A pity that the BBC coverage was rather orientated towards children and it wasn't possible to hear the background comms. But at least that'll have motivated a few towards something more interesting than the latest wretched iPhone.
To put the record straight and hopefully to end this puerile pongo willy-waving, here are the facts:
30 years ago, Ronnie Reagan offered 4 payload specialist opportunities to the UK. The three services each supplied an astronaut candidate to the Skynet 4 shuttle programme. A civil servant was also selected from the MoD. Their job was to have entailed looking after the satellites in orbit and carrying out general crew duties.
Squadron Leader Nigel Wood RAF was assigned to the Skynet 4A mission with Lieutenant Colonel Richard Farrimond as his back-up. Commander Peter Longhurst RN was assigned to the Skynet 4B flight with Christopher Holmes, the MoD civil servant, acting as his back-up.
Unfortunately, the 1986 Challenger disaster put an end to the UK's first venture into manned spaceflight.
Although we did have OSLO on our squadron - nicknamed 'Outer Space Liaison Officer' as he was barking mad! Quite a few Flt Cdrs have also nearly made it into low earth orbit, although none with the benefit of a space vehicle!