In 1991, Helen Sharman, a 27-year-old British chemist, blasted to the stars aboard Soyuz TM-12 in a mission to repair the Mir Space Station. At the time, Mir had been in space for five years.
Sharman's adventure began when she responded to an advertisement which stated, "Astronaut wanted - no prior experience needed." Until then, she had been employed as a chemist for Mars Incorporated, the chocolate bar manufacturer.
Upon her ascent to Mir alongside engineers Anatoli Artsebarski and Sergei Krikalev, Sharman became the first Briton in space.
 Anatoli Artsebarski's space suit, priced $25k-35k |
Next week, the space suit worn by Anatoli Artsebarski, Sharman's crewmate, will auction at Waddington's with an incredible estimate of $25,000-$35,000.
Artsebarsky spent 145 days as commander of the Soyuz TM-12/MIR-9 mission (from May 18 to October 10) logging a total of 33 hours of space walking.
In Paul Fraser Collectibles' latest Video of the Week, Artsebarski, along with Sharman and Krikalev, can be seen preparing for their mission and later floating in zero gravity.
As the narrator says, "The experiments [Sharman] took part in weren't going to win any Nobel Prizes, but it was nevertheless a British first."
Whether Artsebarski's comment to Sharman that "A woman's place was in the kitchen, not the cosmos" affects the value of his spacesuit in the Waddington's sale remains to be seen.
It will sell alongside a Soviet space telescope, perhaps used to spy on the US from space during the Cold War.
Also on the market, an Apollo 11 training suit worn and signed by none other than Buzz Aldrin, the Second Man on the Moon, is for sale to collectors.
Boasting an exceptional provenance, this rare and highly valuable suit is currently held by Paul Fraser Collectibles and can be viewed here.
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