Helen Sharman

In January 2020, Sharman said in an interview that "aliens exist, there's no two ways about it" but that "it's possible ... we simply can't see them", a reference to the idea of a shadow biosphere.

Sharman was 27 years and 11 months old when she went into space, making her (as of 2017) the sixth youngest of the 556 individuals who have flown in space. Sharman has not returned to space, although she was one of three British candidates in the 1992 European Space Agency astronaut selection process and was on the shortlist of 25 applicants in 1998.

In August 2016, Sharman appeared as herself in an episode of the Channel 4 soap opera Hollyoaks.

By 2011, she was working at the National Physical Laboratory as Group Leader of the Surface and Nanoanalysis Group. Sharman became Operations Manager for the Department of Chemistry at Imperial College London in 2015. She continues outreach activities related to chemistry and her spaceflight, and in 2015 was awarded an Honorary Fellowship from the British Science Association.

The British School in Assen, Netherlands is named the Helen Sharman School after her. In addition there is a house named after her at Wallington High School for Girls, a grammar school in the London Borough of Sutton, where each house is named after a high achieving and influential woman. The science block of Bullers Wood school, Chislehurst, Kent was opened by Sharman in 1994 and is called Sharman House.

Sharman spent the eight years following her mission to Mir self-employed, communicating science to the public. Her autobiography, Seize the Moment, was published in 1993. In 1997 she published a children's book, The Space Place. She has presented radio and television programmes including for BBC Schools.

For her determined pioneering efforts, Sharman was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 1992 Birthday Honours, and the following year an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (HonFRSC). Sharman was appointed a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George (CMG) in the 2018 New Year Honours for services to Science and Technology Outreach.

The Soyuz TM-12 mission, which included Soviet cosmonauts Anatoly Artsebarsky and Sergei Krikalev, launched on 18 May 1991 and lasted eight days, most of that time spent at the Mir space station. Sharman's tasks included medical and agricultural tests, photographing the British Isles, and participating in a licensed amateur radio hookup with British schoolchildren. She landed aboard Soyuz TM-11 on 26 May 1991, along with Viktor Afanasyev and Musa Manarov.

On 26 May 1991, by Decree of the President of the USSR No. UP-2010, Helen was awarded the "Order of Friendship of Peoples". On 12 April 2011, by Decree of the President of the Russian Federation No. 437, she was awarded the medal "For Merit in Space Exploration".

Helen Sharman was awarded the bronze and silver and gold Medal of the Royal Aero Club, in 1990. Then, in 1991, she was chosen to light the flame at the 1991 Summer Universiade, held in Sheffield. On live international television, she tripped while running through the infield of Don Valley Stadium, sending the burning embers onto the track. Encouraged to continue her run, without any flame from the torch, she proceeded round the track and climbed to the ceremonial flame. Despite the lack of any fire from the torch the ceremonial flame still ignited.

After responding to a radio advertisement asking for applicants to be the first British space explorer, Helen Sharman was selected for the mission live on ITV, on 25 November 1989, ahead of nearly 13,000 other applicants. The programme was known as Project Juno and was a cooperative Soviet Union–British mission co-sponsored by a group of British companies.

Sharman was born in Grenoside, Sheffield, where she attended Grenoside Junior and Infant School, later moving to Greenhill. After studying at Jordanthorpe Comprehensive, she obtained a BSc degree in chemistry at the University of Sheffield in 1984 and a PhD degree from Birkbeck, University of London in 1987. She worked as a research and development technologist for GEC in London and later as a chemist for Mars dealing with flavourant properties of chocolate. This later led the UK press to label her the "Girl from The Mars".

Helen Patricia Sharman, CMG, OBE, HonFRSC (born 30 May 1963) is a chemist who became the first British and western European astronaut (and in particular, the first British cosmonaut) as well as the first woman to visit the Mir space station in May 1991.