Britain’s first astronaut, Dr Helen Sharman, turns 55 today.
Born in the Grenoside suburb of Sheffield on May 30th, 1963, Helen Patricia Sharman attended local infant and junior schools before discovering a love for science while studying at Sheffield’s Jordanthorpe Comprehensive.
From there she went on to study chemistry at the University of Sheffield, gaining a BSc degree in 1984 and following that with a PhD from Birbeck, University of London. Her first job was in research and development for industrial giant GEC, later moving to confectionary manufacturer Mars, where she worked on the flavour properties of chocolate.
It was while there that she heard a radio advertisement seeking applicants to become Britain’s first astronaut, and decided to give it a shot. Britain did not have its own human spaceflight programme, but a private consortium was raising the funds to pay for a seat on one of the Soviet Union’s Soyuz missions to its Mir space station.
It was christened Project Juno, with applicants sought from across the UK and from all walks of life. One newspaper advertisement read: “Astronaut wanted. No experience necessary.” More than 13,000 people applied, with the final four candidates selected live on TV in November 1989. The others were Royal Navy doctor Gordon Brooks, Army Air Corps Major Timothy Mace and Kingston University lecturer Clive Smith.
At just 26, Helen Sharman was the youngest of the four and arguably the least likely to be chosen for the mission, based on qualifications alone. However, when the four were sent to train in the Soviet Union, she soon demonstrated a remarkable aptitude for learning not only the details of the mission’s science programme, but also the Russian language.
After an initial assessment period, Mace and Sharman were selected to continue training at the USSR’s ‘Star City’ facility, and it was Helen Sharman who was ultimately chosen for the mission. There was a blip when the Project Juno consortium failed to raise the entire sum needed to pay for the space flight, raising fears that it might not go ahead. However, Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev stepped in and agreed that the USSR would fund the outstanding sum, enabling the mission to proceed, albeit with some changes.
Accompanied by two Soviet cosmonauts, Dr Sharman was launched into space on May 18th, 1991. She would spend eight days in space, mostly on board the Mir space station, orbiting Earth almost 16 times per day and at a height of up to 262 miles above its surface. During that time she carried out various medical and agricultural experiments, photographed the British Isles from orbit and took part in a radio hook-up with British schoolchildren.
Her return journey was on board another Soyuz capsule with two other Soviet cosmonauts who had completed their considerably longer missions on the space station, landing safely on May 26th, just four days before her 28th birthday. She would spend the next eight years touring throughout the UK and abroad to speak about her experiences as Britain’s first astronaut and communicating her passion for science to her audiences, especially schoolchildren. In 2011 she joined the National Physical Laboratory and in 2015 took up a post in the chemistry department at Imperial College London.
Recognised for her pioneering achievements, in 1992 she was awarded an OBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours and earlier this year was made a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George in the 2018 New Year Honours for her services to science and technology outreach. She is also an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry and has received honorary degrees from nine British universities.