HELEN SHARMAN

Sheffield-born Sharman beat 13,000 other applicants to become Britain’s first astronaut

18 May 1991 saw the first Briton blast off into space on the Soyuz TM-12 rocket. Helen Sharman pipped 13,000 other applicants to the post when she responded to a radio advertisement that asked for applicants to earn the title of first British astronaut aboard Project Juno – a cooperative arrangement between a group of British companies and the Soviet Union.

Sharman didn’t grow up intending to be an astronaut. Born in Grenoside in Sheffield on 30 May 1963, she went on to gain a degree in chemistry at her hometown’s university before moving to London to earn a PhD from Birkbeck, University of London. After her studies, Sharman found herself employed as an engineer before her passion for chocolate saw her working as a chemist for Mars Incorporated.

The British Project Juno space program consisted of the Soyuz TM-12 mission, which also had Sharman’s fellow cosmonauts Anatoly Artsebarsky and Sergei Krikalev onboard. Leaving Earth for eight days, Sharman spent most of her time in space on board the Mir Space Station, becoming the first woman to visit the craft. Once on board the low-Earth orbit platform, for the most part the young astronaut was tasked with medical and agricultural tests. But it wasn’t all carrying out experiments for Sharman – she also got the chance to take shots of the British Isles as the station orbited our planet and phoned home as she took part in an amateur radio hookup with British school children, who were in complete awe of her time in space.

Sadly, Sharman never returned to space.

As her craft re-entered Earth’s atmosphere, signalling the mission’s end, this would be the first and only time she would have the privilege of experiencing such a venture. In 1998, she was one of three British candidates shortlisted for the 1992 European Space Agency astronaut selection process. Narrowly missing being selected, Sharman went on to follow a rewarding career as a broadcaster, a lecturer specialising in science education and joined the National Physical Laboratory as a group leader.

Despite her short time in space, Sharman’s accomplishments have not been forgotten. She was appointed an OBE in 1993, and in the same year became an honorary fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry. Being such an influential individual, Sharman has also had many schools in England, as well as the Netherlands, named in her honour.