Valentina Vladimirovna Tereshkova, (Валентина владимировна терешкова") is the first woman to go into space. She was only 26 when she made this trip in 1963, and this was her first and only space trip. Although she spent the rest of his life in diplomatic responsibilities stemming from this success, she never lost the excitement of returning to space: in 2013, at the age of 76, she said she volunteered for a one-way trip to Mars. Tereshkova's space travel began on June 16, 1963, when Vostok 6 was launched:
"Hey, sky, take off your hat. I'm on my way!"
Childhood and educational life
The second of three children of Vladimir Tereshkova and Elena Fyodorovna Tereshkova, she was born on March 6, 1937 in the village of Bolshoye Maslennikovo in western Russia. When she was only two years old, she lost his father in the Second World War. His mother supported the family by working in a textile factory. His brothers Vladimir and Ludmilla were very young, so Valentina had to help her mother at home, and so she could not go to school until she was 10; she started working in a tire factory at 16 and a textile factory at 17.
At the same time as he was working, she was continuing his education. But the conditions were quite difficult: without going to school, she was taking lessons delivered by mail. So she could both work and contribute to the family budget and study. Although she said she had a hard time, she managed to graduate from the Technical School of Light Industry. She joined The Young Communist League while working in a factory, and thanks to his exciting character, she soon progressed to membership in the Communist Party. At this time, his dissertation entitled “braking engines for Orbital aircraft”, which she wrote while studying engineering, was selected as a "superior thesis".
In 1961, she was appointed secretary of the Young Communist League of the Soviet Union ("Komsomol"), and after joining the Yaroslavl Air Sports Club, she became interested in skydiving. At the age of 22, she performed his first parachute jump. Tereshkova, whose love for the sky began with parachuting, explained This Love as follows:
"I learned to wait as long as possible before pulling the parachute rope to feel the Air; 40 seconds, 50 seconds... It doesn't really fall; you have a tremendous pleasure in the feeling that forms throughout your body.Juno. This it is a wonderful feeling!"
After Sputnik 1 became the first man-made space satellite, and Yuri Gagarin became the first human to go into space in 1961, Tereshkova was very impressed with it and volunteered for the Soviet Space Program. Despite having no piloting experience, she was admitted to the program due to having 126 parachute jumps. At the time, the cosmonauts, on their way back to Earth, had to parachute out of their capsule seconds before the space capsule hit the ground. Tereshkova was perfect for this job!
In 1962, she was selected to train as a cosmonaut in the Soviet space program. In the space race between the United States and the Soviet Union, which began in the late 1950s and continued into the 1960s, the Soviets wanted to continue their lead in this race by sending a woman into space. Yuri Gagarin's first space trip on April 12, 1961, had already given the Soviet Union the lead in this race.
How Did Tereshkova Become A Cosmonaut?
Tereshkova, an accomplished paratrooper, was well equipped to overcome the forced launch from the capsule, at an altitude of 20,000 feet, one of the most difficult procedures of Vostok Space Flight. In February 1962, she was selected into the space program to begin intensive training to become a cosmonaut, along with three other female paratroopers and a female pilot.
Along with four other women, they received an 18-month training that included long periods of being alone and tests that determined how they would react to zero gravity conditions. Weightless flights, insulation tests, centrifuge tests, rocket theory, parachuting 120 times and pilot training on MiG fighter aircraft were among the trainings given. The training also included a thermal room with a flight suit at a temperature of 70ºC and a humidity of 30%. Candidates were selected from 400 women aged 30 years, 70 kilograms and under 1.70 cm neck. The weight and height limitation was due to the fact that the size of the Vostok spacecraft allowed only individuals of those sizes. Zhanna Yorkina, one of her teammates, talks about Tereshkova:
"She has always defended our rights in front of our bases. For example, at the beginning of the program, we lived as if we were behind barbed wire. We lived near Moscow, but only Moskovans were allowed to leave the training camp to see their families. Me and Tereshkova got bored and asked permission to go to Moscow. "Why? What do you want to buy?"they said. On one occasion, Valentina Tereshkova lost control and said: "underwear! That's what we want to buy!"she said, and that's how we got permission."
Tereshkova's Space Journey
In 1963, Tereshkova was selected to take part in the Vostok program, a dual flight involving the Vostok 5 and Vostok 6 spacecraft. On June 14, 1963, Vostok 5 was launched into space with cosmonaut Valeri Bykovsky.
On the day of the launch on June 16, 1963, Tereshkova confidently walked towards the Vostok 6 spacecraft. But when he reached the cabin, he got too excited and his heart rate went up to 140 beats per minute. Yuri Gagarin says in Baikonur hours before Tereshkova's launch:
"She's very well prepared for the flight. Not only will it fly in space, it will operate the spacecraft in the same way as male cosmonauts. We'll compare who's better at completing their mission when they land."
While Vostok 5 was still orbiting Earth, the two spacecraft had different orbits when Tereshkova was launched into space with Vostok 6; however, at one point two cosmonauts approaching each other 5 km were allowed to communicate briefly. This was a tremendously important step for space missions. They also managed to send television images from space to Earth, completing another important step. In the process, Tereshkova's spacecraft was guided by an automatic control system and did not completely take control throughout the flight.
Her nickname on the radio call was Chaika, that is, The Seagull. Even today, the people of Russia use this nickname for Tereshkova. Throughout the flight, Tereshkova continued to say she was feeling fine, but on her third day in orbit, it became clear that she was trying to hide her fatigue. Tereshkova fell asleep unexpectedly and missed a status call with the world. She was constantly nauseous, vomiting, and unable to perform any of the planned scientific experiments.
Tereshkova has toured the world 48 times in 70.8 hours, in less than three days. The first human to go into space, Yuri Gagarin, toured the Earth 1 time, and 4 American astronauts who flew before Tereshkova made a total of 36 tours. So Tereshkova broke another record. While in orbit, he spoke with Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev. Khrushchev said:
"Valentina, I am happy and proud that a woman from the Soviet Union flew into space and became the first woman to use this state-of-the-art equipment."
Landing of Vostok 6
According to RT news channel, a bug in the spacecraft's automatic navigation software had caused the ship to move away from Earth. Tereshkova realized this, and Soviet scientists quickly developed a new landing algorithm.
On June 19, after three days in space, Vostok 6 re-entered the atmosphere and Tereshkova successfully parachuted to Earth after jumping from an altitude of 20,000 feet. Bykovsky and Vostok 5 also landed safely a few hours later.
Tereshkova landed in the Altay region, close to the present-day Kazakhstan-Mongolia-China border. After being launched from the spacecraft and parachuted to the ground, he emerged from his helmet with a nasty bruise on his face and was unconscious. When he was found by the native villagers, she accepted the food offered and distributed scuba space supplies to the villagers. Both actions were contrary to Soviet protocol. Tereshkova tried to explain that it was the space food that made her sick, but her managers did not accept this explanation.
Life After Flight
After returning from space travel, a ceremony was held for Bykovsky and Tereshkova in Red Square, which was used for official celebrations in Moscow, she was honored with the title hero of the Soviet Union. While a worker a few years ago, she was now seen as a hero of the Soviet Union. Leonid Brezhnev, President of the Presidential Council, awarded Tereshkova with the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star Medal. As a symbol of Free Soviet women and an example of the achievements of gender equality, she began to travel the world in her capacity as a goodwill ambassador. Tereshkova, who attended the United Nations meeting, received a standing ovation for minutes. When people were given opportunities, it became a symbol of how great achievements even those you never expected at first glance could achieve. The United Nations awarded him the Gold Medal of peace.
Tereshkova's flight showed that women have the same resistance as men to the physical and psychological stresses of space. Tests showed that women were more resistant to gravity than men.
This was Tereshkova's first and only space trip. She then continued his work as a test pilot and instructor. She also earned a doctorate in technical sciences. On November 3, 1963, she married fellow cosmonaut Andriyan Nikolayev. They had a daughter named Yelena. Since they were both parents who had traveled in space, Yelena had been the subject of medical attention. This is also an important detail, because how space flights affect people's reproductive systems was unknown until then. Tereshkova, by giving birth to an extremely healthy puppy, has proved that there is no concern about this. Yelena lived a smooth life and became a medical doctor. Tereshkova divorced her husband in 1980.
In 1969, she graduated from the Zhukovsky Military Air Academy with a degree. She became one of the leading members of the Communist Party and represented the Soviet Union at numerous international events, including the United Nations International Year of Women conference in 1975. There is also a crater on the moon named after him.
Tereshkova was also active in gender equality and cultural areas. She made efforts to ensure that women have the same rights as men and equality. But after Tereshkova, it took another female cosmonaut exactly 19 years to make space travel, during which many male cosmonauts were sent into space. For example, none of the female cosmonauts who trained with Tereshkova were sent into space. Despite all this, Tereshkova had an understanding of equality that could be called more "traditional" by today's standards. For example, in an article entitled "Women In Space", written for the American Magazine Impact of Science on Society in 1970, she wrote about his views on women and science:
"I believe that a woman should always remain a woman and that nothing that is feminine should be unfamiliar to her. No amount of work a woman does in science, culture, or any field, no matter how hard and challenging, can contradict her old "wonderful mission"and her longing for maternal happiness. On the contrary, these two aspects of his life can perfectly complement each other."
Tereshkova did not give up her efforts to create equality of opportunity through politics and held many posts, such as membership in the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet. She chaired the Soviet women's Committee and the International Union of Culture and friendship, as well as the Russian Association for International Cooperation. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, she received the rank of "general" in 2003 and headed the Russian Center for International Scientific and Cultural Cooperation. She served in the Duma, the Russian parliament.
Valentina Tereshkova still serves as a role model not only for the women of her home country, but for women all over the world who want to strive for new goals.
Result
The effects of Tereshkova being the first woman to go to space still remain. All over the world, this first flight is celebrated in various ways and there is universal ownership. For example, in 2017, The Science Museum in London opened a temporary exhibition called "Valentina Tereshkova: the first woman in space". In 2014, the British television channel BBC published "cosmonauts: how Russia won the Space Race," which summarizes the space race between the United States and the Soviet Union from the perspective of the Soviets. he has published a documentary called".
Tereshkova was 84 years old at the time of this article, and nowadays she does not like the press very much and makes almost no public statements. Little is known about what she did other than being involved in several charities and supporting several orphanages. In one of the rare interviews, at the age of 76, she says:
"Of course, going to Mars is like a dream. I want to know if there is life there, even if there is, why is life over? What kind of disaster happened?"