Britain's first astronaut believes aliens exist and are possibly living among humans on Earth.
Helen Sharman was the first British astronaut and the first woman to visit the Russia Mir space station.
Trained as a chemist, Sharman was selected in 1989 to be part of the Project Juno Soviet Union-British space mission, which saw her eventually head off-world in 1991. At the age of 27, Sharman was among the youngest people to enter space, but she hasn't been back since.
In an interview with The Observer, published on Sunday (UK time), Sharman said she had no doubt that aliens existed.
"Aliens exist, there's no two ways about it," she said.
"There are so many billions of stars out there in the universe that there must be all sorts of different forms of life. Will they be like you and me, made up of carbon and nitrogen? Maybe not."
She then made a startling claim.
"It's possible they're here right now and we simply can't see them."
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Sharman said she was motivated by "self-belief and a can-do attitude", having only applied to go to space after hearing about the job on the radio.
"I ticked all the boxes, but thought they wouldn't choose me so I wouldn't bother. By the time I got home I'd realised that if I didn't actually apply, then they couldn't choose me."
She said there was "no greater beauty than looking at the Earth from up high", with the blue seas taking her breath away.
Sharman also expressed her frustration with people saying she was the first British woman to go to space when she was the first British person.
"It's telling that we would otherwise assume it was a man."
She has numerous honourary degrees from British universities and has been appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire for her work. Since her trip to space, Sharman has been writing books and working with the British scientific community.
