Helen Sharman was the first Briton in space in 1991, but she had to raise the money needed to fly on a Russian spacecraft herself.

BBC: Major Tim Peake says he is not too old to go into space

As a result Geostorms, which could be launched as soon as 2005, has a good chance of being the first spacecraft to fly using a solar sail.

ECONOMIST: Rockets are not the only way to travel through outer space

Scientists managed to salvage the mission by placing the spacecraft into a trajectory that let it fly by the asteroid and have another chance the following year.

BBC: Probe nears its rocky target

Mr. STERN: So a few weeks after the Pluto encounter when we've chosen our target, we'll fire the engines of the spacecraft, but we'll have to fly a distance something like from here to the sun or twice that far to reach these Kuiper Belt objects.

NPR: NASA Sends Spacecraft to Pluto