What is the name of Tereshkova's daughter? Kent595616Thank you very much for the post and photo! Reminders of our heroes are important to us

One of these “prizes” was the first flight into space by a woman.

There are still several different versions regarding the authorship of the idea of ​​such a flight. One by one, by myself Sergei Pavlovich Korolev got the idea to send a woman into orbit. According to another, the thought of such a flight German Titov brought from... USA. Visiting America after his flight on Vostok-2, he heard that American feminists were pushing to send a woman into space and found support from the authorities.

Valentina Tereshkova Photo: www.russianlook.com

Be that as it may, the proposal for such a flight reached the Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev, who decided to rub the Americans in the face again.

In 1962, selection began for women astronauts. The requirements for candidates were extremely stringent: out of 800, only 30 passed the medical examination. Of these 30, only five were enrolled in the detachment itself - Zhanna Erkina, Tatyana Kuznetsova, Irina Solovyova, Valentina Ponomareva And

The training was tough - no discounts were given to women, rightly believing that even space would not offer them. Not everyone liked the idea of ​​a female space flight: the men from the cosmonaut corps understood that a woman would “take away” the place of one of them.

At first the girls were nicknamed “space Amazons,” but the more gallant Yuri Gagarin called the astronauts “birch trees.” And so it went - “space birches”.

Sergei Korolev put the question bluntly to the girls - either family or flights. None of the five candidates refused to go into space - then it seemed to them that there would be a lot of flights.

In addition to politicians, women's flight into space was warmly supported by doctors - for them it represented great opportunity study the effect of weightlessness on the female body.

Political choice

However, when it came to choosing one of the five, the opinion of doctors was pushed aside.

As one of the founders of Russian space medicine recalled Professor Vladimir Yadzovsky, according to the results of medical tests and theoretical training, the girls were arranged in the following order: 1. Ponomareva Valentina. 2. Solovyova Irina. 3. Kuznetsova Tatyana. 4. Sergeychik Zhanna. 5. Tereshkova Valentina.

Tereshkova, contrary to the opinion of experts, was personally chosen by Nikita Khrushchev, who liked the girl’s background: Valentina’s parents were from a simple family. His father worked as a tractor driver, died in the Soviet-Finnish war, his mother worked in a textile factory.

In addition, Valentina Tereshkova herself began her career at a weaving mill, where she became the secretary of the Komsomol. This made her compare favorably with Ponomareva, who came from a family of engineers and had a PhD in mathematics, and Solovyova, a famous athlete and world champion in parachuting.

Tereshkova was also involved in parachuting, but if Solovyova, for example, had about 700 jumps by that time, then she had less than a hundred.

It is interesting that if the men's cosmonaut corps was formed from pilots, then for the women only Ponomareva was a pilot, the rest were parachutists.

As a result, a decision was made at the very top - Valentina Tereshkova was appointed as the main pilot of the Vostok-6 ship, with Valentina Ponomareva and Irina Solovyova as backup pilots. Doctors insisted on two backups due to the “individual characteristics of the female body.”

Pre-launch "headwash"

The woman's flight plan should not have been inferior in complexity to previous flights. Since cosmonauts Andriyan Nikolaev And Pavel Popovich On the ships Vostok-3 and Vostok-4 they made a pair flight in August 1962, then Tereshkova’s flight was also planned as a pair. Vostok-5 was supposed to take off Valery Bykovsky, after him, Tereshkova ascended into space on Vostok-6, who was then supposed to land before Bykovsky.

Bykovsky could only help Tereshkova morally: the docking of two ships then existed only in the theoretical plans of the designers.

Vostok-5 with Bykovsky successfully launched on June 14, 1963. Bykovsky’s flight was delayed for a day due to weather conditions, which led to a delay in Tereshkova’s flight. Doctors then considered that the delayed launch had an adverse effect on the condition of the first female cosmonaut during the flight.

Valentina Tereshkova. Photo: www.russianlook.com

Women are women: when the hairdresser arrived on the eve of the start, all three decided to change their color. So Tereshkova became a brunette, Ponomareva a redhead, and Solovyova a blonde. The flight directors grabbed their heads: photographs of potential space explorers in Moscow were already awaiting publication, and now there was such a change. The girls were forced to “wash away their beauty.”

Valentina Tereshkova launched on the Vostok-6 spacecraft on June 16, 1963. Head of the cosmonaut squad General Kamanin noted in his diary that the start went almost perfectly, and they made no mistake with Tereshkova.

The untimely dream of “Citizen Tereshkova”

Kamanin was in a hurry: problems began already in orbit. Doctors noted that Tereshkova “survived the flight satisfactorily.” She was noted to have lethargy, nausea, and limited movement. Tereshkova simply could not complete some of the planned experiments. If at the beginning of the flight the leaders had plans to increase the duration of Tereshkova’s space travel, then a clear opinion was formed - to plant her sooner, out of harm’s way.

Here, for example, is one of the incidents during the flight: Tereshkova did not get in touch at the appointed time. On Earth they became worried, and then, according to telemetry data, they discovered that the girl was... sleeping. Sleeping at odd hours in orbit is a gross violation of the flight program, and it was impossible to wake Tereshkova from Earth. Then Valery Bykovsky was connected - there was direct radio communication between Vostok-5 and Vostok-6. Bykovsky managed to “push” his partner.

There is a comical incident associated with radio communications between the Vostoks, which Valery Bykovsky recalled. After “Chaika” (Tereshkova’s call sign) took off, “Yastreb” (Bykovsky’s call sign) established contact with her. During the conversation, a radio broadcast from Earth was broadcast on board Vostok 5 - a TASS message about the first flight of a woman into space. Having heard the phrase from this message, “Seagull” asked “Hawk” offendedly:

Valera, why do you call me “Citizen Tereshkova”?

On the eve of the 50th anniversary of her flight, Valentina Tereshkova said that an erroneous flight program was introduced into the Vostok-6 on-board system, which she had to correct. If the automation had worked according to the original program, Vostok-6 would have gone into a higher orbit instead of landing, which would have meant the death of the astronaut.

Designer's Curse

But the program was corrected in time, and on June 19, 1963, the Vostok-6 descent module landed safely in the Altai Territory. But rescuers who arrived at the landing site discovered that Tereshkova had committed two gross violations: she began to eat food brought by local residents, and also distributed tubes of space food as souvenirs.

The ban was not at all tyranny - the food returned from space had to be studied by specialists, and the earthly food that Tereshkova ate violated the purity of medical tests, and, moreover, could have an unpredictable effect on the space explorer herself.

Korolev, having learned about the violation, was terribly angry. In his anger, he slammed his fist on the table and declared: “As long as I’m alive, not a single woman will fly into space again.”

Perhaps this was said in the heat of the moment, in the heat of the moment. After all, there were plans to launch an all-female crew, plans for women to enter open space right after Alexey Leonov.

In fact, the “curse of Korolev” turned out to be a prophecy: he died in 1966, and after Tereshkova in the USSR, the next woman to fly into space Svetlana Savitskaya, and this only happened in 1982. Irina Solovyova and Valentina Ponomareva were not destined to go into space.

Cosmic marriage

As for Tereshkova herself, she remained in the cosmonaut corps until 1997, rising to the rank of major general, but she no longer flew into space. Her main occupation was socio-political activity. She is currently a State Duma deputy from the United Russia party and a member of the central headquarters of the All-Russian Popular Front.

There was another event in Tereshkova’s life, about which there is a lot of gossip to this day - in November 1963 she married cosmonaut Andriyan Nikolaev. Tereshkova and Nikolaev thus became the first “space” married couple. The wedding celebrations were personally organized by Nikita Khrushchev, which gave rise to the version that the young people were “ordered to get married.” According to another hypothesis, Nikolaev and Tereshkova were “brought together” by doctors who wanted to get “cosmic offspring”.

TASS REPORT

On June 16, 1963, at 12:30 p.m. Moscow time, the Earth satellite was launched into orbit in the Soviet Union. spacecraft"Vostok-6" for the first time in the world was piloted by a woman - a citizen of the Soviet Union, cosmonaut comrade Valentina Vladimirovna Tereshkova.

This flight will continue to study the influence of various factors of space flight on the human body, including comparative analysis the impact of these factors on the bodies of men and women, a new volume of medical and biological research and further development and improvement of manned spacecraft systems under joint flight conditions were carried out.

In accordance with the assigned tasks, the launch of the Vostok-6 spacecraft was carried out while the Vostok-5 spacecraft, launched in the Soviet Union on June 14, 1963, was in orbit.

Currently, two Soviet spacecraft are in flight simultaneously in outer space - Vostok-5 and Vostok-6, piloted by citizens of the Soviet Union Valery Fedorovich Bykovsky and Valentina Vladimirovna Tereshkova.

The orbital parameters of the Vostok-6 satellite are close to the calculated ones. According to preliminary data, the period of revolution of the Vostok-6 satellite around the Earth is 88.3 minutes, the minimum distance from the Earth's surface (at perigee) and maximum (at apogee) are 183 and 233 kilometers, respectively, the angle of inclination of the orbital plane to the plane equator is about 65 degrees. Two-way radio communication is continuously maintained with the Vostok-6 spacecraft.

Cosmonaut Comrade Valentina Vladimirovna Tereshkova satisfactorily endured the launch of the spacecraft into orbit and the transition to a state of weightlessness. Comrade Tereshkova is feeling good.

Cosmonaut comrade Tereshkova broadcasts on frequencies of 20.006 and 143.625 megahertz. The ship also has a Signal transmitter operating at a frequency of 19.995 megahertz. Two-way communication has been established between the Vostok-5 and Vostok-6 spacecraft.

All on-board systems The Vostok-5 and Vostok-6 spacecraft are functioning normally.

Evening Moscow from June 16, 1963

FUTURE COSMONAUTS

In August 1962, during preparations for the launch “towards Venus,” many of my comrades and I first saw at the MIK a flock of thin girls in tunics, about whom we were told that these were future cosmonauts.

Classes were held with the girls. They studied the carrier and even got acquainted with the structure of our interplanetary station. When they were brought to our apparatus, the tests of which were almost completed, many more curious people crowded around than the work required.

Which one will fly first? This question was probably asked by everyone approaching the crowd that formed at the object ready for docking with the carrier. . .

Kirillov, who loved to joke in such cases, approached the curious ones and said almost in a whisper:

Here comes Korolev!

The military and civilians were blown away by the wind! I quickly and incoherently finished my explanations and, when the girls were taken away, I asked Kirillov:

Where is the joint venture?!

It was I who started the “duck” to create fear. It was inconvenient to disperse respected people with rude shouts in front of girls.

But Korolev is not at the training ground. He is in Moscow. According to my information, he is even in the hospital.

Even more so! I checked that the reflex worked, Sergei Pavlovich was not there, but the rules he had established were in effect: don’t gather for more than three unless it’s necessary.

On August 25, 8K78 launched with AMS 2MV-1 No. 3. Five girls, having admired the launch of the “seven” for the first time from the observation veranda of IP-1, left the site and departed “for further service.”

Of these five, Valentina Tereshkova will be destined to become the world's first woman to visit near-Earth space. The rest will never fly into space.

In April 1963, they finally agreed on a group flight of a man and a woman. On the male candidacy, we came to an agreement without any particular contradictions: Bykovsky and his backup, Volynov. Passions were running high around women's candidates. Korolev, teaming up with Gagarin, persuaded Tyulin and Mrykin to support Tereshkova. The Academy of Sciences, represented by Keldysh, and Marshal Rudenko defended Ponomareva, offering Tereshkov as an understudy.

In May, the chief designers already reported to the State Commission, which was chaired by Tyulin, about the readiness of all systems, but it was not yet known for whom to prepare the seat in the ship. Finally, the decision was made to go to the CPC and make the final choice there. Korolev with Bushuev, Keldysh, Tyulin, Mrykin, Rudenko, Kamanin gathered at the Central Election Commission and there they decided in favor of Tereshkova. At the same time, they decided to kill two birds with one stone: Bykovsky should set a new record for flight duration - eight days, Tereshkova should fly no more than three.

On the morning of June 4, a business meeting of the State Commission was held, and in the evening there was a “show-off” meeting for filming and sound recording. Major Bykovsky and junior lieutenant Tereshkova were appointed commanders of the ships.

There were also male comments that were not subject to recording.

Look how Tereshkova has blossomed. Just a year ago I was an inconspicuous girl, and now I’m a real movie star,” said Isaev, who was sitting next to me.

It’s flying, it won’t happen yet,” I answered, and we both knocked on the wooden chairs.

True, after taking a closer look, they decided that Ponomareva also “looks good.” But she didn’t shine like Tereshkova, she looked overly serious, and it seemed to me that she was simply offended in a feminine way that she remained an understudy.

B.E. Chertok. Rockets and people

“SEAGULL” IN SPACE

Valentina Vladimirovna Tereshkova - pilot of the Vostok-6 spacecraft, pilot-cosmonaut of the USSR No. 6; the first female cosmonaut on planet Earth, the 10th cosmonaut in the world.

Born on March 6, 1937 in the village of Maslennikovo, Tutaevsky district, Yaroslavl region. Russian. She spent her childhood and youth in Yaroslavl. In 1953 she graduated from the 7th grade of secondary school No. 32 in the city of Yaroslavl, in 1955 - the 8th and 9th grades of the working youth school No. 10 in the city of Yaroslavl. From July 27, 1954 to April 12, 1955, she worked as a bracelet maker at the Yaroslavl Tire Plant in workshop No. 5; from June 2, 1955, she worked as a roving maker at the Yaroslavl Order of Lenin Industrial Fabrics Factory "Krasny Perekop" in the roving shop. Since 1959, she has been involved in parachuting at the Yaroslavl flying club and performed 90 jumps.

In 1960 she graduated from the Yaroslavl Correspondence College of Light Industry with a degree in cotton spinning technology. After graduating from college, she trained in the mechanical repair shop of factory No. 2. From August 11, 1960 to March 1962, she was the released secretary of the Komsomol committee of the Krasny Perekop plant.

In the Soviet Army since March 1962.

On March 12, 1962, by order of the Commander-in-Chief of the Air Force No. 67, she was enrolled in the cosmonaut corps of the Air Force Cosmonaut Center. Was appointed senior group female listeners. From March 12 to November 1962, she underwent general space training, during which she completed 21 flights on Il-14 and Uti MiG-15 aircraft, as well as 44 parachute jumps.

From January to May 25, 1963, she was preparing to fly on the Vostok-6 spacecraft under the women's flight program as part of a group together with I. Solovyova, V. Ponomareva, Zh. Yorkina. She was designated as the prime candidate for the flight.

On June 16-19, 1963, she made a space flight as a pilot of the Vostok-6 spacecraft, lasting 2 days 22 hours 50 minutes. This was the world's first flight of a female astronaut!

The launch of the Vostok-6 spacecraft was carried out while the Vostok-5 spacecraft, piloted by cosmonaut V.F., was in orbit. Bykovsky.

During the flight, a large amount of medical and biological research and further development and improvement of manned spacecraft systems under joint flight conditions were carried out.

On June 16, 1963, by order of the Air Force Commander-in-Chief No. 0502, he was awarded the military rank of "lieutenant". On the same day, by order of the USSR Minister of Defense No. 149, he was awarded the extraordinary military rank of “captain”.

For the successful implementation of the flight and the courage and heroism displayed, by Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR dated June 22, 1963, Captain Valentina Vladimirovna Tereshkova was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union with the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star medal (No. 11135).

After the space flight V.V. Tereshkova continued to undergo training in the cosmonaut corps, but most of her time began to be occupied by social work, and therefore she had to make many trips to the cities of the USSR and to many countries of the world. At the end of 1963, her wedding took place with cosmonaut Andriyan Grigorievich Nikolaev. In 1964, a daughter, Elena, was born into the “space” family. After existing for several years, the marriage broke up.

WELL-BEING IN FLIGHT

During the preparation and conduct of the flights of the Vostok-3 and Vostok-4 spacecraft, the selection and training of female cosmonauts was carried out. The following cosmonaut candidates were selected:

1. Ponomareva Valentina Leonidovna, had two higher educations: engineer-pilot and engineer-economist.

2. Solovyova Irina Bayanovna, higher education, parachutist.

3. Sergeychik Zhanna Dmitrievna, higher education, parachutist.

4. Kuznetsova Tatyana Dmitrievna, higher education, parachutist.

5. Valentina Vladimirovna Tereshkova, weaver at the Yaroslavl manufactory, parachutist.

During training of female cosmonaut candidates on shells, stands and in flight on airplanes, it was revealed that in women during a certain period of menstruation life cycle Physiological resistance to the extreme factors of space flight is sharply reduced. A series of medical and physiological studies were conducted on the state of the female body at different periods of the monthly cycle and its resistance to extreme factors. Female monkeys were delivered from the Sukhumi Monkey Nursery (Institute of Experimental Pathology and Therapy of the USSR Academy of Medical Sciences) to Moscow to the IAKM. After performing a large series of experiments with monkeys spinning in a centrifuge and analyzing the data obtained, it was revealed that the female body is least resistant to the effects of extreme environmental factors (accelerations) on the 14-18th day of the monthly cycle, which corresponds to the period of ovulation. It follows from this that the launch of a spacecraft and the descent during this period is undesirable for women. After completing the preparation and training program for the selected female cosmonaut candidates, they were given a full medical and physiological examination. Based on the results of a medical examination and theoretical preparedness of female cosmonaut candidates, the following sequence of admission to space flight was determined:

1. Ponomareva Valentina

2. Solovyova Irina

3. Kuznetsova Tatyana

4. Sergeychik Zhanna

5. Tereshkova Valentina.

With the intervention of Nikita Sergeevich Khrushchev and the tacit consent of Sergei Pavlovich Korolev, Mstislav Vsevolodovich Keldysh and Nikolai Petrovich Kamanin, contrary to the conclusion of the medical commission, Valentina Tereshkova was identified as cosmonaut No. 1 among women. The social origin of V. Tereshkova played a decisive role in this. This, of course, was not best option selection...

V.V. Tereshkova’s orbital flight was planned for three days. V.V. Tereshkova, according to telemetry and television monitoring, endured the flight mostly satisfactorily. Negotiations with ground communication stations were sluggish. She sharply limited her movements. She sat almost motionless. She clearly showed changes in her health of a vegetative nature. She did not carry out some of the tasks and work on the ship... The deterioration of V.V. Tereshkova’s condition and the decrease in her performance were associated with the adverse effects of weightlessness. In response to my proposal to take one tablet of meprobomate (a sedative) from the medicine cabinet and take it, V.V. Tereshkova refused and stated: “Doctor, don’t worry, I will complete the task.” Sergei Pavlovich Korolev, seeing the television image of V.V. Tereshkova, sitting motionless and not fully completing the tasks, demanded that the State Commission stop the flight and begin the descent of the Vostok-6 spacecraft to Earth. Chairman of the State Commission L.V. Smirnov replied that the question of terminating a flight for medical reasons is the prerogative of the head of the medical program. Having weighed all the pros and cons, I decided to ask the State Commission to continue the flight. Thus, I took full responsibility for V.V. Tereshkova’s space flight lasting three days...

The flight continued, V.V. Tereshkova’s condition and her performance did not improve. After sleep, emotional stress decreased somewhat and V.V. Tereshkova’s performance improved very slightly. Her heart rate ranged from 58 to 84 beats per minute. Significant fluctuations in heart rate were noted within short intervals of time, respiratory rates ranged from 16 to 22 per minute...

The landing of the Vostok-5 and Vostok-6 ships took place in the Dzhezkazgan area in Kazakhstan. Our employee, doctor, world record holder in parachuting Lyubov Maznichenko, landed in the landing area of ​​​​V.V. Tereshkova. She protested to Valentina Tereshkova in connection with the violation of the established cosmonaut regime in the area of ​​the spacecraft landing site. Valentina Tereshkova distributed all the onboard food supplies from the cosmonaut's diet to the local residents who surrounded her. She herself drank kumys and ate food given to her by the Kazakhs. The astronaut's logbook was urgently completed by her at the landing site, and not during the flight. Some hygienic order was established in the ship after landing. These actions distorted the true picture at the landing site. Scientists were deprived of the opportunity to objectively assess the condition of V.V. Tereshkova and the condition inside the ship.

there will be 6 photos and text

It is very symbolic that Valentina TERESHKOVA’s birthday almost coincided with International Women’s Day. On March 6, Valentina Vladimirovna will celebrate her 80th birthday.

In the newspapers of perestroika times, when a course was taken to denigrate the main shrines of the Land of Soviets, they wrote that Chaika (that was Tereshkova’s call sign) received fame undeservedly. Like, she was sick throughout the flight, and Sergei KOROLEV, the chief designer, allegedly said: “As long as I’m alive, there will be no more women in space.” And only recently it became clear: it turned out to be convenient for engineers and designers to blame their flaws and shortcomings on Valentina. If a male astronaut had been in her place, he would have been hailed as a hero for saving the space mission.

Two in orbit
At the same time as Valentina Tereshkova’s ship, Vostok-5, controlled by Valery Bykovsky, was also in orbit.

Korolev really loved it when the girls who were preparing for the flight sang: “Our town is nothing, the population is such, the top-secret girls are a minority.” And in orbit, Valentina wanted to sing. She said: “When my Vostok-6 was approaching Bykovsky’s Vostok-5 ship, I told him on the radio: “Valera, let’s sing!” Let them know on Earth that everything is fine with us.” He kept denying it. And then he says: “Leave me alone, I’m not your song thrush!” Later, Bykovsky reported to Earth: “The connection with Chaika is excellent, she sings songs to me.”

Apartment as a reward
Nikita Khrushchev was jubilant. The Americans were shown Kuzka's mother again! And this was done by a simple woman, a weaver, whom the social elevator lifted to the shining stars. From the rostrum of the Mausoleum, Khrushchev exclaimed: “Our dear and brave Valya has significantly exceeded the national record of the United States of America for the duration of a space flight. Her flight lasted longer than all American astronauts combined in space. 71 hours! Immediately after the flight, the Tereshkov family was given a three-room apartment in Yaroslavl on Golubyatnaya Street.

Deadly trick
All official reports stated that the flight went flawlessly from start to finish. In reality, everything was not like that. The technicians and designers made a mistake during the design process that could have doomed Chaika to a painful death in icy space. The ship took off with serious design flaws. As a result, the automation responsible for returning to Earth failed. Tereshkova, exhausted after three days of complete immobility and overload, had to turn it off at the last turn and take control into her own hands. She's in manual mode guided the ship towards Earth, consulting via radio with mission control.

Secret feat
Valya was not prepared for such an extreme, she was the first to land the ship manually and last time in life. If a man had been in her place, he would have been declared a hero and triumphant, who brilliantly dealt with the emergency situation on board. There is no doubt that if the fatal trick had failed, the designers would simply have declared that space is not for women.

Vostok-6 engineer Boris Chertok left memories where he told what happened after the flight. Valya was expected at a press conference, but Korolev invited her to his office and spent a long time convincing her of something. She came out crying and clearly depressed. It turns out that the Chief Designer made it strictly clear: you cannot wash dirty linen in public. “Seagull,” said Korolev, “I beg you, don’t talk about it.” And Tereshkova kept the secret for 30 years.

By the way, shortly before his death, Korolev decided to form an all-female crew. But after the death of Vladimir Komarov in space, the idea was abandoned.

Woman is man's friend
Chertok would later write: “We, the engineers who designed the control system, believed that it was easier to control a spaceship than an airplane. All processes are more extended in time, there is time to think. The ship will not go into a tailspin. Anyone who is physically and mentally normal and trained in two to three months can operate it - even a woman!”

Even a woman! Do you understand the attitude? It is not surprising that our most advanced country in the space industry has only given four women the opportunity to fly to the stars. And in the USA there are several dozen of them. “Soviet women rarely flew into space because of the peculiarities of the national mentality, because of men’s fear of losing the aura of heroes,” said Elena Dobrokvashina, a leading employee of the Institute of Medical and Biological Problems of the Russian Academy of Sciences, a member of the main medical commission for the selection of cosmonauts, who was preparing for the flight together with Svetlana Savitskaya. - Although it has always been said that we are all equal, it is no secret that we live in a man's world. Our men run everything. And men have always believed that “they are,” and we women, “well, why?” Men were afraid that if women also did this, then the flair of heroism for men would be lost. How can it be, he’s a hero, and here’s a woman doing the same thing!”

01. TERESHKOVA was awarded the title “The Greatest Woman of the 20th Century”

Speciality: cosmonaut

Military rank: Major General (1995) Expeditions: Vostok-6

Date of birth: March 6, 1937 (age 76)

Place of birth: Bolshoye Maslennikovo village, Tutaevsky district, Yaroslavl region, RSFSR, USSR

Valentina Vladimirovna Tereshkova- Soviet cosmonaut, the world's first female cosmonaut, major general of aviation (1995). Hero of the Soviet Union (1963), Hero of Socialist Labor of Czechoslovakia (1963), Hero of Socialist Labor of the People's Republic of Belarus (1963), Hero of Labor of Vietnam (1971), Hero of Labor of the Mongolian People's Republic. Candidate of Technical Sciences, Professor. The only woman in the world to fly solo in space. The first woman in Russia with the rank of major general. Deputy of the State Duma of the sixth convocation from United Russia, deputy chairman of the State Duma Committee on International Affairs.

Childhood and youth.

Valentina Tereshkova was born in the now defunct village of Bolshoye MaslennikovoYaroslavl region in a peasant family coming from Belarus . Father - Tereshkov Vladimir Aksenovich (1912-1940), tractor driver. Was called up to Red Army in 1939, died in the Soviet-Finnish war . Mother - Tereshkova (nee Kruglova) Elena Fedorovna (1913-1987), textile factory worker. The family also included an older sister, Lyudmila, and a younger brother, Vladimir. As Valentina Vladimirovna herself said, as a child she spoke in Belarusian.

In 1945 the girl entered secondary school No. 32 in the city Yaroslavl (now bears the name Tereshkova); having an ear for music, in free time learned to play domra . Graduated from seven classes in 1953 . To help the family, 1954 Valentina went to work for Yaroslavl Tire Plant bracelet in the assembly and vulcanization shop during the preparatory operation, where she operated a diagonal cutting machine. At the same time, she studied in evening classes at a school for working youth. From April 1955, she worked for seven years as a weaver at the Krasny Perekop technical fabrics factory, where her mother and older sister also worked. WITH In 1959 she was engaged in parachuting at the Yaroslavl flying club (performed 90 jumps). Continuing to work at the textile mill " Krasny Perekop", from 1955 to 1960 passed distance learning V College of Light Industry. Since August 11, 1960 - released committee secretary Komsomol plant "Krasny Perekop".

In the cosmonaut corps.

After the first successful flights Soviet cosmonauts from Sergei Korolev There was an idea to launch a female cosmonaut into space. At the beginning 1962 The search for applicants began according to the following criteria: parachutist, under 30 years old, up to 170 cm tall and weighing up to 70 kg. From hundreds of candidates, five were selected, including and Valentina Tereshkova.

Immediately after being accepted into the cosmonaut corps, Tereshkova, along with the other girls, was called up for compulsory military service with the rank of privates.

When choosing Tereshkova for the role of the first female cosmonaut, in addition to successful completion of training, political aspects were also taken into account: Tereshkova was from the workers, while, for example, Ponomareva and Solovyova were from the employees. In addition, Tereshkova's father, Vladimir, died during the Soviet-Finnish war , when she was two years old. After the flight, when Tereshkova was asked what Soviet Union can thank her for her service, she asked to find the place where her father died.

Flight on Vostok-6

Tereshkova made her space flight (the world's first flight of a female cosmonaut) on June 16, 1963 on the Vostok-6 spacecraft; it lasted almost three days. The launch took place at Baikonur not from the “Gagarin” site, but from a duplicate one. At the same time, the Vostok-5 spacecraft, piloted by cosmonaut Valery Bykovsky, was in orbit.

On the day of her first flight into space, she told her family that she was leaving for a parachute competition; they learned about the flight from the news on the radio.

Tereshkova’s call sign for the duration of the flight is “Seagull”; the phrase she said before the start: “ Hey! Sky! Take off your hat!"(modified quote from V. Mayakovsky's poem "A Cloud in Pants"). Tereshkova survived 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 module landed safely in the Baevsky district of the Altai Territory.

At the time of the flight, Valentina Tereshkova was only 26 years old.

According to the testimony of pilot Marina Popovich, in her presence after Tereshkova’s flight, S.P. Korolev said: “As long as I’m alive, not a single woman will fly into space again.” The next flight of a woman into space, Svetlana Savitskaya, took place 19 years later, in August 1982.

Social and government activities.

She was involved in active government and social activities.

In 1968-1987 she headed the Committee of Soviet Women.

In 2008-2011 - deputy of the Yaroslavl Regional Duma from the United Russia party, deputy chairman.

In 2011, she was elected to the State Duma of Russia from the United Russia party on the Yaroslavl regional list.

With the assistance and participation of Tereshkova, a university was opened in Yaroslavl, a new building for a technical school of light industry, a river station, a planetarium were built, and the Volga embankment was landscaped. Throughout his life he provides assistance to his native school and the Yaroslavl orphanage.

Personal life.

The wedding ceremony of pilot-cosmonauts Valentina Tereshkova and Andriyan Nikolaev. Moscow, November 3, 1963

She was married to Andriyan Nikolaev , the wedding took place in a government mansion on Lenin Hills November 3, 1963 , among the guests was N. S. Khrushchev . After the marriage and until the divorce, Tereshkova bore a double surname Nikolaeva-Tereshkova. This marriage was officially dissolved in 1982 , after the daughter Elena came of age. Tereshkova once said about the reasons for her divorce from cosmonaut-3: “ At work there is gold, at home there is a despot» . Second husband - Major General of the Medical Service, Director of the Central Institute of Traumatology and Orthopedics (CITO) Yuliy Shaposhnikov (1931-1999).

On June 8, 1964, daughter Elena Andriyanovna was born : the world's first child whose father and mother were both astronauts. In 2013, Elena Tereshkova is an orthopedic surgeon, working in CYTO.

Grandchildren - Alexey Igorevich Mayorov (b. 1996) and Andrey Andreevich Rodionov (b. June 18, 2004).