Valentine Tereshkova she was a Soviet cosmonaut internationally recognized as the first woman to travel into space. Tereshkova crewed Vostok 6, staying in space for nearly 71 hours and performing 48 orbits of Earth. Because of that, she became a heroine in her country.
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Origin
Valentina Tereshkova was born in Bolshoye Maslennikovo, in the Soviet Union , March 6, 1937. She was of humble origin, her father, Vladimir Tereshkov , worked as a tractor driver. He died when Valentina was still a child, having been called up to fight in the Winter War, and died in combat in the Karelia region.
After the death of her father, her mother, Elena Tereshkova, she decided to move to Yaroslavl, where she worked in a textile factory and took care of her three children. Valentina had access to education during her childhood and adolescence, and at age 18, she started working as a worker .
Way to be a cosmonaut
During the 1950s and 1960s, the Soviet Union fought with the United States in what became known as the c sorry and spatial . This event was marked as the technological dispute between the two nations with the objective of determining who would make the greatest advances in space exploration.
The Soviets, for example, were the first to launch a satellite into space and the first to send a living being and a man into space. In the early 1960s, it was decided that it was time for a new milestone:sending the first woman into space. This opened up a great opportunity for Valentina Tereshkova.
Until then, she followed her life as a worker, performing jumps as an amateur parachutist and involved with the actions of the Communist Party for Soviet youth. So Tereshkova signed up for the Soviet program to send a cosmonaut into space . The term cosmonaut is the way the Soviets referred to astronauts.
This program had about five 1,000 entries , and a large selection was made so that the number of participants was gradually reduced. Initially 400 women were selected, and this number was reduced until five women remained. In addition to Valentina Tereshkova, among them were:Valentina Ponomaryova , Tatyana Kuznetsova , Zhanna Yorkina and Irina Solovyova .
Tereshkova met the basic requirements, which were:be under 30 years old, under 1.70 meters tall and under 70 kilos. In addition, she proved to be quite capable for the mission after a series of rigorous tests done in the selection. The selection and training she went through included:
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Insulation Tests
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Decompression Tests
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Test in centrifuges
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Lessons for Flying an Aircraft
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Tests for temperature swings
The entire decision process determined that Valentina Tereshkova and Valentina Ponomaryova would do missions in Vostok 5 and Vostok 6, respectively. However, Ponomaryova was replaced by a cosmonaut, and Tereshkova was reassigned to Vostok 6. Ponomaryova is believed to have been passed over for her feminist positions.
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Vostok 6 Trip
The choice by Valentina Tereshkova departed from itself First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and ruler of the country Nikita Kruschev . He chose her because, in addition to having satisfactory results during the tests, Tereshokova was seen as the ideal Soviet woman, as she was of humble origin, the daughter of peasants, worked in the factory and was engaged in the party.
Vostok 5 was crewed by Valery Bykovsky, departing on June 14, 1963. Vostok 6 departed two days later, being released on June 16, 1963 . Tereshkova was codenamed “seagull” and made 48 orbits around Earth , in a mission that spanned nearly 71 hours.
No return , Tereshkova ejected from the capsule at the height of six thousand meters and completed the parachute descent (remembering that she had good experience with skydiving). During this period, the cosmonaut went through difficult times, suffering from nausea and headaches from the pressure on her helmet.
Also, she had to deal with a problem with the spacecraft program , which began moving away from Earth orbit, making manual changes to the program to be able to return to Earth. Also, she had problems with the winds when she was parachuted and almost landed in a lake.
Her landing took place on the territory of present-day Kazakhstan , being helped by peasants who lived nearby. Tereshkova was invited to dine with locals, and this later earned her a warning, as she should have had medical tests first, as part of the protocol.
After that, Tereshkova was converted to heroin national and her name circled the world. She was invited to visit several countries, such as Cuba and the United Kingdom, and received the two most important honors of the Soviet government — the Hero of the Soviet Union and the Order of Lenin .
Post space travel
After space travel, Valentina Tereshkova was forbidden to return to space . This was mainly due to the death of Yuri Gagarin, another Soviet cosmonaut. She remained involved with the space program, but in 1969 the Soviet government stopped sending new cosmonauts to space.
The USSR didn't send a woman back into space until 1982, when Svetlana Savitskaya she was transported to the Salyut 7 space station by Soyuz T-7. The United States, meanwhile, sent the first woman into space in 1983, when Sally Ride manned the Challenger.
Valentina Tereshkova remained an influential personality , assuming important positions within the Communist Party. With the breakup of the Soviet Union, she sought to pursue a political career , until she managed to be elected, in 2011, to the Federal Duma (body that corresponds to the lower house of the Russian Legislative).
Personal life
In 1963, Tereshkova married Adrian Nokilayev , also a cosmonaut. Elena was born from this marriage, the first child born to a couple of cosmonauts. The marriage ended in 1982, the same year she joined Yuli Shaposhnikov , a surgeon. She remained married to him until her husband's death in 1999.
Image credits
[1] Timofeeff and Shutterstock
[2] URRaL and Shutterstock