Helen (Patricia) Sharman - Project Juno astronaut, Trivia

Britain's first astronaut, born in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, N England, UK. She studied chemistry at Sheffield University, then worked in electrical engineering and confectionery research. In 1989 she responded to an advertisement asking for trainee astronauts, and was eventually selected from over 13–000 applicants to be the British member of the Russian scientific space mission, Project Juno (May 1991), spending eight days in space. She has since become well known as a lecturer and broadcaster in science education; her book The Space Place appeared in 1997.

Helen Patricia Sharman

Juno Cosmonaut
Nationality	British
Born	May 30, 1963 Sheffield, United Kingdom
Occupation	Chemist
Space time	7d 21h 13m
Selection	1989
Mission(s)	Soyuz TM-12
Mission insignia
previous or current

Helen Patricia Sharman OBE (born May 30, 1963), is a chemist and former British astronaut.

Sharman was born in Sheffield;

Project Juno astronaut

Sharman was selected as astronaut on November 25, 1989, beating 13,000 applicants, after responding to a radio advertisement asking for applicants to be the first British astronaut.

Sharman has been wrongly described as "selected by lottery", but was subject to a rigorous selection process that gave weight to scientific, educational, and aerospace backgrounds as well as the ability to learn a foreign language.

The Soyuz TM-12 mission, which included Soviet cosmonauts Anatoly Artsebarsky and Sergei Krikalev, lasted 8 days, most of that time spent at the Mir space station.

She has not returned to space since this mission, although she was one of three British candidates in the 1992 European Space Agency astronaut selection, and on the shortlist of 25 applicants in 1998.

Trivia

Sharman was 27 years and 11 months old when she went into space, as of 2006 the fifth youngest of the 455 individuals (90% men) who have been astronauts or cosmonauts.