Helen Sharman joined Anatoly Artsebarsky and Sergei Krikalev on a space mission in 1991<\/p>\n
It is 30 years since the first British person went into space. <\/p>\n
Dr Helen Sharman, a scientist from Sheffield, travelled to the Soviet space station Mir on 18 May 1991.<\/p>\n
She was a 27-year-old chemist when she was chosen to be part of Project Juno - a plan to pay for someone from Britain to travel into space. The UK government wasn't involved in space exploration at the time, so paying for a spot on a flight was the only way to travel to space. <\/p>\n
Sharman was one of 13,000 people who responded to an advert on the radio. From all those entrants, four people were put forward for training in Russia. <\/p>\n
After spending 18 months training at the Soviet cosmonaut training camp, Star City, Helen enjoyed an eight-day mission in space.<\/p>\n
To enjoy the CBBC Newsround website at its best you will need to have JavaScript turned on.<\/p>\n
While she was in space she did medical and agricultural experiments.<\/p>\n
She said she felt really lucky to be chosen for the mission and would love to go back to space.<\/p>\n
One of her favourite things was floating around on the space station because of the lack of gravity.<\/p>\n
Helen has said that she thinks aliens do exist and might even be on Earth!<\/p>\n
Since coming back to Earth she has carried on her scientific work and now works at Imperial College London.<\/p>\n
She was also honoured by the Queen in the 2018 New Year's honours list and joined the Order of St Michael and St George, which is a special award for people who have done important things.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Read the original: <\/p>\n
Helen Sharman: Thirty years since first Briton went to space - BBC News<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Helen Sharman joined Anatoly Artsebarsky and Sergei Krikalev on a space mission in 1991 It is 30 years since the first British person went into space. Dr Helen Sharman, a scientist from Sheffield, travelled to the Soviet space station Mir on 18 May 1991. Continue reading