Helen Patricia Sharman, CMG, OBE, HonFRSC (born 30 May 1963) is a chemist and cosmonaut who became the first British person, first Western European woman, and first privately funded woman in space, as well as the first woman to visit the Mir space station, in May 1991. Sharman was 27 years and 11 months old when she went into space, making her (as of 2017) the sixth youngest of the 556 individuals who have flown in space.
An astronaut (or cosmonaut) is a person trained by a human spaceflight program to command, pilot, or serve as a crew member of a spacecraft.
Although generally reserved for professional space travelers, the terms are sometimes applied to anyone who travels into space, including scientists, politicians, journalists, and tourists.