Helen Sharman: Britain’s first astronaut

In May 1991 Helen Sharman, an engineer and chemist from Sheffield, became the first Briton to leave the Earth. James Blitz in the Baikonur space centre, and Maurice Chittenden in London covered the story for The Times.

ARMED with a brooch given to her by her father, a portrait of the Queen, and tubes of concentrated bortsch, Helen Sharman, from Sheffield, yesterday lifted off in a Soviet Soyuz space rocket to become the first Briton in space.

As her parents watched from a viewing stand a kilometre away, the rocket carrying the 27-year-old food scientist and two Soviet colleagues roared off at exactly 1.50.09pm British time, leaving the same gantry in the desert of Soviet Kazakhstan from which Yuri Gagarin became the first man in space 30 years ago.

As the rocket (which accelerates from 0 to 18,000mph in eight minutes) gently lifted off, Sharman, who two years ago worked at the Mars chocolate factory in Slough, waved at a television camera