This podcast extra is our full length interview with Dr Helen Sharman, Britain's First astronaut and the first woman to visit the Russian Mir Space Station in 1991.

In this interview we discuss:

• Tim Peake
• Access to space during a time of no UK funding
• The skills needed to be an astronaut
• Training for spaceflight at Star City in Russia
• The collapse of the Soviet Union just before launch
• Speaking with Mikhail Gorbachev from the Mir Space Station
• Comparing Mir to a camping trip!
• Acclimatising to spaceflight in the Soyuz capsule
• Science conducted by Helen on Mir
• The UK's reticence to fund human spaceflight
• NASA's plans for missions beyond Low Earth Orbit
• Post-Brexit uncertainty over science and collaboration
• Promoting space