Major Tim Peake is currently in quarantine as he prepares for launch on Tuesday to the International Space Station as UK’s first official astronaut. During six months in orbit for the European Space Agency, the former Army test pilot from Chichester, West Sussex, will run the London Marathon on a treadmill.

But while space fans across the country will be cheering Tim on, many will be surprised to learn that the UK has already produced SIX astronauts, with the first making her flight nearly a quarter of a century ago! These are the names of the previous pioneering astronauts born on UK soil.

1. Helen Sharman

Britain’s first astronaut was Helen Sharman, a food scientist who had helped create the Mars ice cream bar.

She won a ride, at the age of 27, to the Soviet Union’s Mir space station, in a contest organised by a private consortium that drew 13,000 applications.

Helen was replying to an advertisement she heard on her car radio: “Astronaut wanted. No experience necessary!” The consortium organising the trip was annoyed that the UK Government refused to support a manned spaceflight programme at the time and so sought sponsorship from companies including Interflora.

Sharman’s mission, dubbed Project Juno, nearly did not happen because the consortium failed to come up with the £7.5 million bill for the flight. But Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev decided to cover the rather large shortfall.

After 18 months of tough training in Moscow, Sharman blasted off aboard a Soyuz rocket, with two Russian crewmen, from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on May 18, 1991. During eight days in space, she carried out experiments suggested by schoolkids including medical tests and growing pansies in orbit. Sharman, from Sheffield, parachuted back to Earth in the space capsule on May 26.

Now 52, she keeps a low profile while working as operations manager for the Department of Chemistry at Imperial College London.

2. Michael Foale

Michael Foale, 58, was born in Louth, Lincolnshire, and grew up and was educated in England, But he had to take joint US nationality to achieve his dream of flying in space.

He became one of NASA’s most experienced astronauts, having flown on no fewer than six missions between 1992 and 2003. His daring experiences included spacewalks, surviving a life-threatening collision, and helping repair the Hubble telescope.

Foale, who went to the private King’s School Canterbury, followed by Queens’ College, Cambridge, first flew on the space shuttle Atlantis from March to April, 1992, to study the atmosphere and solar radiation.

His next mission, in April 1993, was a flight aboard another shuttle, Discovery, to put two satellites in space. In February 1995, he was again aboard Discovery to rendezvous with the Soviet Mir space station. During the mission, Foale made his first spacewalk.

His next flight was to begin a mission lasting more than five months in orbit. Foale blasted off on the shuttle Atlantis in May 1997 to join a Russian crew aboard Mir. It was a dramatic stay. On June 25, the space station was rammed by a Progress cargo ship that was attempting to dock, badly damaging a laboratory and a solar panel. Foale later said he feared he would die as air began to escape the orbiting workshop and it went into a spin.

Having corrected the roll, he made a six-hour spacewalk with Russian colleague Anatoli Soloviev to inspect the damage. Foale returned to Earth on October 6 after his eventful 145 days away.

In late December 1999, Foale flew once again on the shuttle Discovery on a daring mission to repair the Hubble telescope by installing a new computer and guidance system during a spacewalk lasting more than eight hours.

Foale, who is married with two children, made his final trip into space in October 2003 on a Russian Soyuz rocket to the International Space Station where he stayed six months and commanded the orbiting outpost.

On his return to Earth in April 2004, Foale had clocked up a total of more than 374 days in space, including nearly 23 hours of spacewalks. He retired from NASA in 2013 to help develop environmentally friendly aviation by designing an electric aircraft.

3. Piers Sellers

Another Brit who had to take US nationality to reach space was Piers Sellers, now 60, who was born in Crowborough, East Sussex, went to Cranbrook School, Kent, and then studied at Edinburgh University.

Sellers’ first spaceflight as aboard the shuttle Atlantis in October 2002 on an early mission to continue construction of the International Space Station. He carried out three spacewalks during the mission, lasting over 19 hours, to install a giant truss.

Following the Columbia shuttle disaster in February 2003, Sellers was part of the crew that saw shuttle return to flight with a 13-day mission aboard its sister ship Discovery. He helped test new safety equipment, and perform maintenance work on the station, including three spacewalks.

Sellers’ final spaceflight was an 11-day mission on shuttle Atlantis in May 2010 which delivered a new Russian module to the outpost. Having logged nearly 35 days in total in space, including 40 hours of spacewalks, he took a desk job at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Maryland, as a Deputy Director.

Commenting on the latest Brit’s mission, Sellers, who is married with two children, told me: “Tim Peake is sure to do well!”

Sadly, Piers died from pancreatic cancer in December 2016.

4. Nick Patrick

Born in Saltburn-by-the-Sea, North Yorks, Patrick was another wannabe spaceman who rose to astronomical heights with NASA, having taken US citizenship to achieve his dream.

Now 51, and married with three children, he went to top public school Harrow, in Middlesex, before studying engineering at Cambridge University where he also learned to fly.

Patrick joined NASA in 1998 to begin training at the Johnson Space Center, Houston. He made two flights to the International Space Station, first on Discovery in December 2006, and then aboard shuttle Endeavour in February, 2010.

During the two missions, Patrick clocked up 638 hours in space, including three spacewalks on his second mission, lasting a total or more than 18 hours.

Patrick left NASA in 2012 to join Boeing, but now works for Amazon chief Jeff Bezos’s space company Blue Origin, which is offering commercial space flights for wealthy passengers – and this week offered a free trip to Donald Trump.

5. Gregory H Johnson

Johnson, 53, was born in South Ruislip, Middlesex, while his father was stationed at a US Air Force base in the area, so considers himself to be solely a US citizen.

Married with three children, he made two flights aboard space shuttles. The first, on Endeavour in March 2008, continued its construction.

He flew again on Endeavour in May 2011 on the last but one flight of a shuttle, which delivered more spare parts fro the outpost.

Johnson retired from NASA in 2013 to promote science in space.

6. Richard Garriott

Garriott, who is yet another astronaut with a Cambridge link, funded his own trip into space after making a fortune in the video games industry.

He was also the first spaceman to follow in the family footsteps because his father Owen, 85, was a veteran of two trips into orbit.

The younger Garriott, now 54, was born in the UK city to his American parents, Owen and Helen, and is proud of his dual nationality.

He calls himself Lord British, after a character in his hit games series Ultima, and his home in Austin, Texas, is called Britannia Manor.

He paid $30 million to the company Space Adventures to become the sixth space tourist, booking a seat on a Russian Soyuz that lifted off in October 2008.

Garriott was parachuted back to a landing after a 12 day stay on the International Space Station.