Development Methods

Women and space or enlightenment of the planet developmental delay. Women cosmonauts who entered the history of Russia Which women flew into space

More often than others, representatives of the United States overcame gravity - the list of astronauts in this country has about 340 names, and 45 of them are female. The Russians firmly hold the second place in the overall table - about 120 cosmonauts, but only three of them were women.

First in the world

The championship in this area belongs to one of the most famous personalities in the world - Valentina Tereshkova. She was born in 1937 in a small village located near Yaroslavl. When she was 22 years old, she became seriously interested in skydiving.

In 1962-1997, she was a member of the female cosmonaut corps. In addition to her, there were 4 more contenders for the flight. I must say that Tereshkova was not the best in terms of endurance and physical fitness. But the then government decided it was her first to send into space.

There were two reasons that influenced this decision. The first one is origin. Valentina Tereshkova was, as they said at that time, a native of the people. The second reason is attractive appearance, charm and charisma.

“Valya Tereshkova was not a leader, although she was appointed senior. After all, in Soviet times we did not even know such a word - "leader". Everyone was equal. And no one guessed that it was Valentina who would fly into space. Moreover, she never stood out in her performance from the entire group. But, as it seems to me, her origin helped a lot. I was born and raised in Moscow. And Valya from the provinces worked as a weaver. In the USSR, this was valued and respected. We, Muscovites, still hoped that there was a chance, but it was not so - the villagers bypassed us. Tereshkova was chosen for the flight. When I think about those times, it seems that it was a completely different life, ”says Tatyana Kuznetsova, Valentina Tereshkova’s colleague in the detachment, an Air Force colonel in the reserve.

The detachment of future cosmonauts was fully formed in 1962. It included Valentina Tereshkova, Zhanna Yorkina, Tatyana Kuznetsova, Valentina Ponomareva and Irina Solovyova. And Sergei Korolev himself commanded the "parade".

“We, young girls, did not know the name and patronymic of Korolev. They only read that his initials were S.P. So they nicknamed him among themselves: S.P. And when S.P. met us for the first time, he said:

“Girls, one of you will be the first to fly into space, this is obvious. But do not be offended by our choice, because those who do not fly this time will have even more interesting and long flights. Let's agree on this: either we will pout at each other because someone will not fly, or we will prepare for flights. We chose the latter. And they prepared for flights, passed all kinds of tests, each of which turned out to be difficult in some way.

The girls were "floated" in a heat chamber at +70°C and 30% humidity, kept in zero gravity, where they had to not only adapt to the lack of attraction, but also perform various tasks: have lunch, chat with the command center, draw something or write on a piece of paper. They were taught to splash down on a parachute into water bodies, and also kept in isolation for 10 days in order to develop the habit of being alone in flight.

Despite the fact that the flight was officially recognized as a success, it was not without difficulties. Tereshkova did not feel well, and the spacesuit was very uncomfortable. Because of this, she was unable to complete all the planned tasks in full. In addition, a number of other technical difficulties were revealed. For example, when assembling the manual control, mistakes were made that almost led to the ship deviating from orbit. But since the automation worked at a height, the landing went smoothly.

Unfortunately, after the flight, she had to tell not what she actually experienced. She looked at the TV cameras and assured:

“I felt great. I felt good!” But then there was such a time - by all means not to lose face. Especially when the whole world is watching you! Although it is clear that it could not be good. They asked her: “Valentina Vladimirovna, did the spacesuit cause you any inconvenience?” - "No. I just sweated." In fact, spending three days in a heavy spacesuit was a real torment ...

In 1963, Tereshkova received the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. In addition, she is so far the only woman in the Russian army holding the military rank of major general.

In her memoirs, Tatyana Kuznetsova writes: “Valentina devoted a lot of time to her political career. We were all members of the Komsomol when we got into the detachment. Valya was a member of the party, an avid communist, she came to us from the Komsomol committee from her factory. But then she apparently changed her views more than once. Now she is a deputy from United Russia. This is not very clear to me. Although recently we all celebrated the 50th anniversary of our detachment together. All of us, even those cosmonauts who have been retired for a long time, even those who were expelled at one time, were gathered for a rich feast. Everyone congratulated, remembered, and then Tereshkova stood up and said: “Then they chose us, five girls, young, smart, beautiful. It's been 50 years since then and we're still together. There were enough men in our life - they came and went. And we continue to be together. We endured everything, no matter what." I really liked these words of Valentina. They were honest!"

I must say that all the women from Russia who have been in space have made an invaluable contribution to the development and study of our Universe. But only Valentina Tereshkova, and to this day is the first and only representative of the fair sex, who made a solo flight into Earth's orbit.

First in outer space

The next woman to see space was Svetlana Savitskaya. She was born in 1947 in the family of a marshal and became an astronaut thanks to her strong determination, willpower and high professionalism:

“My goal was to fly. Namely, to participate in space flights. In fact, that's why I went into aviation sports. I just never told anyone about it, because it was a time when they said that space is not a woman's business. Our first woman flew off and there was nothing more to do there, that's enough, everything is clear and so. But I was initially sure that women would still fly into space.”

Savitskaya's career began with NPO Vzlyot, where she worked as a test pilot. In 1982, she got into the crew of the Soyuz T-7 spacecraft, where she spent 8 days. And after 2 years she went into outer space, where she stayed for 3 hours 35 minutes.

According to Savitskaya, when going into space, she and Dzhanibekov then tested a universal hand tool with which it was possible to weld, cut and solder metal. The Kyiv Institute of Paton made it. A unique tool, completely new, no one has done this before.

“It was, of course, the key experiment of this entire flight. We did it normally, without errors, without any emergency. As a matter of fact, when going out into outer space, this is the most important thing - to do what you were preparing for. Therefore, there are no special emotions, you know, such that something happened that day. There was no fear then, this concept is generally useless when it comes to outer space. This is more strenuous work. Yes, there are more dangers. You need to be more literate, more careful, more punctual, to control yourself clearly. But it's not fear. Fear is when a person freezes and does not know what to do. This does not apply either to the profession of a pilot or an astronaut, in my opinion. There are stages where you understand: yes, something can happen here. Somewhere you can do something, but somewhere you can't. So, you rely on technology, ”the astronaut shares his memories.

It was Savitskaya who suggested that the USSR should have a priority in the exit of a woman cosmonaut into space. According to her, this idea came to her after her first flight into orbit in 1982:

“I saw the spacesuit, I saw the compartment, I understood that it could be done. And given that the Americans began flying on the Shuttle and after a year and a half were going to include a woman in the crew, I, of course, understood that any normal head of the space program in America, of course, would have solved this “cell” unoccupied , such a milestone achievement, would be included in your program.

The spacewalk of the first woman, Svetlana Savitskaya 30 years ago, became historic for astronautics, but for her herself it was a stage of difficult work, not marked by special emotions: then Savitskaya dreamed of flying on the Buran spacecraft. Today Svetlana Savitskaya is twice Hero of the Soviet Union, USSR pilot-cosmonaut, deputy head of the Defense Committee of the State Duma of the Russian Federation.

Longest flight

The next representative to add to the list of "Women Cosmonauts of the USSR and Russia" was Elena Kondakova. She was born in 1957 in the Moscow region, in the town of Mytishchi. In 1989 she became a candidate for the cosmonaut corps and, after special training, received the qualification of a researcher.

Like her two predecessors, Elena Kondakova also became the first - in terms of the duration of her stay in space. Its total duration was almost 179 days. She has two flights on her account: one - in 1994 at the Mir station, the second - in 1997 on the Atlantis spacecraft (shuttle).

Elena Vladimirovna graduated from the Bauman Moscow State Technical University in 1980 and began working in the “space” NPO Energia as a young specialist. At the same time, her future husband Valery Ryumin made his third space flight.

Wise experience twice Hero of the Soviet Union Valery Ryumin passed on his experience to young cosmonauts. When the 46-year-old Ryumin married a 28-year-old colleague in the space industry in 1985, he clearly did not imagine that his wife could "escape into orbit." And even more so, he did not assume this after the couple had a daughter in January 1986, who was named Zhenya. Ryumin himself said in an interview that he was against his wife becoming an astronaut, but he did not have enough strength to keep her.

On October 4, 1994, the Soyuz TM-20 spacecraft was launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome with a crew of Alexander Viktorenko, Elena Kondakova and a German representative, Ulf Merbold.

Like her predecessors, Kondakova also became the first - the first woman to make a long-term space flight. The duration of her flight on the Soyuz and the Mir station was 169 days 5 hours and 35 seconds. On March 22, 1995, when Viktorenko and Kondakova returned to Earth, Valery Polyakov also returned with them, setting a still unbroken space flight duration record - 437 days 17 hours and 31 seconds.

The second flight of Kondakova was carried out in May 1997 on the American space shuttle Atlantis under the program of the sixth orbital docking with the Mir station.

Valery Ryumin did not want to lag behind his wife either - in June 1998, an experienced space veteran went to the Mir station on the American Discovery spacecraft.

In 1999, Kondakova became a State Duma deputy from the Fatherland - All Russia party, and from 2003 to 2011 she was a parliamentarian from the United Russia party.

The new "star woman"

After 17 years, on September 26, 2014, another spacecraft was launched from Baikonur, the crew of which includes Elena Serova. It was her first flight. According to the plan, it should last 170 days and nights.

The fourth female cosmonaut, Elena Serova, was born in the seaside village of Vozdvizhenka. After graduating from the Moscow Aviation Institute, she was hired by the Mission Control Center. Then she constantly improved her skills and in 2009 she became a test cosmonaut.

In one of the interviews, Elena told how she applied to the cosmonaut corps: “Everything happened very harmoniously. While still at the institute, I met my future husband, we worked with him at RSC Energia, he joined the detachment in 2003, and then I did in 2006.”

Elena Serova, having gone into orbit, became the first Russian woman to fly to the ISS. But there were no indulgences, Elena does everything on a par with men. Even when it comes to physical activity and endurance training.

The flight of Elena Serova, almost a feat. Yes, I know the opinions of the townsfolk - well, another woman flew, what's wrong with that? American women went out and at the Mir orbital station on semi-annual expeditions, and worked on the ISS more than once. And our Elena Kondakova spent half a year in orbit. It's like that. If it were as easy for a woman to get into the cosmonaut corps (and then get an appointment in the crew) as American women.

The Soyuz TMA-14M flight is the 40th flight of a Russian spacecraft to the International Space Station. The crew commander is Alexander Samokutyaev, the flight engineers are Elena Serova and NASA astronaut Barry Wilmore. They have to work in orbit for 168 days.

The crew that launched at the end of September 2014 on the ISS, in which Elena Serova worked in orbit, performed more than 50 scientific experiments in orbit. Many of them were of great practical importance for science, medicine and humanity as a whole. In particular, Serova successfully carried out the unique experiment "Vizir", during which she was able to take a picture of any object on Earth so that specialists would know exactly its coordinates, and vice versa - according to the given data, to survey the earth's surface using a special method of domestic development.

In addition, going to the ISS, the owner of long hair, Serova, promised to demonstrate how you can wash your hair in 5 minutes in zero gravity in orbit. Later, cosmonaut Serova announced that she had managed to sprout two apple pits in orbit and promised to grow a "cosmic lemon."

Today, the only reliable means of delivering cosmonauts to the International Station is the Russian Soyuz spacecraft. But in Russia, as in the United States, ships of a new generation are being developed. In fact, they will become the basis of large spaceships, which will run to the Moon and Mars. So far, the Russian project does not have a proper name, only the name of the project is a promising transport ship of a new generation. Testing should begin in 2018.

∗∗∗

Women cosmonauts of the USSR and Russia are always on top. Their profession requires great courage, strong willpower, as well as the ability not to get confused and cope with any emergency situation. And while the list of female cosmonauts from our compatriots is small, they have everything ahead of them. After all, there is still a lot of mysterious and unknown that is fraught with a truly endless universe.

After writing a week ago about the Luna 2015 experiment with an all-female crew, I was unpleasantly surprised by the abundance of stupid jokes and misogynistic comments. Well, this is a great opportunity to talk about women in space.

Story

The first woman cosmonaut, Valentina Tereshkova, is world famous. Launched on June 16, 1963 on the Vostok-6 spacecraft, Valentina spent almost three days in space.

But the flight, which was successful on the whole, did not go perfectly - Tereshkova did not clearly keep in touch, experienced problems with building the landing orientation of the ship (the story about the incorrect orientation in the program and the “reprogramming” of Vostok-6 is not true), accidentally scratched the porthole, broke the pencil . When landing, in violation of the instructions, she raised her head up and earned a bruise on her nose from a blow from a helmet when the catapult turned on. After landing, again in violation of the instructions, she distributed her space ration to the collective farmers, perhaps hiding the fact that she ate almost nothing during the flight. Now this does not seem serious, we know that about half of the astronauts suffer from vestibular disorders at the beginning of the flight. But then this imperfect flight was superimposed on the political aspects of the choice of crews and the reaction “so that the spirit of the woman was not here!” Sergei Pavlovich Korolev - women in the USSR stopped flying into space for almost 20 years.

Much less well known is that around the same time in the US, women were making great efforts to break into space. It all started with scientific curiosity - Dr. William Lovelace, who conducted medical testing of male candidates for the first detachment of US astronauts, offered the famous pilot Geraldine Cobb to undergo the same tests. Geraldine, who taught men to fly at the age of 19 and set several aviation records by the end of the 50s, successfully coped with difficult and very uncomfortable medical tests. She also became the only woman to pass all three phases of medical testing (medical examination, isolation and mental assessment, advanced examination on military equipment using jet aircraft). In addition to Cobb, twelve other women successfully completed the first phase of testing. Women from the detachment, called "Mercury 13", could well have become astronauts, if not for politics. The requirements of NASA included mandatory experience as a military test pilot, but there were no such women. The President of the United States, who directly established these requirements, did not change them for the sake of women. None of the Mercury 13 team flew into space.

The second woman in space was Svetlana Savitskaya. She went on a flight to the Salyut-7 orbital station in 1982. And in 1984 she became the first woman to make two space flights, and the first woman to go into outer space. Before starting her space career, Svetlana flew jet planes and set several records on the MiG-25. After leaving the cosmonaut corps, she worked at the Moscow Aviation Institute, and then became a deputy.

Svetlana Savitskaya works in outer space

American female astronauts only appeared with the start of the Space Shuttle program. In the eighth detachment of astronauts, which was recruited in 1978, there were the first six women:

Left to right: Shannon Lucid, Margaret Seddon, Katherine Sullivan, Judith Resnick, Anna Fisher, Sally Ride

The lucky ticket to become the first female US astronaut was Sally Ride - she flew in 1983. The five remaining women set their records. The first American woman to perform a spacewalk was Kathryn Sullivan. Margaret Seddon was the mother of three children at the time of the selection, but the first of the mothers to have been in space was Anna Fisher, who gave birth to a daughter while already in the astronaut corps. At the time of the flight, my daughter was only one and a half years old. Shannon Lucid became the first woman to make five space flights, and also became the first American woman to visit the Mir station. Judith Resnick became the first Jewish-American woman in space.

Elena Kondakova became the first female cosmonaut in Russia. She also became the first woman to fly on two different types of spacecraft - the Soyuz (1994-1995) and the Space Shuttle (1997).

Eileen Collins became the first female pilot and commander of the Space Shuttle. She piloted the shuttle for the first time in 1995 on the Mir docking mission, and became the first commander on the STS-93 mission when the Chandra X-ray telescope, still in operation, was successfully launched into orbit.

Women were also in charge on the ISS - Peggy Whitson commanded the ISS from October 2007 to April 2008.

Left to right: Judith Resnick, Christa McAuliffe, Laurel Clark, Kalpana Chawla
Working alongside men in space, women have shared a sadder fate - of the 14 astronauts who died on the shuttles, four are women. Judith Resnick and Krista McAuliffe died on the Challenger, while Laurel Clark and Kalpana Chawla died on the Columbia.

Today, women continue to work in space. In 2014, Elena Serova became the first Russian woman on the ISS.

On June 11, 2015, Samantha Cristoforetti returned from the ISS, due to the Progress accident, she became the record holder among women for the duration of continuous space flight.

Kathleen Rubens to go to the ISS in 2016

Planet Enlightenment Arrested Development

Astronaut Mike Mullane described very well how he changed while working with women at NASA. I offer you excerpts from his Riding Rockets: The Outrageous Stories of a Space Shuttle Astronaut (my translation).

On my first day as an astronaut candidate, I faced two things that I had never faced before in my life: choosing what to wear to work and working with women.<...>And if the question of what to wear caused me simple bewilderment, then the female colleagues for me were like from another galaxy. I saw women only as sex objects, an unintended consequence of twelve years of Catholic schooling. Priests and nuns hammered into me the idea that women are identical with sex, and sex meant eternal torment in hell. The girls were never discussed in any other context. They were never talked about as people who could dream. There was no mention of female doctors, female scientists, female astronauts. Women were only spoken of as "causes of sin." The only thing I knew about women as a teenager was that the straight road to hell lay between their legs. And their breasts will introduce you to Beelzebub. Even fantasizing about their breasts and other body parts (the deadly sin of "unclean thoughts") will send you straight to hell. Only in marriage did the rules change. There, sex became the norm - for procreation. A married woman achieved her highest life status - to conceive and give birth to children. “The main purpose of marriage is to have children” was the dogma in the 1963 textbook A Course in Marriage by my wife, who graduated from St. Mary's School.
The same textbook contained a lesson on "male and female psychology" with a table of characteristics. “Men are more realists, women are idealists. Men are more emotionally stable, women are emotionally weaker. A man loves his job, a woman loves her man." And, my favorite, "Men are more often right, women are more often wrong."
I embraced these twisted sexist claims so much that I wrote an essay in high school about how women should be banned from college. I got "excellent". I turned out to be a good student.
<...>
The US Air Force officer corps, which I joined in 1967, was an all-male organization. I have not seen a single female pilot. Friday nights at the club we were entertained by strippers. Military pilots viewed women only as "foster nests". Anyone who said otherwise must have been about to run for Congress. Women may be from Venus, normal men from Mars, but military pilots come from the planet Arrest.

At first, Mullane's choice of words in communicating with women did not differ from what he would use in a male team. But there were also feminists among the six women of the eighth astronaut squad. A careless joke about the mention of the word "tits" in the presence of Sally Ride led to the fact that she did not talk to him for more than it was necessary for work, ten years. Mullane was not alone in his backwardness - other astronauts, former military pilots, staged idiotic practical jokes and came up with jokes that did not want to be translated. But working alongside civilians and women was instructive - these people may not know how to drink a burning cocktail, but they were no weaker in spirit, and did their job well. At the end of the book, Mike directly writes:

Without a doubt, the NASA experience has changed my personality the most in the area of attitudes towards women. I realized that they are the same people with dreams and ambitions, and they only need an opportunity to prove what they are capable of. And the women of the eighth set of astronauts did it. Watching the ninth-month-pregnant Margaret Seddon pilot the shuttle simulator, making perfect landings one after the other, was a lesson in their competence to me. Watching the broadcast from space, where she performs an unplanned and dangerous operation with a shuttle arm in order to turn on a malfunctioning satellite, was a lesson. Knowing that it was Judy who could turn on Mike Smith's breathing apparatus in the hell the Challenger had become was a lesson. Constantly displaying their professionalism, skill, and bravery, the female astronauts of the 8th recruitment took Mike Mullane back to school and changed him.

Conclusion

There are people who can be astronauts. Their gender is important for specific physiological issues or specialists of the IBMP RAS level. There are people who cannot be astronauts because of poor health, mentality or bad temper. And gender doesn't matter.

Now you will not surprise anyone with flights into space. Of course, they are not yet perceived as a common occurrence, but still there is no such excitement that accompanied the first steps of mankind at the base of the unknown endless starry sky. More than half a century has passed since the first space flight in history. During this time, more than five hundred people managed to see through the glass of the porthole how endless the expanses of the Universe are. Not only men flew on board. Among them were and are female cosmonauts of the USSR and Russia.

First in the world

In 1963, Tereshkova received the rank. In addition, she is so far the only woman in the Russian army who bears the military rank of major general.

I must say that all the women from Russia who have been in space have made an invaluable contribution to the development and study of our Universe. But only Valentina Tereshkova, and to this day is the first and only representative of the fair sex, who made a solo flight into Earth's orbit.

First in outer space

The next woman who saw space was She was born in 1947 in the family of a marshal and became an astronaut due to her strong determination, willpower and high professionalism.

Longest flight

The next representative to add to the list of “and Russia” was She was born in 1957 in the Moscow region, in the town of Mytishchi. In 1989 she became a candidate for the cosmonaut corps and, after special training, received the qualification of a researcher.

Women cosmonauts of the USSR and Russia are not only space explorers, but also take an active part in the political life of the country. In 1999, Elena Kondakova was elected a deputy to the State Duma.

The new "star woman"

After 17 years, on September 26, 2014, another spacecraft was launched from Baikonur, the crew of which includes This is her first flight. According to the plan, it should last 170 days and nights.

The fourth female cosmonaut was born in the seaside village of Vozdvizhenka. After graduating from the Moscow Aviation Institute, she was taken to work in She constantly improved her skills and in 2009 became a test cosmonaut.

Women cosmonauts of the USSR and Russia are always on top. Their profession requires great courage, strong willpower, as well as the ability not to get confused and cope with any emergency situation.

And while the list of female cosmonauts from our compatriots is small, they have everything ahead of them. After all, there is still a lot of mysterious and unknown that is fraught with a truly endless universe.

Valentina Vladimirovna Tereshkova - born March 6, 1937 - the world's first female cosmonaut (1963), Hero of the Soviet Union (1963). Pilot-cosmonaut of the USSR No. 6, (call sign - "Seagull"), 10th cosmonaut of the world. The only woman in the world who made a space flight alone.

A long time ago in one not the most famous galaxy, from not the largest planet of a star named the Sun, namely on June 16, 1963 at 12 hours 30 minutes Moscow time in a state called the USSR, the Vostok-6 spacecraft was launched into the orbit of the planet ", for the first time in the world, piloted by a woman - a citizen of the Soviet Union Valentina Tereshkova ...

The world's first female astronaut was chosen from among the parachutists. After the first successful space flights of Yuri Gagarin and German Titov, Sergei Korolev decided to send a woman into space. It was a politically motivated move. I wanted to be the first in this as well. The search for applicants began at the very end of 1961. The requirements were as follows: parachutist, age up to 30 years, height up to 170 centimeters and weight up to 70 kilograms. Parachutists were given preference, because the Vostok cosmonaut had to eject after the descent vehicle had braked in the atmosphere and land on a parachute, and the training period was initially determined to be short - about six months. I didn’t want to spend a lot of time practicing landing on a parachute. Of more than fifty candidates, five girls were eventually selected. Among them was Valentina Tereshkova. All of them, except for the pilot Valentina Ponomareva, were parachutists. Valentina Tereshkova has been involved in parachuting since 1959 at the Yaroslavl Aeroclub: by the time she was looking for a candidate for space flight, she had completed a total of about 90 jumps.

Paratroopers V. Girs and V. Tereshkova. Yaroslavl flying club. 1960
The girls selected for space flight hoped that sooner or later they would all fly into space. Of course, each of the five girls dreamed that it was she who would fly into space. In order for the atmosphere in the women's team to be friendly, especially since General Designer S.P. Korolev promised the girls that they would all be there sooner or later.

But this, as we know, did not happen. Although other girls were really planned to be sent into space, and they were preparing for this for several more years after the flight of Valentina Tereshkova. Only in October 1969 was an order issued to disband the female cosmonaut group. So only Valentina Tereshkova out of the five girls who underwent training could become a real astronaut.

Valentina Tereshkova had two stunt doubles. In practice, it is accepted that each astronaut should have an understudy. In the case of the first female flight, they decided to play it safe - Tereshkova was assigned two understudies at once due to the complexity of the female body. Irina Solovieva and Valentina Ponomareva were substitutes. Why did the choice fall on Tereshkova? The leadership never substantiated their choice, but, according to the main existing version, this decision was rather political. Tereshkova was from the workers, her father died during the Soviet-Finnish war, when she was two years old. Other girls, for example, Ponomareva and Solovyov, were from the employees. Nikita Khrushchev, who approved the final candidacy, apparently wanted a girl "from the people" to become the first woman cosmonaut.

Valentina Tereshkova, who was born in the countryside, in the family of a tractor driver and a textile factory worker, fit these requirements better than others. Although the doctors who observed the girls were inclined to give priority to other candidates - for example, Irina Solovieva, a master of sports in parachuting, who made more than 700 jumps. According to another version, Sergei Korolev was planning another female flight with spacewalks, and it was for him that the shore was stronger, according to doctors, Solovyov and Ponomarev.

Initially, the simultaneous flight of two female crews was supposed. According to the original idea, two girls were supposed to fly into space at the same time in different devices, but in the spring of 1963 this idea was abandoned. Therefore, on June 14, 1963, in the afternoon, Valery Bykovsky was sent into space on the Vostok-5 spacecraft. His flight to this day is considered the longest solo flight: Valery spent almost 5 days in space. That is two days more than Valentina Tereshkova.

Relatives of Valentina Tereshkova learned about the flight only after it ended. The flight could have ended in tragedy, so Valentina Tereshkova kept information about him a secret from her relatives. Before the flight, she told them that she was going to parachutist competitions, and they had already learned about what had happened on the radio. Lieutenant General Nikolai Kamanin, who was involved in the selection and training of astronauts, described Tereshkova's launch as follows:
“The preparation of the rocket, the ship and all maintenance operations were exceptionally clear. In terms of the clarity and coherence of the work of all services and systems, Tereshkova's start reminded me of Gagarin's start. As on April 12, 1961, on June 16, 1963, the flight was prepared and started perfectly. Everyone who saw Tereshkova during the preparation of the launch and launch of the ship into orbit, who listened to her reports on the radio, unanimously declared: "She launched better than Popovich and Nikolaev." Yes, I am very glad that I was not mistaken in choosing the first female astronaut.
At the time of the flight, Valentina Tereshkova was only 26 years old.

In the cockpit of a spaceship.
An inaccuracy was made in the automatic program of the ship. A mistake was made and the Vostok-6 spacecraft was oriented in such a way that, instead of descending, on the contrary, it raised the orbit. Instead of approaching the Earth, V. Tereshkova moved away from it. The flight control center was informed about the Chaika malfunction, and the scientists were able to adjust the program. Lieutenant General Nikolai Kamanin continues: “I talked to Tereshkova several times. It is felt that she is tired, but does not want to admit it. In the last communication session, she did not answer calls from the Leningrad IP. We turned on the television camera and saw that she was sleeping. I had to wake her up and talk to her about the upcoming landing, and about manual orientation. She tried twice to orient the ship and honestly admitted that she was unable to orient herself in pitch. This circumstance worries all of us very much: if you have to land manually, and she cannot orient the ship, then it will not leave orbit. To our doubts, she replied: "Don't worry, I'll do everything in the morning." She communicates perfectly, thinks well and has not made a single mistake so far.

Later it turned out that the commands issued by the pilot were inverted in the direction of movement of the control in manual mode (the ship turned in the wrong direction as when working out on the simulator). According to Tereshkova, the problem was in the incorrect installation of control wires: commands were given not to descend, but to raise the ship's orbit. In automatic mode, the polarity was correct, which made it possible to properly orient and land the ship. For several decades, none of the participants in the events, at the request of Sergei Pavlovich Korolev, spoke about this story, and only relatively recently it became a well-known fact.

In total, Valentina Tereshkova has flown almost 2 million kilometers. The launch of Vostok-6 took place on the morning of June 16, 1963, and Valentina Tereshkova landed on the morning of June 19. In total, the flight lasted two days, 22 hours and 41 minutes. During this time, the astronaut made 48 orbits around the Earth, flying a total of approximately 1.97 million kilometers.

According to the doctor of medical sciences, professor V. I. Yazdovsky, who was responsible at that time for the medical support of the Soviet space program, women endure the extreme loads of space flight worse on the 14-18th day of the monthly cycle. Since the launch of the carrier that brought Tereshkova into orbit was delayed for a day, and also, obviously, due to the strong psycho-emotional load during the launch of the ship into orbit, the flight regime provided for by the doctors could not be maintained. Yazdovsky also noted that “Tereshkova, according to telemetry and television control, endured the flight mostly satisfactorily. Negotiations with ground communication stations were sluggish. She severely limited her movements. She sat almost motionless. She clearly showed changes in her state of health of a vegetative nature. "Despite nausea and physical discomfort, Tereshkova withstood 48 revolutions around the Earth and spent almost three days in space, where she kept a logbook and took photographs of the horizon, which were later used to detect aerosol layers in the atmosphere. The Vostok-6 descent vehicle landed safely in the Bayevsky district of the Altai Territory. Immediately after landing, despite medical advice, Tereshkova ate local food after three days of fasting.

The flight was not easy, the landing was terrible. At that time, it was not customary to talk about the difficulties. Therefore, Valentina Tereshkova did not report that the flight was difficult. It was very difficult to stay for three days in a heavy, restrictive spacesuit. But she survived: she did not ask for an early termination of the flight. Valentina was especially scared during the landing. There was a lake below her, she could not control a large heavy parachute opening at an altitude of 4 km. And although the astronauts were taught to splash down, Valentina was not sure that she would have enough strength to stay on the water after an exhausting flight. But in the end, Valentina Tereshkova was lucky: she flew over the lake.

The shots made by the newsreel were staged. Newsreels showing the landing of the descent vehicle were staged. They were filmed the day after Tereshkova's actual return to Earth. When the girl returned, she was in very bad condition and was rushed to the hospital. But soon she came to her senses and the next day she felt well.

Valentina "The Seagull" Tereshkova is not only the first female cosmonaut in history. She is also the only woman on our planet who has made a solo space flight. All other female cosmonauts and astronauts flew into space only as part of crews. The flight of Valentina Tereshkova became a significant page in the history of space exploration.

Valentina Tereshkova, 1969
From April 30, 1969 to April 28, 1997 - instructor-cosmonaut of the cosmonaut detachment of the 1st department of the 1st directorate of the group of orbital ships and stations, instructor-cosmonaut-test of the group of orbital manned complexes of general and special purposes, 1st group of the cosmonaut detachment. Tereshkova remained in the detachment, and in 1982 she could even be appointed commander of the female crew of the Soyuz spacecraft. On April 30, 1997, Tereshkova left the detachment of the last of the women's recruitment in 1962 due to reaching the age limit. Since 1997, she has been a senior researcher at the Cosmonaut Training Center.

After performing a space flight, Tereshkova entered the Air Force Engineering Academy. N. E. Zhukovsky and, having graduated with honors, later became a candidate of technical sciences, professor, author of more than 50 scientific papers.

After fulfilling her dream of space flight, Valentina never stopped dreaming. It would seem, what else can one dream of after the completion of such a flight and universal fame. But Tereshkova did not stop thinking about the possibility of new flights. She really wanted to go on a flight to Mars, and was even ready to fly there without the possibility of returning back. And after Tereshkova saw all the continents of the Earth from space, she began to dream of visiting Australia. After many years, she managed to fulfill her dream.

Personal life of a female astronaut:
She was married to Andriyan Nikolaev, the wedding took place in a government mansion on the Lenin Hills on November 3, 1963, N. S. Khrushchev was among the guests. After the marriage and until the divorce, Tereshkova bore the double surname of Nikolaeva-Tereshkova. This marriage was officially terminated in 1982, after the age of Elena's daughter. Tereshkova once mentioned the reasons for her divorce from cosmonaut-3: “In work - gold, at home - despot.”
The second husband is Major General of the Medical Service, Director of the Central Institute of Traumatology and Orthopedics (CITO) Yuli Shaposhnikov (1931-1999). On June 8, 1964, daughter Elena Andriyanovna was born - the first child in the world, and whose father and mother were cosmonauts. First husband Elena was a pilot Igor Alekseevich Mayorov, the second husband was a pilot Andrey Yuryevich Rodionov.
Since 2013, Elena Andriyanovna Tereshkova has been an orthopedic surgeon, working at CITO.
V. V. Tereshkova Major General (1995) retired (1997), the first woman in Russia with the rank of Major General

On April 12 we celebrate Cosmonautics Day. Many are interested in the question - why did only four of our women manage to get into orbit?

After all, there have already been a lot of flights, both men and foreign women fly. And after Valentina Tereshkova, only three ladies have been in space.

Valentina Tereshkova - she was chosen for being a "working class"

Tereshkova started with skydiving in her youth, then decided to get into the female cosmonaut corps, which at that time was recruiting. And, having passed a tough selection, she became one of the 800 “lucky ones”. After the second stage of selection, 58 girls remained, and then the squad was reduced to 5 people.

Tereshkova was not among them the most-most. Her scores were pretty average. However, she was still the first woman in space - Tereshkova was chosen for her class affiliation, the country's leadership decided that this was very important. Of the 5 girls, only Valya was a worker - a weaver. The remaining four belonged to the intelligentsia - a teacher, a laboratory assistant, a programmer, an engineer. Finally, Valentina - the only one in the detachment - was a member of the party.

On June 16, 1963, the launch was given. In flight, Tereshkova felt so terrible that she could hardly answer questions from Earth. The suit refused to be uncomfortable, she did not have enough air and was constantly sick ... Returning, Tereshkova, however, made a “cheerful face” on camera and reported: “Everything was fine, I feel good!”. It was necessary to convince the whole world that our women are the best!

Svetlana Savitskaya - the first woman to go into outer space

Having waited for Tereshkova from orbit, Sergei Korolev, who was very nervous because of the many overlays, is said to have exclaimed: “There is not a single woman in space anymore!”

And for a long time only men continued to fly. Only in 1982, a woman, Svetlana Savitskaya, was included in the space crew. In addition to her, two male cosmonauts flew - Leonid Popov and Alexander Serebrov. The flight was successful, and 2 years later Savitskaya was again sent into space. This time the brave woman went out into outer space.

She completed all the tasks clearly and without unnecessary emotions. Svetlana's colleagues later said more than once in interviews that they were amazed by her courage, iron will and incredible discipline.

In 1986, Savitskaya gave birth to a son and never flew into space again.

Elena Kondakova - the longest woman spent in space

Elena Kondakova waited a long time for her turn. She was enrolled in the cosmonaut corps in 1989, and training and training lasted for several years. She entered orbit only in 1994, already 37 years old. But in space, she was destined to spend as many as 179 days - more than all the other female astronauts.

In 1997, she flew again - together with American astronauts.

Elena Kondakova later said that Valentina Tereshkova did a lot for her - she motherly took care of an inexperienced girl, accompanied her on a risky flight and met her, and also shared secrets and talked about those little things that help make staying in Space not so hard.

In addition to Tereshkova, Elena was very strongly supported by her husband, Valery Ryumin, also an astronaut. True, on the third flight he dissuaded her from going. A daughter was growing up in the family, she needed her mother's attention ...

Elena Serova became the first woman to wash her hair in space

The same story as with Kondakova: having got into the cosmonaut corps back in 2006, Elena Serova ended up in space only in 2014. For six months the young woman was in space. Strength and courage all this time gave her a soft toy, which was handed to her by her daughter before the flight.

If the previous conquerors of the Cosmos cut their hair short enough, then Elena Serova had a luxurious braid below the waist. And she conducted her own experiment - she washed and combed her hair and braided them in zero gravity.

After Serova, there were no more Russian women in space. There is a possibility that Anna Kikina, the only member of the Russian cosmonaut corps, will fly there. Men do not like to let girls into space ...