'Astronauts wanted, no experience required'

In 1989, Helen Sharman was driving home from work when she heard an advert on the radio: ‘Astronauts wanted, no experience required.’ Ahead of 13,000 other applicants, following an extensive selection process and training programme, Helen became the first Briton to travel into space. She spent eight days orbiting the Earth, visiting the MIR space station where she performed a variety of scientific experiments. Back on terra firma, Helen’s career as a chemist has taken her from Mars (the confectioner!) to the National Physical Laboratory and Imperial College London.

Education in Chemistry caught up with Helen at the Secondary and Further Education Group conference in Bolton, to ask her about her earliest memories of science, her involvement in Project Juno and her advice for budding astronauts.