Valentina Tereshkova - the first woman in space

June 16, 1963 in 12 hours 30 minutes in the Soviet spacecraft "Vostok-6" was put into orbit the Earth's satellite, the world's first piloted by a woman - a citizen of the Soviet Union Valentina Tereshkova. She is the only woman in the world, made a space flight alone.

Callsign Tereshkova on flight time - "Seagull"; a phrase that she said before the start: "Hey! Sky, take off your hat! "(Altered quotation from a poem by Vladimir Mayakovsky's" Cloud in Pants ").

Interesting facts about the first woman in space flight.

1. First cosmonaut woman in the world was chosen from among the parachutists. After the first successful flight of Yuri Gagarin's space and Titov Sergey Korolev has decided to send a woman into space. It was a politically motivated move. And like this to be the first.

contenders search began at the end of 1961. The requirements were: parachutist, age 30 years, height 170 cm and weight of 70 kilograms. Parachutist favored because the astronaut, "the East" had to eject after braking lander in the atmosphere and landing on a parachute, and the period for preparation was originally designated compressed - about six months. I did not want to spend a lot of time to perfect landing on a parachute.

Of the more than fifty candidates finally selected five girls. These came in and Valentina Tereshkova. All of them, except the pilots Valentina Ponomareva have been parachutists. Valentina Tereshkova parachuting engaged since 1959 in the Yaroslavl flying club: to candidates search time for a flight into space carried out a total of 90 jumps. 2. The girls selected for space flight, hoping that they will sooner or later fly off into space. Of course, each of the five girls dreamed that she would fly into space. To atmosphere in the women's team had a friendly, Korolev promised the girls that they will sooner or later go there.

But this, as we know, did not happen. While the other girls really planned to send into space, and they are preparing for this a few years after the flight of Valentina Tereshkova. Only in October 1969, an order was issued to disband the group of female astronauts. So only Valentina Tereshkova of the five girls, trained, managed to become a real astronaut.

3. Valentina Tereshkova was two understudy. In practice it is accepted that each astronaut must be the understudy. In the case of the first female flight we decided to err - Tereshkova was administered once two understudy given the complexity of the female body. Irina Solovyova were spare and Valentina Ponomareva.

Why the choice fell on Tereshkova? Guide your choice never settles, but in the main the current version, this decision was more political. Tereshkova was out working, her father died during the Russo-Finnish War, when she was two years old. Other girls, for example, Ponomarev and Soloviev were from employees. Nikita Khrushchev, who claimed the final candidate, apparently wanted to be the first woman in space was a girl "of the people."

Under these requirements Valentina Tereshkova, who was born in a village in the family of the tractor and the workers of a textile factory, fit better than others. Although doctors, watching the girls were inclined to give priority to other candidates - for example, Irina Solovyova, master of sport of parachuting, made 700 jumps. According to another version, Sergey Korolev had planned another female flight with a spacewalk and that for him ashore stronger, according to doctors, Solovyov and Ponomarev. Tereshkova medical examination:

4. Initially involves the simultaneous flight of two female crews. According to the original idea, the space should be two girls in different apparatus were both fly, but in the spring of 1963 this idea was abandoned. Therefore, June 14, 1963, in the afternoon, the ship "Vostok-5" were sent into space by Valery Bykovsky. His flight to this day is considered to be the longest single flight: in space Valery spent almost 5 days. That is, two days more than the Valentina Tereshkova.

5. Native Valentina Tereshkova learned about the flight only after its completion. Flight could end in tragedy, so Valentina Tereshkova kept information about it secret from relatives. Them before the flight, she said she goes to competitions parachutists and about what happened they have learned on the radio.

Valentina Tereshkova, and Yuri Gagarin:

6. The automatic ship program was an inaccuracy. error and the ship "Vostok-6" was made was oriented so that, instead of down, on the contrary, raised the orbit. Rather than approach the Earth, Tereshkova was removed from it. The faults "Seagull" notified mission control, and scientists were able to adjust the program.

Within a few decades about the history of one of the participants in the events, at the request of the Queen, do not tell, and only relatively recently it has become common knowledge.

Tereshkova in a spacesuit, 1963:

7. A total of Valentina Tereshkova flew almost 2 million kilometers. Start "Vostok-6" occurred the morning of June 16, 1963, and landed Valentina Tereshkova in the morning on 19 June. In total flight lasted two days, 22 hours and 41 minutes. During this time the astronaut made 48 turns around the Earth, flying a total of about 1, 97 million kilometers. At the time of flight of Valentina Tereshkova it was only 26 years old. The cabin of the spacecraft:

8. The flight was difficult, terrible landing. At that time it was not customary to talk about the difficulties. Therefore, the fact that the flight was difficult Valentina Tereshkova were reported. It was very difficult to stay for three days in heavy snare suit. But she stood: did not ask for a premature termination of the flight.

Especially scary was Valentina during landing. At the bottom of the lake it was under her control more difficult parachute opens at an altitude of 4 km, it could not. Although astronauts taught alight on water, Valentine was not sure that enough strength to stay on the water after an exhausting flight. But in the end, Valentina Tereshkova was lucky: she flew over the lake.

Valentina Tereshkova, and Yuri Gagarin:

9. Personnel made newsreels were staged. Newsreels, which depicted a touchdown lander, were staged. They took off the next day after the real Tereshkova returning to Earth. When she returned, she was in very poor condition and she was rushed to hospital. But soon she regained consciousness the next day to feel good.

In the photo: the CPSU, Nikita Khrushchev, First Secretary (right) and cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova, Pavel Popovich (center) and Yuri Gagarin on the podium of the Mausoleum of Lenin on Red Square during a rally marking the successful completion of the flight on the spacecraft "Vostok -5 "Valery Bykovsky and" Vostok-6 "Valentina Tereshkova, 22 June 1963:

10. Valentine's "The Seagull" Tereshkova is not only the first-ever female astronaut. It is also the only woman of the world, committed a single spaceflight. All the other women cosmonauts and astronauts flew into space only in the composition of the crews. Flight Valentina Tereshkova became the remarkable chapter in the history of space exploration. Valentina Tereshkova, the year 1969:

11. Tereshkova is the first Russian woman to receive the rank of Major General.

12. After the execution of the dream of space flight, Valentina did not stop dreaming. It would seem that what can still dream after the completion of the flight and universal fame. But Tereshkova did not stop to think about the possibility of new flights. She really wanted to go on a mission to Mars, and even was ready to go there without the possibility of coming back. And after Tereshkova saw all the continents of the Earth from space, she began to dream about how to visit Australia. Many years later she was able to realize his dream.