Helen Sharman

Helen Sharman
Dr. Helen Sharman
Project Juno astronaut
Nationality	British
Born	(1963-05-30) 30 May 1963 Sheffield, England
Other occupation	Chemist
Alma mater	University of Sheffield, BSc 1984 Birkbeck, University of London, Ph.D.
Time in space	7d 21h 13m
Selection	1989 Juno
Missions	Soyuz TM-12, Soyuz TM-11
Mission insignia

Dr. Helen Patricia Sharman OBE FRSC (born 30 May 1963) is a British chemist who became the first British astronaut and the first woman to visit the Mir space station in 1991.

Sharman was born in Grenoside, Sheffield, where she attended Grenoside Junior and Infant School, later moving to Greenhill. After studying at Jordanthorpe Comprehensive, she received a BSc in chemistry at the University of Sheffield in 1984 and a PhD from Birkbeck, University of London. She worked as a research and development technologist for GEC in London and later as a chemist for Mars Incorporated dealing with flavourant properties of chocolate.^[1][2]

Project Juno

After responding to a radio advertisement asking for applicants to be the first British astronaut, Helen Sharman was selected for the mission live on ITV, on 25 November 1989, ahead of nearly 13,000 other applicants.^[2][3][4] The programme was known as Project Juno and was a cooperative Soviet Union–British mission co-sponsored by a group of British companies.^[5]

Sharman was selected in a process that gave weight to scientific, educational and aerospace backgrounds as well as the ability to learn a foreign language.^[6] A lottery was one of several schemes used to raise money to underwrite the cost of the flight.

Sokol space suit worn by Sharman, at the National Space Centre in Leicester.

Before flying, Sharman spent 18 months in intensive flight training in Star City. The Project Juno consortium failed to raise the monies expected, and the programme was almost cancelled. With a view towards the flight's impact on international relations, the project proceeded under Soviet expense although as a cost-saving measure, less expensive experiments were substituted for those in the original plans.^[7]

The Soyuz TM-12 mission, which included Soviet cosmonauts Anatoly Artsebarsky and Sergei Krikalev, launched on 18 May 1991^[8] and lasted eight days, most of that time spent at the Mir space station. Sharman's tasks included medical and agricultural tests,^[9] photographing the British Isles, and participating in an unlicensed amateur radio hookup with British schoolchildren. She landed aboard Soyuz TM-11 on 26 May 1991, along with Viktor Afanasyev and Musa Manarov.

Sharman was 27 years and 11 months old when she went into space, making her (as of 2015) the sixth youngest of the 545 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.

For her Project Juno accomplishments, Sharman received a star on the Sheffield Walk of Fame.^[10]

Later career

Sharman spent the eight years following her mission to Mir self-employed, communicating science to the public.^[1] Her autobiography, Seize the Moment, was published in 1993.^[11] In 1997 she published a children's book, The Space Place.^[12] She has presented radio and television programmes including for BBC Schools.^[13]

By 2011, she was working at the National Physical Laboratory as Group Leader of the Surface and Nanoanalysis Group.^[1] Sharman became Operations Manager for the Department of Chemistry at Imperial College London in 2015.^[14] She continues outreach activities related to chemistry and her spaceflight, and in 2015 was awarded an Honorary Fellowship from the British Science Association.^[15]

In August 2016, Sharman appeared as herself in an episode of the Channel 4 soap opera Hollyoaks.^[16]

Awards and honours

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.^[17]

For her pioneering efforts, Sharman was appointed an OBE in 1993, and the same year an honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry.^[18]

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.

There is also a house named after her at Rugby High School for Girls a girls' grammar school where houses are named after four influential women, and a Sharman house at Moorlands School, Leeds, where houses are named after inspiring people from Yorkshire. Additionally, a residential development in Stafford in the West Midlands of England has a street named Helen Sharman Drive in her honour.

She has received a number of honorary degrees from UK universities, including:

Bibliography

• Bums on Seats: How to Publicise Your Show (A & C Black, 1992. ISBN 978-0713636628)
• Seize the Moment: Autobiography of Britain's First Astronaut, autobiography, with Christopher Priest and a foreword by Arthur C. Clarke (London : Gollancz, 1993 – ISBN 0-575-05819-6)
• The Space Place (Making Sense of Science), children's book, illustrated by Mic Rolph (Portland Press, 1997. ISBN 1-85578-092-5)

References

External links

Wikiquote has quotations related to: Helen Sharman

• Helen Sharman's official website
• 'Life in Space' A Masterclass for children by Helen Sharman Freeview Video by the Vega Science Trust
• Spacefacts biography of Helen Sharman
• BSN – The Helen Sharman School, Assen