HELEN Sharman became Britain’s first astronaut in 1991, ascending to the old Mir space station aboard a Russian Soyuz.

Were it not for some twists of fate, though, a former Swindon schoolboy would have taken the honour a decade earlier.

It was in July of 1978 that we told readers about Bruce Patchett, and the tale made for a cheery interlude in an otherwise rather featureless news month.

The World Cup was being contested in Argentina at the time, but England hadn’t qualified. Scotland had, but local expat Caledonians were keeping a low and unhappy profile while Ally MacLeod led their side to early elimination.

“The Spaceman from Swindon,” said our headline on Monday, July 5.

We wrote: “An ex-schoolboy from Swindon is waiting for the okay to lift-off as Britain’s first spaceman.

“Bruce Patchett, who went to the old Ferndale Road secondary modern, is on the shortlist for an American space shuttle flight.

“He is waiting at his home in Abingdon, Oxfordshire, for the phone call from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration at Cape Canaveral, which could launch him to fame as a star astronaut.

“If he is chosen he will be one of three scientists who will blast off from Texas in 1981 in Spacelab 2.

“It’s a far cry from the days in Swindon for the boy whose school pals thought he was barmy.”

Bruce, who according to astronaut candidate records was born in 1947, held a degree in physics and a Masters in astronomy. He worked as a project manager at the Culham Laboratory near Abingdon, where he led a team preparing experiments for Spacelab.

He told us: “I remember they all thought I was mad in Ferndale Road when I was out in the cold pointing a telescope at the moon with the snow piling up on my shoulders.

“It will be wonderful to look down at Earth, and they say the sunrises up there are beautiful.

“It will be one of those great milestones that help to fill your life.

“Just imagine talking about it in the pub afterwards. Not many people get the chance to go up in space.”

Sadly Bruce wasn’t chosen, and delays to the shuttle programme meant the first spacecraft test launch wasn’t until 1981, but the Ferndale Road schoolboy who dreamed of the stars went on to see his Spacelab experiments launched aboard the Challenger some years later.

He also played vital roles in a Japanese unmanned mission at the European Space Agency, and was a key member of an international team of scientists investigating the properties of the sun.

When Bruce Patchett died following a long illness in 1996, he was mourned not just by friends and loved ones but by the scientific community.

A European Space Agency conference shortly afterwards included a dedication by fellow scientist Alan Gabriel.

He wrote: “Those of us who had the honour and pleasure to know Bruce and to work closely with him will remember the tremendous sense of fun with which he approached his life and work, a spirit that infected and inspired all around him.”