Talking Galactic Gastronomy With Cosmonaut Helen Sharman
In space, no one can eat ice scream. Except the Americans...
When the list of great British heroes is compiled, Helen Sharman's name ought to be pretty near the top. In 1991, the then-27-year-old became the first Briton to leave Earth's orbit. Over 30 years on, only Tim Peake can claim to have done likewise.
Of course, now that Virgin and Amazon are making space tourism a reality, we can expect more Brits to slip Earth’s surly bonds. And talking to Sharman, you get the impression that the more astronauts there are, the better a place the world will be.
"When you're in space, you become aware that you actually need very little to enjoy a good life," says the ex-engineer who spent seven days aboard Soyuz TM 11/12. ""What you need is food, a place to sleep, the love of close friends and family and, perhaps most importantly of all, civility. If you have those things, you can cope without having the nice house, the nice car, whatever. When I was in space with Toktar [Aubakirov] and Anatoly [Artsebarsky], the things we missed were the love and company of the people we're close to. The material things you don't give a moment's thought."
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