Project Juno was a privately funded campaign which selectedHelen Sharman to be the firstBriton in space.
As the United Kingdom did not, at that time, have ahuman spaceflight programme (until the UK joined the human spaceflight elements ofESA's exploration programme in December 2012,[1] which led toTim Peake'sESA mission in 2015), a private consortium was formed to raise money to pay theSoviet Union for a seat on aSoyuz mission to theMirspace station. The Soviet Union had recently flownToyohiro Akiyama, aJapanesejournalist, under a similar arrangement.
A call for applicants was publicized in the UK (one ad read "Astronaut wanted. No experience necessary"[2]), leading to 13,000 applications. Juno selected four candidates to train in the Soviet Union:[3]
Eventually Mace and Sharman were selected to continue full-time training at Star City. After learning Russian and familiarising themselves with the science programme, Smith and Brooks were employed to teach the other two how to perform the experiments and then to conduct them in a life sized mock up of Mir for live media during the mission.
The cost of the flight was to be funded by various innovative schemes, including sponsoring by private British companies and a lottery system. Corporate sponsors includedBritish Aerospace,Memorex, andInterflora, and television rights were sold toITV.
The flight cost £7 million.[4]
Ultimately the Juno consortium failed to raise the entire sum, and the Soviet Union considered cancelling the mission. HoweverMikhail Gorbachev directed the mission to proceed at Soviet cost.[5] The ambitious microgravity experiments originally planned were dropped when time ran out for sending required equipment on an automated 'Progress' flight. Helen did perform experiments designed by British schools that could be done with existing equipment aboard Mir along with a British microbiology screening investigation taken over by the Russians.
Sharman was launched aboardSoyuz TM-12 on 18 May 1991,[6] and returned aboardSoyuz TM-11 on 26 May 1991.
Both Sharman and Mace were candidates but not selected in the 1992 and 1998European Space Agency selection rounds for its astronaut corps. Brooks was also put forward for the European Astronaut Corps in 1982, but dropped out when employed on AI systems elsewhere.[7] Mace did not fly in space, but married the daughter ofcosmonautVitali Zholobov. He was later thehelicopter pilot forPresident of South AfricaNelson Mandela.[8] He died in September 2014 from cancer.[9]