What was the call sign of Tereshkova in flight. Flight into space of a female cosmonaut V.V.

Valentina Tereshkova is the first woman to go into space. To this day, she remains the only woman in the world who went on a space flight alone, without assistants and partners. She also became the first woman in Russia to be awarded the rank of Major General. It was in this rank that Tereshkova retired in 1997, at the age of sixty. Valentina Tereshkova forever inscribed her name in the history of the Soviet Union, Russia and the whole world.

Childhood and youth

The biography of this woman begins in the village of Bolshoe Maslennikovo Yaroslavl region. Valentina's parents were Belarusian peasants. The mother of the future conqueror of outer space worked at a textile enterprise, and her father was a tractor driver. He participated in the battles during the Soviet-Finnish war and died.

Young Tereshkova attended Yaroslavl school, received high marks, and also learned to play the dombra (the girl had a good ear for music). Having completed her basic seven-year school education, she decided to help her mother in supporting the family and got a job as a bracelet maker at the Yaroslavl Tire Plant. However, the purposeful girl was not going to give up her education: she combined work with studies at an evening school.

The next stage in the life of Valentina Vladimirovna also did not foreshadow the heights that she was to reach. So, she studied in absentia at the technical school of light industry and worked for seven years as a weaver at a nearby plant called Krasny Perekop. At this time, Tereshkova began to get involved parachuting. She gladly went to the local flying club and fearlessly jumped from great heights.

astronautics

Valentina's new hobby sealed her fate. By a happy coincidence, just at that time, a Soviet scientist set about trying to send a woman into space. The idea was accepted favorably, and at the beginning of 1962, the search began for that representative of the fair sex, who was to receive the proud title of "astronaut". The criteria were as follows: a parachutist under the age of 30, weighing up to 70 kg, height up to 170 cm.

There were surprisingly many Soviet women who wanted to go into space. Workers in the Soviet cosmonautics industry were looking for the ideal candidate from hundreds of candidates. As a result of a tough selection, five "finalists" were determined: Irina Solovieva, Tatyana Kuznetsova, Zhanna Yorkina, Valentina Ponomareva and Valentina Tereshkova.

The girls were officially called to military service, received the rank of privates and began to train hard. Initially, Tereshkova went through a training program with the rank of student-cosmonaut of the second detachment, but already in 1962, having successfully passed the exams, she became an astronaut of the first detachment of the first department.

The training included techniques for developing the body's resistance to the characteristics space flight. So, for example, the girls learned to move in weightlessness, tested the body's resources in a thermal chamber and an isolation chamber, performed parachute training, and mastered the use of a spacesuit. Training in the isolation chamber (a room isolated from external sounds) lasted for 10 days. Each of the five contenders for the role of the first female cosmonaut spent 10 days in the illusion of complete silence and loneliness.

When choosing the applicant who was to make the planned flight, the following was taken into account:

training, level practical training, knowledge of the theory, the results of medical examinations;
origin (the fact that Valentina Vladimirovna was from a simple working family, who lost her breadwinner during the war, played into her hands);
ability to lead social activities glorifying the communist party.

If the other candidates were not inferior to Tereshkova on the first two points, then she had no equal in public speaking skills. Valentina Vladimirovna easily communicated with journalists and other people, gave concise and natural answers to questions, while not forgetting to screw in a few words about greatness communist party. In the end, she was chosen as the main candidate for space flight. Irina Solovieva received the status of a backup cosmonaut, and Valentina Ponomareva was appointed as a reserve applicant.

Space flight

The first woman went into space on June 16, 1963. The flight lasted 3 days. Valentina Tereshkova went into space on the Vostok-6 spacecraft, which took off from Baikonur (not from the site from which it launched, but from a backup). The way the first woman-cosmonaut conducted the launch, what reports she voiced, was highly appreciated by specialists. They assured that Tereshkova had a better launch than experienced male cosmonauts.

Soon after the start, Tereshkova's health deteriorated, she moved little, did not eat, and sluggishly negotiated with ground stations. Nevertheless, she lasted three days, 48 revolutions around the Earth, and throughout the flight she regularly kept a logbook.

Some time before the intended landing, the first female astronaut had problems with the spacecraft's equipment. Due to incorrect installation of control wires, Valentina Tereshkova did not manually orient the ship. However, Cosmos 6 was nevertheless oriented and landed on the Earth's surface thanks to the use of automatic mode, in which such a problem did not arise.

At the end of the flight (the ship arrived at Altai region) Valentina Vladimirovna distributed products from her diet local residents, and she ate the traditional food of these places. This, like Tereshkova's poor health, as well as problems with the orientation of the ship, upset Sergei Korolev. He even promised not to let another woman into space until his death. The next such flight took place much later than the departure of a gifted engineer from life.

Subsequent career

Since then, Valentina Tereshkova has not flown into space again. She became an instructor-cosmonaut, worked at the Cosmonaut Training Center as a senior researcher, even graduated from the Zhukovsky Air Force Engineering Academy, becoming a professor and writing over five dozen scientific papers. Valentina Vladimirovna declared that she was ready (for a one-way flight).

Tereshkova continues to engage in politics. During the Soviet Union, she was a member of the CPSU, and in the 2000s she was elected to the regional Duma of her native Yaroslavl region from the United Russia party. She also participated in the opening ceremony of the Sochi Olympic Games 2014, became president of the Memory of Generations charity foundation, contributed to the opening of the university and a number of other institutions in Yaroslavl.

Personal life

The first husband of the first female cosmonaut was cosmonaut Adrian Nikolaev. The wedding ceremony took place in 1963, and guests of this ceremony can be seen in the photo. The family broke up in 1982, when the daughters of Adrian and Valentina, Elena Tereshkova, turned 18 years old. Subsequently, Tereshkova admitted that in the circle of close people, her husband showed himself to be a despot, which is why their relationship came to naught.

The second husband of Valentina Vladimirovna was Major General of the Medical Service Yuli Shaposhnikov. No children were born in this marriage. But Elena Tereshkova gave the mother of her grandchildren Alexei Mayorov and Andrei Rodionov. It is noteworthy that both Elena's husbands turned out to be pilots. The only heiress of Valentina Tereshkova herself works at CITO as an orthopedic surgeon.

Valentina Vladimirovna celebrated her 80th birthday on March 6, 2017. She is a retired major general, spends a lot of time with her family, and also continues to work political career. So, in 2016, during the next parliamentary elections, Tereshkova was elected to the State Duma. The first female cosmonaut loves her native region very much, strives to help the Yaroslavl orphanage, home school, to improve the city and help open new educational, industrial, infrastructure institutions in it.

In spite of retirement age, Valentina Tereshkova boasts good health. In 2004 she was given complex operation on the heart, because otherwise she would have suffered a heart attack. Since then, no serious health problems have been reported for Valentina Vladimirovna, but due to her active labor activity it can be concluded that they do not exist.

To increase the motivation of the five girls who were contenders for the role of the first female cosmonaut, Sergei Korolev promised that all of them, sooner or later, fly into space. In reality, this did not happen.
It was originally planned to simultaneously send two women on different spacecraft, but in 1963 this plan was abandoned. Two days before Valentina Tereshkova's flight, Valery Bykovsky went into space on the Vostok-5 spacecraft. He spent 5 days outside our planet. This is a solo flight record that remains to this day.

The footage of the newsreel that was shown to the Soviet people and the whole world was staged. They were filmed a day after Valentina Vladimirovna's real arrival on Earth, since in the first hours after her return she felt very unwell and was hospitalized.

My grandfather, a hereditary peasant with an unfinished school education(war interfered), was an extremely intelligent person. And when I, as a kid, told him about Tereshkova, about the first woman in space, and so on, he only snorted contemptuously. He said that a bag of potatoes would have coped with such a flight no worse - they say, Tereshkova was stuffed into a rocket, like a simple load, shot into orbit, that's all her achievements. And it was not sexism, not disregard for the achievements of women from a peasant - he spoke of the same Savitskaya quite respectfully. How did he know such details in Soviet years- I don’t know, but Dnepropetrovsk was not the last in those days locality from outer space, perhaps some rumors reached him.
But, like, 80 years old and all that... you could pretend that everything is fine, but it doesn't work out.

Space pioneer Valentina Tereshkova has secured her place in the history books forever. In June 1963, she circled the Earth 48 times. However, the cosmonaut could not achieve any significant achievements, because during her three-day flight she ignored the instructions of the chief designer of space technology, Sergei Korolev. On March 6, Tereshkova turns 80 years old.

From the point of view of propaganda, the flight of the "Seagull" - such was the call sign of Tereshkova - was a major breakthrough. After the launch of the first Sputnik in 1957, and also after the flight of Yuri Gagarin in 1961, with this achievement, the Soviet Union managed to deal the United States another blow in the struggle for dominance in outer space. Nevertheless, from a scientific point of view, this flight brought only disappointments, and with them - disastrous consequences for other astronaut candidates.

Space sickness and programming errors

Korolev allegedly declared in a narrow circle: "With me, there will be no more women in space." Moreover, the word “woman” was most likely thought up by journalists so that in general it was possible to publish this much more rude phrase. The main purpose of Tereshkova's flight was to study the influence of the conditions of the space environment on the work of the female body, improve the control system of the Vostok spacecraft, and also capture the Earth and the Moon. In parallel with Tereshkova, Valery Bykovsky made a flight around the Earth on the Vostok-5 spacecraft.

However, the astronaut from the very beginning had to deal with space sickness, and this fact, by the way, she hid from the ground control team. Tereshkova did not follow the instructions for orienting the capsule using the manual control system, did not respond to call signs for hours, did not eat according to the planned diet, and complained about the oppressive tightness in the capsule. She couldn't take notes because she broke her pencils in the hustle and bustle.

Neglect of prohibitions

In addition, she quickly realized that the flight path of the capsule of her Vostok-6 spacecraft was programmed incorrectly. Only on the second day of the flight did she receive the correct data. If this had not happened, her flight could have ended in disaster, which Tereshkova admitted only ten years later. Korolev allegedly begged her not to talk about this technical error.

In addition, cosmonaut Valery Bykovsky made his flight around the Earth in a lower orbit, so that visual contact between the two spacecraft was impossible, and radio communication capabilities were limited.

To the dismay of the doctor, Tereshkova, who landed by parachute 620 kilometers northeast of Karaganda, Kazakhstan, distributed her space food to the locals, while she herself ate potatoes and onions and drank koumiss, which was strictly forbidden.

A large bruise on her nose, received when landing on a parachute, Tereshkova hid under a thick layer of makeup. The next day, the landing was staged for film and photography, which subsequently flew around the world.

The problems and malfunctions that arose during Tereshkova's flight for Korolev became a pleasant confirmation of his prejudice, which exists in Russia to this day, that women, in fact, have nothing to do in space. That is why the first detachment of cosmonauts of the USSR, which included 20 candidates for the first flight into space, the so-called "Gagarin set", consisted exclusively of men. In the end, only four female astronauts went into space. In the active detachment of astronauts, along with 33 men, there is only one woman, and that is for the sake of justification.

The chief designer of space technology, Sergei Korolev, after Tereshkova's flight, disbanded the female cosmonaut corps and canceled all planned further flights of women into space. Only in 1982, 16 years after his death, becoming the second Russian woman in space, Svetlana Savitskaya made her flight - in response to the US announcement of plans to send a woman into space in the person of Sally Ride.

Tereshkova goes into politics

After her flight, Tereshkova avoided the press so that she would not have to lie. For this, she was forced to come to terms with the glory of a cutesy person. She finally found her true calling in politics. Generously awarded, she enjoyed success primarily in the countries of the Eastern Bloc, graduated, like Gagarin, from the Air Force Engineering Academy. N. E. Zhukovsky and quickly made a career. She became a deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR and a member of the Central Committee of the CPSU, head of the Committee of Soviet Women, as well as a member of numerous international associations.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, she headed the Russian Center for International Scientific and Cultural Cooperation. In 1995, Tereshkova became the first woman in the history of Russia with the rank of Major General of Aviation.

"Benefactor" Valentina

In 2008, after two unsuccessful attempts to get the mandate of a State Duma deputy for his contribution to the development social movements, Tereshkova became a deputy of the regional duma of her hometown of Yaroslavl from the United Russia party, and soon the deputy chairman. Three years later, she managed to move to the State Duma in Moscow.

She resolutely fights for the interests of her voters - be it gasification in the Yaroslavl region or strengthening the banks of the Volga in the Rybinsk region. Previously, requests were sent to the Central Committee, and today Tereshkova addresses Putin directly. The President, of course, understands what Tereshkova owes. Something of the glory of the icon of astronautics, which is still very popular in Russia, goes to him.

450 red roses for the President

Tereshkova herself makes virtually no public statements about Putin and his party. But by the 64th birthday of Putin, she sent him a bouquet of 450 red roses on behalf of all the deputies of the State Duma. Tereshkova thanked the president for his "tireless work" and promised, just like in Soviet times to work with him for the good of the people.

Shortly before his death in 2011, Boris Chertok found conciliatory words for Tereshkova. The Soviet scientist, who for many years was Korolev's closest associate, alluding to her unsuccessful flight, told her that in "public and state activities"she achieved "truly cosmic heights."

June 16, 1963 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome launched spaceship- satellite "Vostok-6" with Valentina Tereshkova on board. Thereby Soviet Union secured another scientific and technical priority. Over the past decades, the history of the preparation and flight of Tereshkova has acquired many fables. Fortunately, many documents, including negotiations with the earth and logbook, declassified and available for study. In addition, participants in the Soviet space program left notes on the results of the Vostok-6 flight, which makes it possible to reconstruct its picture in full.

Five "birches"

The question of the need to send a woman into orbit in May 1961 was raised by Lieutenant General Nikolai Kamanin, who directly supervised the selection and training of Soviet cosmonauts. He accompanied Yuri Gagarin on foreign trips and noticed that one of the most popular questions asked of the first cosmonaut was

there was a question about whether the Soviet Union was going to launch a woman into orbit.

Photo report: First in orbit: 55 years of Tereshkova's flight

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In addition, the lieutenant general was impressed by the high-profile advertising campaign that unfolded in the United States around the pilot Jerry Cobb, who insisted on including her in the Mercury astronaut squad. Although Cobb failed to push through his demand, Kamanin suspected that an American woman's space flight was a matter of the near future.

However, chief designer Sergei Korolev, Academician Mstislav Keldysh, and Commander-in-Chief of the Air Force Konstantin Andreevich Vershinin spoke out against it. It took him six months to achieve a positive decision through intrigue and behind-the-scenes negotiations.

There were no female pilots in the rank of Air Force officers then, so the selection was in the "sports" direction. On January 15, 1962, DOSAAF presented the personal files of 58 women. After their consideration and passing the hospital examination, five remained: Zhanna Yorkina (22 years old), Tatyana Kuznetsova (20 years old), Valentina Ponomareva (28 years old), Irina Solovieva (24 years old), Valentina Tereshkova (25 years old). Only Ponomareva was married and had a child, she also had the skills of a pilot (mastered cars - "Po-2", "Yak-18") and higher education(mechanical engineer of liquid rocket engines).

The remaining members of the women's group were parachutists, and before joining the detachment, they had a vague idea of the realities of Russian astronautics. On December 15, 1962, each of the "five" was awarded the rank of junior lieutenant and began to prepare for flight on the "Vostok".

During training, the call sign "Birch" was used, which is why other cosmonauts called the candidates "birches". Valentina Ponomareva remembered: “We had to take the course of a young fighter in a somewhat truncated program. Truth, drill and the study of military regulations were. There was a problem with the selection of uniforms. Not immediately, but still, they found an elderly craftsman who sewed uniform skirts and a tunic for us ... ".

From a professional point of view, Valentina Ponomareva was the most prepared for the flight, but Yuri Gagarin, on whom, as the commander of the detachment, the choice of the first cosmonaut largely depended, spoke out against her from the very beginning. Ponomareva recalled: “The so-called mandate commission remained. Her meeting took place in the hospital. Among the members of the commission was Yuri Gagarin. We went into the hall, answered some questions, and then waited in the corridor for the verdict. We were told that Zhanna Yorkina and I passed. When some time later I had trusting relationship with the Deputy Head of the Cosmonaut Training Center Nikolai Nikeryasov, he said that Gagarin opposed my candidacy.

He spoke something like this: for the sake of space exploration, you can risk the lives of male pilots, if you really need to -

"single girls" (that's how he put it), although he shouldn't have. But it is unacceptable to risk the life of a mother.

And yet I was accepted. Probably, decisive role the recommendation of the director of my institute, academician Keldysh, played.

Gagarin sympathized with Valentina Tereshkova, marking her among the rest. He probably liked her for her strong-willed character. Tereshkova was singled out by Korolev.

The choice of the first cosmonaut was different from the choice of the pilot of the first Vostok. The leadership, using the example of Gagarin, clearly imagined what it meant to become the first in space. Moreover, if during the preparation of the first "Vostok" Korolev had no doubt that his comrades would fly after Gagarin, now there was no such confidence:

the flight of a woman could become (and indeed for nineteen years became) the only one.

And this aggravated the situation: everyone understood that the choice would write the name of one of the girls into history, while others would have to be content with the modest role of unknown participants in the epoch-making event. And yet, according to Ponomareva, the girls held on to each other and helped as much as they could: “There were frictions, but we ourselves sorted out our problems - no one complained to the authorities about anyone. They didn't hurt each other."

The choice was long and difficult. Everything was taken into account, up to the menstrual cycles.

But in addition to health, knowledge, character traits, the choice was also determined by the subjective assessments of those who chose. Korolev, Kamanin and Gagarin were for Tereshkova. Specialists of the State Research Institute of Aviation and Space Medicine stood behind Ponomareva; Academician Mstislav Keldysh joined them. Endless disputes put an end to the head of state Nikita Khrushchev. There is a version that he chose the future astronaut from a photograph, but it is unlikely that it is true. Most likely, the fact that Valentina Vladimirovna was a weaver by basic education, and representatives of the textile industry occupied domestic politics Khrushchev is one of the most important places.

Start Bykovsky

For a long time we could not decide on the flight program. In January 1963, three options were considered: the flight of one ship with a woman for a day or three; group flight of two ships with women with a daily interval between launches; "mixed" option, when a ship with a woman flies up to three days, and with a man - five to seven days. Although the final version was not approved, Kamanin assigned the women's group the task of preparing for a formation flight on two ships by March 20, 1963.

On March 21, the Presidium of the Central Committee of the CPSU decided: “Do not conduct a separate female flight, conduct it together with male long-term flights.” On April 13, Korolev and Kamanin finally agreed on the program: a man flies on the first ship for eight days, on the second - a woman for two or three days; the flight will take place in August 1963; Tereshkova, Solovyov, Ponomarev and Yorkina must be prepared for this period.

The male astronauts did not waste time either. After the first group flight, Valery Bykovsky, Boris Volynov and Vladimir Komarov remained in the leading group - they were engaged in the program of a single long flight, originally scheduled for September 1962. But by that time it was not possible to make a ship, and until the end of the year the astronauts lived in the "maintaining fitness" mode.

On January 22, Kamanin set the group a more specific task: to prepare for two or three long (for five or more days) solo flights at the end of 1963. However, these plans have changed. The management decided to conduct a new group flight in August, and then it suddenly became clear that the resource of ships No. 7 and No. 8 ends in June. System developers, despite pressure from above, did not agree to extend the resource. Thus, the launches of both ships had to be carried out before June 15. Sergei Korolev sent a corresponding letter, and the Central Committee of the CPSU decided to conduct a group flight in May-June 1963.

There was only a month left before the start, and if the women were more or less ready, then the men still had to perform several parachute jumps and conduct training in the thermal model of the ship.

Bykovsky became the main candidate for the flight, the rest did not fit in either by weight (the ship was overloaded with equipment, and every extra kilogram mattered), or by general readiness.

On May 10, in a narrow circle of members of the State Commission, it was decided to launch the Vostok in early June. Valery Bykovsky was appointed commander of Vostok-5, Boris Volynov was appointed as a spare. On Vostok-6, Valentina Tereshkova was supposed to go into space; her spares are Soloviev and Ponomareva.

On June 1, the cosmonauts arrived at Baikonur, three days later a “ceremonial” meeting of the State Commission took place, at which the cosmonauts with understudies were introduced to journalists, and the flight plan was announced: a man will fly up to eight days, a woman - up to three.

On June 5, the removal of the carrier rocket with the Vostok No. 7 ship was canceled due to heavy winds. It took a lot of time to troubleshoot. Only on June 9, the rocket was taken to the launch pad, hoping to launch on the 11th. However, shortly before the launch, Keldysh, calling from Moscow, said that solar activity had increased sharply and very powerful flares were possible in the coming days. Scientists expressed the opinion that the astronaut's radiation dose would be much higher than the permissible one. The launch was postponed to June 12, then another day, then another ...

The launch of Vostok-5 (3KA No. 7) with Bykovsky (call sign Hawk) on board took place on June 14, 1963, with a delay of three hours. Almost immediately it became clear that the height of the perigee (181 km) was lower than the calculated one - on the eighth day of the flight, the ship could spontaneously "burrow" into the atmosphere, having made an uncontrolled descent. Meanwhile, Bykovsky quickly adapted to weightlessness, conducted observations of the Earth, the Sun and stars. Several times he took control of the "Vostok" and successfully oriented it "in the landing way".

Bykovsky also conducted scientific experiments: for example,

first observed the growth of peas in space flight.

He was engaged in physical education, including with a rubber band.

Flight of the Seagull

In accordance with the ballistic data of the Vostok-5, it was decided to launch the Vostok-6 on June 16, in the afternoon. The entire preparation of the launch vehicle and the spacecraft this time went without comment or any delay. The ship "Vostok-6" (3KA No. 8) with the first female cosmonaut Valentina Vladimirovna Tereshkova (call sign "Seagull") on board entered the calculated orbit. At first it seemed that everything would go well in the future - ground services noted Tereshkova's composure, the clarity of her remarks. Lieutenant General Kamanin wrote in his diary that he was pleased with the choice:

“... 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 cosmonaut... Tereshkova established radio contact with Bykovsky, had excellent negotiations with Khrushchev, and very sensibly reports on the progress of the flight. We still have a lot of work to do to successfully complete the flight program for Bykovsky and Tereshkova and land them unscathed. There will be many more experiences and excitements, but regardless of the landing results, the start and flight is already the beginning of a great victory.”

However, further developments were far from ideal. On the second day, June 17, the flight directors drew attention to Tereshkova's fuzzy, evasive answers.

Her behavior was alarming and cast doubt on the peppy reports.

Subsequently, Tereshkova in the report of the State Commission noted that for the first day she practically did not feel the spacesuit; then there were aching pains in the right shin, which did not go away until the very landing. She was tormented by nausea, she could not eat the prepared provisions. Due to health problems, she actually disrupted the program of scientific experiments: she could not get rid of the chair, could not reach the stacks with materials.

At the same time, space itself threw up problems: due to solar flares, the Earth's atmosphere "swollen", the natural deceleration of the "Vostoks" accelerated. The assembled State Commission decided to land Bykovsky's ship on the 82nd orbit (by the end of the fifth day), and Tereshkova's ship - on the 49th orbit (by the end of the third day).

On June 18, Tereshkova was supposed to try out manual control, so that in case of failure automatic system orientation before descent to take control of the situation on the current orbit. However, neither the first nor the second time she did not succeed. It is clear that the flight management attended to the problem. Lieutenant General Kamanin wrote in his diary:

June 18th.<...>I spoke with 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 [measuring point].

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. During the night, she will rest and the automatic landing should endure well.

On the morning of June 19, on the 45th orbit, Gagarin personally read Tereshkova the instructions, demanding confirmation of each step. "From 7:40 a.m. up to 8 h 05 min. oriented the ship... All right. Made a twist.<...>Tell "Dawn-1" - on the 47th orbit, in 20 minutes, completely oriented the ship in landing along all three axes. Made a spin of the ship. I did everything as expected, ”Tereshkova reported.

Return to Earth

The adventures of the astronaut did not end there. At the moment of deorbiting, she reported on the operation of the brake propulsion system and the beginning of the descent, but she was not heard. The specialists were worried, because no one knew what was happening to the ship. Nevertheless, Vostok did everything on schedule: the compartments separated, and a normal descent in the atmosphere began. The ejection went smoothly - Tereshkova landed 400 meters from the descent vehicle, close to the settlement area.

Due to the inability to control the parachute, Valentina Vladimirovna sat down with her back and hit her face hard on the pressure helmet,

as a result - a broken nose and a bruise under the eye.

The locals helped her take off her space suit, and she gave them tubes of "space" food as a token of gratitude. In response, they fed her potatoes and onions and gave her koumiss to drink, which violated all medical instructions.

Worse, Tereshkova tried to finish the logbook on Earth, and this was noticed by the searchers who arrived.

Due to her actions after landing, she later had to endure a real dressing down from Sergei Korolev. Some details of the incident can be found in Boris Chertok's book of memoirs Rockets and People. Hot days of the Cold War":

“We, the engineers who designed the control system, believed that it was much easier to control a spacecraft than an airplane. All processes in time are more extended, there is an opportunity to think. The ship will not go into a tailspin, and if the braking engine is planned to be turned on, then, according to the laws of celestial mechanics, the ship will not go anywhere from its orbit. Therefore, anyone who is physically and mentally normal and prepared in two or three months can manage it - even a woman!

Opponents convincingly objected: a person is allowed to control an airplane or a car steering wheel after many hours of flying or “hitting” with an instructor. What really happened, we decided to find out from the "Seagull" itself in a frank conversation "without the authorities."<...>

Suddenly, Korolev entered the office. — Excuse me, comrades, I need to talk to Valya. I'll let her go to you in ten minutes.

I opened a "rest room" behind the office. The confidential conversation lasted for thirty minutes instead of ten. The Queen arrived first. Looking at the audience, he smiled slyly and quickly left. We waited a few more minutes for Tereshkova. She couldn't hide her teary eyes and despondency. We realized that the conversation we had agreed on would no longer work.<...>I had a feeling that she was about to cry. In the end, we will deal with this manual control, and now Tereshkova must be released from our interrogations. After seeing the Seagull to the car, I promised that we would still find time for a serious conversation. When I returned, there was a heated discussion at the table about what had happened.<...>None of us ever found out why the joint venture [Sergei Pavlovich] needed to bring Tereshkov to tears.”

However, such subtleties were of little interest to the Soviet political leadership - Khrushchev got a new opportunity to show off with the astronauts on the podium of the Mausoleum and declare the scientific and technical superiority of the USSR.

Soon, on November 3, 1963, at the insistence of the head of state, another action was held, turning the wedding of cosmonauts Valentina Tereshkova and Andrian Nikolaev into an expensive show with the participation of top party leadership. But that's another story.

Cosmonaut: Tereshkova Valentina Vladimirovna (03/06/1937)

6th cosmonaut of the USSR (10th in the world);
Flight duration (1963): 2 days 22 hours 50 minutes, call sign "Chaika".

On March 6, 1937, in the village of Bolshoe Maslennikovo, near the town of Tutaev, which is located in the Yaroslavl region of the RSFSR, Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman cosmonaut, was born. During the Soviet-Finnish war, Valentina's father, Vladimir Aksenovich, who was called to the front, dies. In 1945, Valentina entered the Yaroslavl secondary school. AT school years enjoys playing the domra. After completing seven years of study, Valentina gets a job as a bracelet maker at a tire factory in the city of Yaroslavl. Since 1955, she worked at the Krasny Perekop technical fabric factory, where her mother and sister also worked. From 1955 to 1960, Valentina Vladimirovna passes distance learning at the Yaroslavl Technical School, after which he receives a diploma in cotton spinning. In 1959, Valentina began to get involved in parachuting, made 90 jumps at the Yaroslavl flying club. In 1957, the future cosmonaut joined the Komsomol, since 1957 she has been the secretary of the committee at the Krasny Perekop plant.

space training

In 1962, Sergei Korolev decided to send a woman cosmonaut into space, as a result of which the search for candidates among paratroopers began according to the following criteria: no older than 30 years, no higher than 170 cm and weighing no more than 70 kg. Five women were selected, including Valentina Vladimirovna. After passing the medical commission, she was enrolled as a cosmonaut - students in March 1962. Then Tereshkova's general space training began in the detachment of a group of female listeners. After passing the state exams, on December 1, 1962, she received the position of cosmonaut of the first detachment.

During the preparation, Valentina managed to successfully pass a number of trainings and tests: 10 days in an isolation chamber (soundproof room), as well as being in a heat chamber at +70 °C, 30% humidity and wearing overalls. Several training sessions were carried out in zero gravity conditions created with the help of aircraft maneuvers. Their duration was about 40 seconds, during which time the candidates had to successfully complete the assigned tasks, such as writing names on pieces of paper or trying to eat.

The choice of the commission settled on Tereshkova, based not only on the girl's high academic performance, but also on her social abilities and personal qualities.

Space flight

On June 16, 1963, the commander of the Vostok-6 spacecraft, Valentina Vladimirovna Tereshkova, launched from Baikonur. As part of the mission, a joint orbital flight of the Vostok-6 and Vostok-5 spacecraft took place, on board of which was.

During the flight, detailed observation behind the body of a woman and a man in space, the problem of feeding people in space was solved. To prepare for landing, Valentina Tereshkova had to reorient the ship, with which difficulties began to arise. After lengthy adjustments, the cosmonaut stopped responding to messages from the command center, when the center contacted through a television camera - it turned out that the girl was sleeping. Long unsuccessful adjustments to the spacecraft's orientation exhausted the astronaut. It is noteworthy that Valentina Vladimirovna correctly carried out all the established commands, however, the spacecraft reacted in the opposite way - it moved away from the Earth. Later it was found that the system incorrectly read the trajectory data entered by the astronaut and inverted them in the opposite direction. When this problem was clarified, Valentina Vladimirovna entered the changed data and oriented the ship to Earth.

After 2 days and almost 23 hours of flight, the "Seagull" successfully returned to Earth. In the area of the landing site, the girl distributed leftover food for the astronauts to local residents, while she herself ate local products, which went beyond the limits set by the mission.

For the successful implementation of a complex space mission, Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman cosmonaut, was awarded the title of Hero of the USSR.

Future life

From 1955 to 1966, Valentina Vladimirovna was trained to fly on the Voskhod spacecraft. From 1964 to 1969, she studied at the VVIA Zhukovsky and received a diploma as a pilot-cosmonaut-engineer. In 1977 she defended her PhD thesis technical sciences. Tereshkova has over 50 scientific publications to her credit. Until 1997, the first female cosmonaut served in the cosmonaut corps as an instructor-test cosmonaut. From 1966 to 1989, Valentina Tereshkova worked as a deputy of the Supreme Council. For the next couple of decades, the female astronaut gives her life to politics. In the spring of 2016, Valentina Vladimirovna took part in the internal party elections " United Russia”, where it took first place in the Yaroslavl region.

A significant date in the history of Russian cosmonautics - today marks 55 years since the Vostok-6 spacecraft with the first female cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova on board returned to Earth. Then her call sign "Seagull" was recognized by the whole world. Those who are just starting their work in the space industry met with the legend and her followers today.

The meeting dedicated to the 55th anniversary of the first flight of a woman into space was held in the format of live communication. In respectful anticipation of Tereshkova, young specialists from the space industry toured the exhibition, and then walked around it in the company of the legend. Tereshkova easily posed for the cameras, reassured a passerby who is afraid of competition in space with America, and then proceeded to the main thing.

The first female cosmonaut came not alone, but in the company of two more ladies who did what boys dream about and most men never even dreamed of. Elena Kondakova spent 179 days in space in the 1990s! And then another 10 on the American shuttle. Elena Serova is also a hero, but already of our time, she flew into space in 2014.

Star women could ask any questions. They discussed the lunar program and the prospects for the conquest of Mars, asked about flights, about emergency situations. They asked when and how Valentina Vladimirovna decided to become an astronaut.

“Since childhood, I have been in love with the machinists who drove huge trains. And it seemed to me - what happy man! He travels the country, he meets people, he sees cities!” - said Valentina Tereshkova.

They didn’t teach her to be a machinist in Yaroslavl, and this is probably good, because soon Tereshkova was waiting new love. Gagarin flew to the stars, and the machinists remained on Earth.

The Cosmos pavilion at VDNKh presents a wide range of spacesuits - for open space, for the lunar program. One of them is put on a mannequin, and coming closer, we see that the astronautics has a female face.

Of course, it was absolutely impossible to do without the gender theme. It's crazy to go - just three space women in one small room! And among the listeners mostly girls. Therefore, they asked about what men would not be asked about, for example, you are no worse, why are there so few of you? Now, out of 26 people in the cosmonaut corps, there is only one woman.

“We have long years when single flights ended, flights were designed for two people. And you yourself understand that no one will send a woman and a man in one capsule to one station for a long flight. Because the people might not understand it,” explained cosmonaut Elena Kondakova.

Behind them is written in large letters "woman astronaut", but these women are categorically against such a term. Yes, there are specifics. For example, not everyone is allowed to become an astronaut by their families. Long preparation, then half a year flight, then recovery, and someone has children. It's easier for men here. But only here. Basically, everything is equal. And they all do the same thing.

“We not only don’t have such rivalry that we are better, and you are worse, but we don’t even think about it. But mutual assistance, here to help each other, regardless - a woman, a man - this is, ”said Valentina Tereshkova.

“You are a woman or a man, there are no concessions to anyone. A single program, there is no separate program for training men and women. Therefore, I think that men and women will continue to work together. Well, cosmonaut Elena Serova suggested.