HELEN SHARMAN OBE - BRITONS FIRST SPACE TRAVELLER
 |
 |
|
StarDome 's Andrew Green has been lucky enough to meet Helen Sharman on several occasions now.
Helen was born in the same city in England as Andrew - Sheffield in South Yorkshire.
Here is a little more information:
Helen was born on May 30 1963 at Sheffield's Jessop Hospital. The Sharman family lived at Grenoside. After studying at Jordanthorpe Comprehensive, Helen gained a Chemistry degree at Sheffield University. The same university where StarDome Astronomer Andrew Green gained his degree.
Helens first job was as an engineer for a division of GEC in London and she also began studying part time for a PhD at Birbeck College, London. In August 1987, Helen became a Research Technologist for Mars Confectionery, where part of her job was to study the chemical and physical properties of chocolate!
In June 1989, while driving home from the Mars factory in Slough, Helen heard a radio ad that would change her life: 'Astronaut wanted - no experience necessary.' The only requirements were that applicants should be British, aged 21-40, with a science background, the ability to learn a foreign language and a good level of fitness.
Helen beat more than 13,000 applicants to be selected as one of the final four candidates for the position of UK cosmonaut on the Soviet space mission Project Juno. She had to undergo weeks of exhaustive physical and psychological tests but eventually made it down to the final two candidates.
She was then sent for 18 months of training at the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre in Moscow's Star City near the city of Korolev. In May 1991 Helen became the first Briton in space when she spent 8 days at the Mir Space Station conducting scientific experiments. Andrew wrote an account of a lecture that Helen gave at the University of Sheffield including some Q&A's.
Here are a few more images:
 |
 |
 |
HERE ARE 2 SIGNED FLAGS THAT WENT INTO SACE WITH HELEN
 |
 |
THESE FLAGS WERE BOTH FLOWN INTO SPACE WITH HELEN SHARMAN ON HER SOYUZ TM-12 MISSIONS TO SPACE STATION Mir IN 1991
THEY ARE BOTH PART OF OUR FLOWN IN SPACE ARTIFACT COLLECTION
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------