London. Helen Sharman, is the first-ever British citizen in space & the second woman to fly on a space station (Mir, May 1991) Prior to space training, she worked as a chemist at the Mars UK chocolate factory researching the properties of chocolate, because she liked chocolate & wanted to explore the flavours & scents of pure alpine chocolate. In November 1989 she responded to a radio ad for astronauts & was selected from more than 13,000 applicants to be part of Project Juno, a commercial British cosmonaut mission. She underwent 18 months of rigorous training at the Yury Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre at Star City, Russia. Sharman was just 27 years & 11 months old when she went into space, making her the fifth youngest of the 528 individuals who have flown in space. The second youngest, Valentina Tereshkova, became the first woman in space in 1963 at the age of 26 years and 3 months. Helen was the 15th woman in space. To date 59 women have now flown in space since Valentina Tereshkova’s historic maiden’s maiden flight. From Mars chocolate, to a flight path towards Mars the planet.