On this day (18th May 2017), 26 years ago, in 1991, Helen Sharman Became Britain’s first astronaut!
![](https://majortim.space/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Helen-Sharman-rocketSTEM-204x300.jpg)
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”.