's
08:33going to do what at which time, and then you get on with it. So there's, say there's immediate
08:38emergencies. There's emergencies that are, could, could be, could be life-threatening, but
08:43actually you've got plenty of time. And then there's the other stuff which is really just
08:47sort of working through perhaps technical issues, other kinds of things that, that we,
08:52many of us do, you know, every day of our lives. And, and that's one of the great abilities
08:57of human species, right? We can think and we can communicate and we can learn. And, and, you
09:03know, we're learning all the time, even in space. So yeah, it was, it's a combination of
09:07those kinds of things that, that, that the training gets you through to doing.
09:10Yeah. And you mentioned that learning, obviously a lot of the work once you'd actually done that
09:14docking and, and, and got into the space station was real scientific experimental study. Could
09:21you run me through what you were kind of up to and, and, and what those helped, helped
09:25us and helped you find?
09:27I really enjoyed the variety again of, of experiments that I had. Um, and although actually I was
09:33saddened in the end, I had to do not British experiments. Now the plan was that the mission
09:39would have done a whole load of experiments from UK, um, researchers, um, and industry,
09:46but because of the way that the mission was managed and the funding and everything around
09:49the time, in the end, a new agreement was made really more of a collaboration with the
09:54Soviet space agency. So I ran a whole load of Soviet experiments. Um, of course the information
10:00comes back to science in the end. So as a scientist, that's pleasing, but you know, I was saddened
10:05that I couldn't have done some of the amazing science that had already been developed for
10:10those experiments. Um, but it meant that I had a variety that I might not otherwise have
10:15had because the Russians were really keen to show off really to the rest of the world, um,
10:20some of their, um, their capabilities. Um, so there'll be things like, yes, my, how my body
10:25was adapting to feeling weightless. So I knew from theory, but I was taking blood samples and
10:31other samples from my crewmates as well. Um, so that was quite interesting. Um, and something as
10:37simple as it, like, say, if you close your eyes and then try and track a horizontal with your hands.
10:43Um, so looking at how I was writing in a straight line, for instance, or maneuvering certain
10:47equipment, could I do that without having this input to my brain from my balance system in my ears
10:53about what's up and down. So that kind of adaptation. Um, but there were things like, um,
10:58things, you know, I'm, I'm a chemist. Chemistry is my subject and growing crystals for somebody
11:03who's done chemistry has to be one of the best things I think. And well, that's in color,
11:08but anyway, crystals was pretty good. And, uh, and to be able to grow certain crystals in space
11:13that you just can't grow very well on earth. And these are protein crystals. Um, and we can't grow
11:19them very well on earth. We can grow protein crystals, but they're small and they tend with the
11:23molecules inside the crystals tend to be often badly oriented. So we can't get good information
11:29from that crystal, but you can grow them wonderfully in space. So be able to be able to do some
11:34protein
11:34crystal growth. And probably my favorite experiment was using the airlock. Now this is not the airlock
11:41that we used to go out and do a spacewalk with, but the airlock, an experimental airlock, um, in the
11:47floor of what I'd call the main base block. So the main habitation area, the main control part of the
11:52space station. And there was an airlock there where I could expose some of my experiments to the
11:57vacuum and radiation of space. And so I was looking at some very thin ceramic films, put them all on
12:02a
12:03frame and then expose these films to vacuum radiation of space. And then, then after a few days, brought
12:09them back into the space station and analyze them and also brought them back to earth. So we were looking
12:14at future spacecraft materials. So yeah, just fascinating to see how, um, how these different,
12:20different, different materials and different types of investigations can be done. We're looking at
12:26mostly at feeling weightless and I'll say microgravity because gravity is still there. Of course we're in
12:31low earth orbit. Gravity is pretty strong. We don't feel it. So we talk about microgravity, but yeah, it's
12:36that, and it's the radiation of space. Sometimes it's the vacuum and yeah, it's just such a joy to be
12:41able to, um, to think about some of these effects that as a scientist on earth, you're not often,
12:48you know, engaging your brain in because they, you know, we've always got gravity that's affecting us on
12:54earth. Yeah. And how much, I mean, obviously the, the science work will give you the data and, uh, and
13:01the
13:01findings and all those that you can bring back, but there must be an awful lot. I mean, there's, there's
13:06so much
13:06that you felt that barely anyone else on earth has ever felt. Um, and you know, we're speaking ahead of
13:13you
13:13speaking at Latitude. It must be a strange experience to come, to come back down and to, you know, have
13:20to
13:20communicate that feeling, say of weightlessness to people who at least haven't and probably never will go
13:26anywhere near it. Is that a kind of challenge of communication? Do you find that it's easy to, to get
13:32that
13:33across those strange and unfelt feelings? Straight after my space mission, I knew I wanted to share it with the
13:40rest of the
13:41country because it wasn't just my space mission, right? It was the UK space mission, the first human
13:45mission that had happened. Um, and if I'm honest at the beginning, it was really difficult. And I think
13:51partly it's trying to put yourself in other people's shoes. Um, uh, there was a lot of misinformation as
13:57well around at the time, not, not, not about space flight, but I mean, misinformation that I had
14:04about what people were interested in and, uh, you know, people pretty intelligent, um, and pretty
14:11curious by and large, I think, um, especially certain, certain audiences at certain festivals.
14:17And it's just a joy to, um, to see space flight from their perspective. One of the things I did
14:24after
14:24my space flight was going to a whole load of schools and the children give you such wonderful,
14:31immediate feedback. When you're talking to young people, they, they don't sit politely and listen.
14:38If you're being completely, completely incomprensible or boring, um, children fidget, they're turning
14:44around, they're chatting. So, you know, and the teachers also were very, very helpful. And actually I
14:49learned very quickly about communicating these kinds of things, but yes, feeling weightless is actually
14:55the most natural and relaxing feeling you can possibly imagine. Um, I think the nearest on earth
15:01is when you go into a swimming pool and you just float. And I still do that now. I'll go
15:06and sort of
15:06lie on my back with my arms out, um, close my eyes and do a star float. And of course
15:12the water is
15:13keeping you buoyant in a swimming pool. You don't have water around you to keep you buoyant in space.
15:18You don't need it. But yes, that, that idea of just freely floating in nothing to be able to just
15:24twist and do a simasalt, um, and, and just keep on moving is just fabulous. And we mentioned earlier,
15:31it's, it's 35 years since you went, it's been a, I would say kind of up and down time for,
15:37for space
15:37flight. Obviously I think both in terms of the actual technologies we have, but also public
15:44perception of, of, of both how much they can believe in it and how, how useful it is and all
15:49of those things. Over those 35 years, what's your sense of what's changed both about, you know,
15:54the, the space agencies and the work they're doing, but also how people feel about space flight and its
16:00value and it, and it, and whether we should even be pursuing it given the various challenges we have
16:05down here. Oh, I think there's been huge change. I mean, first of all, after my space flight, I felt
16:10as
16:10so, um, 90% of the questions from journalists, at least not necessarily from the public. I think
16:16the general public was just really, was just fascinated by the whole concept, but a lot of
16:20the questions were about, you know, the value of humans in space. Isn't it better just to send
16:23robots? And of course the answer is we need to send both and humans and technology work brilliantly
16:30together. And we can do so much more when we do work together like that. So yes. Um, uh, but,
16:34but I think the, yes, in terms of commercialization of space flight, so that's changed that kind of,
16:40and the way that we do things. And also then I think that has implications in terms of how we,
16:46we want to use space in the future. So when we're thinking about, um, cooperation with other entities,
16:53and I say entities, it's not always just going to be another country. It's not always going to be
16:56another space agency that you might be competing with for the best bit of the moon's surface, let's
17:02say, to do your experiment on. So we need to cooperate, uh, and understand how we're going to do that
17:07better internationally. All the idea about a really good international collaboration. So it's not just
17:14about making it cheaper and getting perhaps your own space mission. Let's say the Artemis 2 mission
17:19that went in, um, went off around the moon recently. Wonderful. And we were also so exciting to see what
17:24they were doing. But the fact that there was, you know, the part of the Orion spacecraft, the service
17:29module is a European service module. So the Americans were keen very much to have that international
17:35collaboration there, apart from, of course, the Canadian astronaut who I think British people
17:39were going, yeah, it's part of the Commonwealth. So we feel as though he's a bit like us at least.
17:43So there was a lot, there is certainly a lot of that going on for all sorts of reasons,
17:46but I think collaboration in terms of making best use of the earth's resources and the resources,
17:54let's say on the surface of the moon, when we get there, um, we all are going to want to
17:58have,
17:58let's say some, some water, a water supply, some energy generation. Um, we're going to need to
18:04make sure that we don't contaminate the lunar surface. And so there's all that to, um, to work
18:09on, I think. And that's one of the, perhaps, I think the, the sidelines of space flight right now,
18:15which is quite interesting to get it and to understand that, how we might be deliberating
18:20that ethically as well. So people that might not have really been interested before in, um,
18:25perhaps the technology of space flight, but now really to, I think it's the time is to get
18:30the public discourse going to get all sorts of people talking to each other. Let's debate this
18:36in public. Let's have this more on the radio so we can start to really, um, influence how space
18:42is used so that we're all best using it. And we don't say we don't overuse earth's or moon's
18:47resources in the process. This is the beginning of course, of perhaps even going further into space
18:52and using Mars. We've been talking about using asteroids and mining asteroids. So the ethics of that,
18:59how much of an asteroid should we use? What happens if you nudge an asteroid out of its, um,
19:05trajectory onto the course of a, perhaps so that it's going to impact somebody else's satellite
19:11or perhaps worse hit the earth, right? So all of those kinds of things, we, it's right that we all
19:16get involved in that debate. So yeah, great fun. So all of that's changed as well as of course the
19:21technology. When we think about human space flight, um, you know, I think back to my time on the
19:26Mir space station, um, a lot of people will say that the difference between Mir space station and
19:31the international space station is a bit like, um, well, international space station, four-star
19:37hotel, 24 seven communications, um, gourmet food every now and again, um, Mir space station, think more
19:44like a family camping trip, but I love camping. So it was fine for me. You're a camping space, which
19:50I
19:50mean, it's interesting because we're obviously also at this, what feels like a really pivotal point
19:55for private space flight and space flight as, as kind of tourism, um, the origin and all of those
20:01things. What do you think about the, the spectacle of, of say Katy Perry, uh, being put up in space,
20:08just
20:09have a look. It feels much, much less of a kind of scientific exercise and more of a, a new
20:13frontier for,
20:14for going on holiday to use your, your metaphor.
20:16So I think there's, there's a number of different sides to this really, isn't there? So tourism
20:20as a general thing, I think is, can be positive because of course it brings in funds to, let's
20:26say if we're talking about space tourism, it brings in funds to the space industry that then we can use,
20:31um, and hopefully if we get all the ethics right and we've debated this properly, we can use it for
20:35the right purposes. Um, this, there are certain, let's say, like you say, spectacle space flights,
20:41um, have not necessarily even brought in money that they've been, um, as far as we can see,
20:47and there's been this particular space flight that you're talking about, um, didn't generate any
20:52money directly, but actually of course a load of publicity, which in itself might have raised some
20:58investment. Um, but it certainly generated publicity for another cause. So that's, I think
21:03the question is what are we then using space for? That's why I think it's really important to get
21:07this debated properly. Um, but also are we just going to, you know, there's, there's always a
21:13downside. Um, space can be wonderful in terms of helping us to mitigate climate change, helping us
21:21to understand global warming and, and, and what we can do about it, for instance, and so many other
21:26things, medical devices, loads of good stuff that we can do in space. But there, you know, the downside
21:33is that are we creating, let's say orbital debris around the earth, possibly around the moon. So
21:40stuff that we, we perhaps might not be able to get rid of. We don't know yet how to get
21:43rid of a lot
21:44of this stuff. Are we contaminating the earth's atmosphere a little bit by the rockets that are
21:50going through the atmosphere at the moment? It's insignificant at the moment compared to air
21:54travel and other pollution, but it could become more significant. What about the spacecraft that are
22:00burning up in the atmosphere on their way back to earth? That's something we need to really consider.
22:05So I think, yes, it's great to have tourism generally, so long as we're bringing in money
22:10and using it for the right purposes, but we have to be careful that it is sustainable. Um, and, um,
22:17and, and that more than sustainable, we're not, you know, we're doing things, I think, ethically,
22:22generally speaking as well. So yeah, lots of different sides to tourism and that's just one part of
22:27space flow, right? Yeah. And as you say, I suppose those are all, those are all questions that
22:31actually we are, we as, as people who are staying down here and have no real role in it, no
22:38hands-on
22:38role at least, do need to be brought into, right? Which is presumably the importance of, of, of things
22:44like speaking at Cosmic Shambles that you, you know, you're, you're having this conversation in public
22:51with the public and getting people's positions on those kinds of ethical, political, really knotty,
22:57difficult questions that, that everyone should get a say in, even if they're staying down here,
23:03at least for now. Yeah, absolutely. And people's questions, just hearing what people are saying,
23:08if I can perhaps just influence some people to, um, to think about it a bit, um, and perhaps to
23:13read a
23:14little bit more and to engage in that public discourse, um, that the United Nations is already
23:20undergoing some of these discussions. Of course, they're painfully slow as UN discussions often are,
23:24but they're bringing in all sorts of different, um, different ideas, different cultures, different
23:29countries, and that's great. Um, but if I can influence what I'd call some, just people that
23:34aren't necessarily involved in those high-level discussions and, um, the people who are not
23:39necessarily the, um, the negotiators, the diplomats, um, so regular people whose lives, um, are going
23:47to be impacted by space flight, like our lives are impacted by electricity, right? Um, it's, it's a
23:52very, space flight is just so integral in our lives, even now, and will become more so. Younger people,
23:59especially as they look about how technology is going to be influencing their lives, um, and how we use
24:05space for that, um, not just for them going into space, many more of them will, but how are they
24:10going to use space in their lives in an appropriate way? So I think it's important. Um, we've had this
24:16huge, rapid development of technology generally in the last, um, few decades and space flight's part
24:24of that. You know, we think that the first ever spacecraft, Sputnik, went into space in 1957.
24:31You know, it's a blink ago, really. Um, I know many of us weren't alive then, but nonetheless,
24:37in, in terms of the, um, the development of technology very, very recently, and how much
24:43further have we gone since then? What, you know, how rapidly, um, we've been able to integrate space
24:48and, um, send people there and understand about it and communicate it. So, yeah, I think we all need
24:54to get involved in that. And it's, it's, um, it's fascinating, I think, because there is this
25:00combination of, um, of culture, ethics, legal stuff, technology, um, and, uh, and just, you
25:08know, what is it like? What's it feel like? And for humans, when we go there, you know, what, how
25:13does that change us? Why is that different from sending a robot into space? What does it make
25:18you feel? How do we think in space? So I think that's also very interesting and it helps people
25:24to, again, to look back on their own lives and, you know, perhaps reprioritise sometimes.
25:31Brilliant. Thank you. Well, um, I'm both conscious that we're about to get kicked out here and we're
25:35about to get kicked out of the Zoom. And that also feels like an incredibly profound moving place to
25:40end. So, um, thank you ever so much for your time. Uh, it's been a real genuine honour and privilege
25:46to, to chat. Um, so thank you ever so much.
25:49Thank you. It's been, been my pleasure. I'd say just thanks for the opportunity. And yeah, I'm just
25:53so looking forward to coming to Latitude. It's just such a great audience, I think, because they
25:58are interested in so many different aspects of life. And I like, you know, that people are also
26:04interested in each other at Latitude. You get this great diversity, um, across the, uh, the people
26:10there. Um, and that, that really supports that combination of music and art, culture, science,
26:16science, um, and spaceflight is just on that intersection, I think, between all of that.
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