First British astronaut Helen Sharman says aliens exist – and may be 'here right now'

Joshua Bote | USA TODAY

Show Caption Hide Caption British astronaut says aliens could be among us According to astronaut Helen Sharman, aliens could be among us at this very moment.

The first British person to go into space said she believes aliens are real – and they may be among us.

Helen Sharman made history in May 1991 as the first Brit to go to space when she was launched on the spacecraft Soyuz for eight days and visited the Soviet-operated space station Mir. She told the Observer about her belief in extraterrestrial forces in an interview published Sunday.

“There are so many billions of stars out there in the universe that there must be all sorts of different forms of life,” she said.

She said the beings may not be made of carbon and nitrogen – two of the composite elements in the human body – but rather of materials unseen by the human eye.

“It’s possible they’re here right now and we simply can’t see them,” Sharman said.

Elsewhere in the interview, she pointed out the sexism in the assumption that the first British astronaut must have been a man. "People often describe me as the first British woman in space, but I was actually the first British person," she said. "It’s telling that we would otherwise assume it was a man."

Sharman, 56, is a chemist at Imperial College in London. She did not immediately respond to a request for comment from USA TODAY.

Though Sharman may be one of the first astronauts to share their beliefs in the alien unknown so publicly, she isn't alone. Apollo 11 astronaut Michael Collins, when asked on Twitter if he believed in life outside Earth, responded “yes” – without any further context.

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