posted 05-05-2016 08:25 PM               

An audience with Helen Sharman

Saturday, May 21, 10:30-11:15 a.m.
Science Museum, London

Early Booking tickets £6 (until 17.00 on May 13)
Tickets (after 13 May): Adults: £10, Seniors: £8, Concs: £6

Helen Sharman's journey into the history books began in 1989 when she, then a food technologist, answered an advertisement that she had heard on her car radio: "Astronaut wanted. No experience necessary."

She was eventually selected from over 13,000 applicants and she spent 18 months training in Star City before being launched, aged 27, on the Soyuz TM-12 mission, which included Soviet cosmonauts Anatoly Artsebarsky and Sergei Krikalev.

Her journey into space on May 18, 1991 was remarkable because Helen became the first British astronaut and the first woman to visit the Mir space station, where she spent just over a week.

Join her with MC Roger Highfield at the Science Museum's IMAX Theatre with a galaxy of astronauts from half a dozen European countries to discuss their experiences in orbit and what the future holds in store for space

There will be an opportunity to ask Helen and her fellow astronauts questions. You can also see her Sokol spacesuit in the Exploring Space gallery of the museum.

Helen now works in the chemistry department of Imperial College London, which is celebrating her 25th anniversary along with the museum, UK Space Agency, British Interplanetary Society and Association of Space Explorers.

posted 05-21-2016 04:53 PM            

My only disappointment was that at one hour and a quarter it seemed too short with so many on stage. Then we were invited onto the stage for autographs in a free for all in which all appeared to sign quite happily. I was pleased that Helen signed with an inscription her autobiography which I have owned for years.

On a personal note I made the mistake when entering the theatre of following a group of what I thought was attendees but when in the lift found myself next to Helen. I said hello and she shook my hand and only when we entered the theatre did I realise my mistake and that I had joined the group of astronauts. I apologised but Helen just laughed and said no worries, she really is very nice and her lovely personality shone through the whole event.

The astronauts and cosmonauts made a mixture of spaceflights between 1980 and 2001 in Soyuz and STS, some staying in Mir or the ISS.

They were Bertalan Farkas, Dumitru Prunariu, Ernst Messesschmid, Aleksander Aleksandrov, Franz Viehbock, Michel Tognini, Jean-Loup Chretien, Reinhold Ewald, Jean-Pierre Haignere, Jean-Francois Clervoy and Claudie Haignere.