Project Juno
Project Juno was a privately funded campaign which selected
As the United Kingdom did not, at that time, have a
Selection
A call for applicants was publicized in the UK (one ad read "Astronaut wanted. No experience necessary"[2]), leading to 13,000 applications. Juno selected four candidates to train in the Soviet Union:[3]
- Gordon Brooks (Royal Navy physician, then 33)
- Major Timothy Mace (Army Air Corps, 33)
- Clive Smith (Kingston University lecturer, 27)
- Helen Sharman (food technologist, 26)
Eventually Mace and Sharman were selected to continue full-time training at Star City. After learning Russian and familiarising themselves with the science programme, Smith and Brooks were employed to teach the other two how to perform the experiments and then to conduct them in a life sized mock up of Mir for live media during the mission.
Funding
The cost of the flight was to be funded by various innovative schemes, including sponsoring by private British companies and a lottery system. Corporate sponsors included
The flight cost £7 million.[4]
Ultimately the Juno consortium failed to raise the entire sum, and the Soviet Union considered cancelling the mission. However Mikhail Gorbachev directed the mission to proceed at Soviet cost.[5] The ambitious microgravity experiments originally planned were dropped when time ran out for sending required equipment on an automated 'Progress' flight. Helen did perform experiments designed by British schools that could be done with existing equipment aboard Mir along with a British microbiology screening investigation taken over by the Russians.
Flight and after
Sharman was launched aboard Soyuz TM-12 on 18 May 1991,[6] and returned aboard Soyuz TM-11 on 26 May 1991.
Both Sharman and Mace were candidates but not selected in the 1992 and 1998
See also
- British National Space Centre
- British space programme
- British astronauts
References
- ^ "UK secures £1.2 billion package of space investment". Department for Business, Innovation & Skills. 21 November 2012. Retrieved 30 March 2019.
- ^ Parry, Vivienne (1 July 2005). "Space, the final frontier". The Guardian.
- ^ "Lost in Space". The Observer. London, England. 5 May 1991. p. 32 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ MacLeod, Alexander (30 May 1990). "Brits in Space". Chicago Tribune. Chicago, Illinois. p. 5-7 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ Cosmonauts Exhibition, Science Museum, London, 2015
- ^ "Briton Travels in Space". Tallahassee Democrat. Tallahassee, Florida. Associated Press. 19 May 1991. p. 8A – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "Astronaut and Cosmonaut Candidates". www.spacefacts.de.
- ^ "Cosmonaut Biography: Timothy Mace". www.spacefacts.de.
- ^ "Tim Mace". FAI. Archived from the original on 6 March 2016. Retrieved 20 February 2016.