On this day (18th May 2017), 26 years ago, in 1991, Helen Sharman Became Britain’s first astronaut!
27 year old Sharman, from Sheffield, blasted into to orbit, from Baikonur cosmodrome in the Soviet republic of Kazakhstan, with fellow astronauts, Anatoly Artebartsky and Sergei Krikalyov – aboard the Soviet Soyuz TM-12 space capsule.
“Astronaut wanted, no experience necessary”
Helen Sharman, a former chemist, won her place in space in 1989, after answering an advertisement she heard on the radio – “Astronaut wanted, no experience necessary”.