Flight into space of female cosmonaut V.V. Tereshkova. Valentina Tereshkova's flight into space: what went wrong Time of Tereshkova's flight into space

“As long as I’m alive, no woman will fly into space again!” - designer Sergei Korolev uttered these words in 1963 after Valentina Tereshkova returned from space. Why did the flight of the first female cosmonaut in the history of mankind turn out to be far from being as successful as official propaganda proclaimed?

Start

The first space explorers Yuri Gagarin and German Titov were often asked about when a woman would fly into space. The decision to send a representative of the fair sex into orbit was made only after five men accomplished this feat. Former textile mill worker Valentina Tereshkova became number 6 in the cosmonaut corps and received the call sign “Chaika.”

The Vostok-6 spacecraft, which Tereshkova was on board, launched on June 16. At first, everything went well - at the start, the 25-year-old girl, according to experts, performed better than the third cosmonaut Andriyan Nikolaev and the fourth, Pavel Popovich.

I am "Seagull"! The mood is cheerful, the state of health is excellent! “I see the horizon,” Valentina Tereshkova reported over the radio during one of the first communication sessions.

Flight

Despite the successful start, difficulties arose during the three-day orbit around the Earth. Tereshkova had to circle the orbit 48 times. From the second day she felt very bad. The female body reacted heavily to space adaptation syndrome - possibly due to the wrong days of the menstrual cycle being chosen for the flight. As Vladimir Yazdanovsky, a physician who worked at Baikonur, subsequently stated, days 14-18 of the cycle are critical in this regard.

Tereshkova’s colleague in the cosmonaut corps, Marina Popovich, said that due to poor health, the first female cosmonaut was unable to complete a single task assigned to her.

Tereshkova felt sick, had a headache, and sometimes even lost consciousness. It seemed to the girl that the capsule was very crowded, and that the helmet was pressing unbearably. For this reason, it was not possible to comply with the flight regime prescribed by the doctors. Valentina Tereshkova tried to spend more time without moving and did not eat anything. According to cosmonaut Nikolai Kamanin, during communication sessions she gave the impression of being very tired. One day, “Chaika” did not answer the call, and, turning on the television camera, the squad leaders saw that she had fallen asleep.

Despite the malaise, the girl continued to report on her cheerful state of health, including during a conversation with Nikita Khrushchev. She kept a logbook and took photographs of the horizon - these images later helped researchers detect aerosol layers of the atmosphere.

Subsequently, in an interview, Valentina Tereshkova denied the data that she was “lying down” in orbit.

My condition during the flight was recorded by telemetry devices, in addition, everything was filmed with a movie camera. And if you wish, you can view all this,” she said in 2000.

Problems with ship orientation

Among other things, Tereshkova had to manually orient the ship in pitch. However, she never managed to do this, which she honestly admitted to the flight directors. This meant that if the automation failed upon landing, the Chaika would crash. Subsequently, it turned out that Tereshkova was not to blame here - the control system was installed incorrectly on the ship, which is why it responded to the cosmonaut’s actions differently than the simulator. Sergei Korolev strictly forbade Valentina Tereshkova to talk about this fact.

Fortunately, the landing was successful in automatic mode. Since Tereshkova was fasting for two days, immediately after landing in the Altai steppe on June 19, contrary to the recommendations of doctors, she could not deny herself local food products - potatoes and kumis. Having examined the Vostok-6 ship, experts found many traces of vomit in it.

Tereshkova received the title of Hero Soviet Union, but the female cosmonaut corps was disbanded. The second female cosmonaut, Svetlana Savitskaya, set foot on board the spacecraft only 19 years later. In 1982, Savitskaya spent a week in orbit and went into outer space.

Valentina Tereshkova was born on March 6, 1937 in a peasant family in the village of Bolshoye Maslennikovo Yaroslavl region. Her father was a tractor driver, her mother was a textile factory worker. Drafted into the Red Army in 1939, Tereshkova's father died in the Soviet-Finnish War.

In 1945, the girl entered high school number 32 in the city of Yaroslavl, from which she graduated from seven classes in 1953. To help her family, in 1954 Tereshkova went to work at a tire factory, while simultaneously enrolling in evening classes at a school for working youth. Continuing to work at the textile mill, from 1955 to 1960 she passed distance learning at the technical school light industry.

In March 1962, Tereshkova joined the CPSU.

While still working and studying by correspondence at a technical school, the future first female cosmonaut became fascinated by the sky - while studying at a local flying club, she made 163 parachute jumps. However, the girl wanted to fly - and she achieved enrollment in the first female cosmonaut corps, where she, in particular, was taught how to fly an airplane. Tereshkova was enrolled in the cosmonaut corps on March 12, 1962 and remained in it until April 28, 1997.

“The workload of the women’s group of five people was greater than that of the men,” Tereshkova recalled, clarifying that in general the training system in those years was excessively strict. But everyone “had one crazy idea - to get through the training flawlessly at all costs and fly.”

Tereshkova's flight on the Vostok-6 spacecraft in low-Earth orbit together with the Vostok-5 spacecraft, piloted by Valery Bykovsky, lasted two days, 22 hours and 50 minutes.

Colonel Nikolai Kamanin, who was involved in the selection and training of cosmonauts, described Tereshkova’s launch in his book “Hidden Space”.

“The preparation of the rocket, the ship and all maintenance operations went extremely well. In terms of the clarity and coherence of the work of all services and systems, Tereshkova’s launch reminded me of Gagarin’s launch. Like April 12, 1961, June 16, 1963, the flight was prepared and started perfectly. Everyone who saw During the preparation for the launch and the launch of the spacecraft into orbit, Tereshkova, who listened to her reports on the radio, was unanimously told: “She carried out the launch better than Popovich and Nikolaev.” Yes, I am very glad that I was not mistaken in choosing the first female cosmonaut,” notes Kamanin.

“Hey! Heaven, take off your hat,” said Valentina Tereshkova on June 16, 1963, before becoming a legend.

However, the hours spent in space were by no means the happiest in Tereshkova’s life. The flight was extremely risky - medicine did not have accurate data on its possible consequences for the female body.

The designers of the Vostok cabin called it a “tin can” - it was so cramped that the cosmonaut in it, wearing a spacesuit, could hardly move. Almost three days spent in such conditions in orbit by a young woman, although she had passed special training, according to many experts, were indeed a real feat.

“Almost all the time, Valentina was continuously sick and vomiting. But she tried to hold on. Reports were sent to Earth: “I am the Seagull.” The flight is proceeding normally." During the ejection, Tereshkova hit her head on the helmet - she landed with a huge bruise on her cheek and temple. Valentina was almost unconscious. She was urgently transported to a hospital in Moscow. Only in the evening, the luminaries of domestic medicine reported that Tereshkova’s life and health out of danger. The next day, they urgently staged filming for a newsreel: they put Tereshkova in the camera, filmed the extras running towards it. Then one of them opened the lid of the camera. Tereshkova was sitting inside, cheerful, smiling. These shots spread all over the world."

Tereshkova’s dream came true, but the space flight that made her world famous almost ended in tragedy. “There was a miscalculation in the ship - it was oriented in such a way that instead of landing, the orbit was raised, as a result of which I would not have been able to return back to Earth, but I noticed it in time, reported it, the specialists entered the correct data, and I landed.” , - Tereshkova talked about the flight.

After her flight, Valentina Vladimirovna continued to undergo training in the cosmonaut corps, but most began to take up her time social work. Tereshkova had to make many trips to the cities of the USSR and to many countries of the world.

Simultaneously with her work at the Cosmonaut Training Center and active social activities, she entered the Military engineering academy named after N.E. Zhukovsky, which she graduated with honors in 1969, receiving the specialty of pilot-cosmonaut-engineer.

Since 1968, Tereshkova has been working in Soviet and later Russian public organizations. From 1968 to 1987, she was chairman of the Soviet Women's Committee, and from 1969 to 1987, vice-president of the International Democratic Federation of Women. In 1987-1992, Tereshkova was chairman of the presidium of the Union of Soviet Societies for Friendship and Cultural Relations with foreign countries. In 1992, she was the chairman of the presidium Russian Association international cooperation, in 1992-1995 - first deputy chairman of the Russian Agency for International Cooperation and Development. Since 1994, Tereshkova worked as the head of the Russian Center for International Scientific and Cultural Cooperation (Roszarubezhtsentr). Since April 30, 1997 - retired major general of aviation.

Valentina Tereshkova - candidate of technical sciences, professor, author of more than 50 scientific works, Major General of Aviation, Hero of the Soviet Union. Awarded two Orders of Lenin, the Order October revolution, Order of the Red Banner of Labor, Order of Friendship of Peoples, medals. Tereshkova was awarded the title Hero of Socialist Labor of Czechoslovakia, Hero People's Republic Bulgaria, Hero of Labor Democratic Republic Vietnam, Hero of the Mongolian People's Republic.

She was also awarded the Frédéric Joliot-Curie Gold Peace Medal, the UN Gold Peace Medal, the K. E. Tsiolkovsky Gold Medal of the USSR Academy of Sciences, the British Society for Interplanetary Communications Gold Medal for Success in Space Exploration, the Space Gold Medal, Order "Rose of the Compass" with diamond International Committee in aeronautics and space flight, the Order of Karl Marx (GDR), Georgiy Dimitrov (Bulgaria), the Grunwald Cross, first class (Poland), the Order of the Banner, first class with diamonds (Hungary), the Order of Sukhbaatar (Mongolia), the Order of Playa Giron (Cuba) ) and many others.

Tereshkova is an honorary citizen of the cities of Kaluga, Yaroslavl (Russia), Karaganda (Kazakhstan), Vitebsk (Belarus), Montreux (Switzerland), Drancy (France), Montgomery (Great Britain), Polizzi-Generosa (Italy), Darkhan (Mongolia), Sofia , Petrich, Stara Zagora, Pleven, Varna (Bulgaria). A crater on the Moon is named after Tereshkova.

We are proud of the Russian woman Valentina Vladimirovna Tereshkova, the first in history to fly into space.

How well we have information about this amazing woman who visited the stars will be revealed by the quiz “Tereshkova - the first female cosmonaut.”

The quiz contains 19 questions. All questions have been answered.

1. When did Valentina Tereshkova’s historic flight take place?
Answer: June 16, 1963

2. What is the duration of this flight?
Answer: 2 days 22 hours 50 min

3. What was the name of the spaceship on which Valentina Vladimirovna made her historic flight?
Answer:"Vostok-6"

4. What was the call sign of the first female astronaut?
Answer:"Gull"

5. How old was Valentina Vladimirovna when she flew into deep space?
Answer: 26 years old

6. Did Valentina Tereshkova have any preliminary flight training, like, for example, American astronauts, for whom being a qualified test pilot was a prerequisite?
Answer: No

7. What kind of sport did Tereshkova do?
Answer: Valentina Tereshkova was studying parachuting

8. Was the design of the Vostok-6 ship, piloted by Tereshkova, different from previous “male” Vostoks?
Answer: some elements of the Vostok-6 ship were modified to suit the capabilities of a woman.

9. Valentina Tereshkova flew on the Vostok-6 manned spacecraft. Was there a flight on Vostok-7?
Answer: no, Vostok 6 is the last manned spacecraft in the Vostok program. Then the Soyuz series ships flew

10. Is a woman’s spacesuit different from a man’s?
Answer: Yes. Intentionally for Tereshkova's flight, a spacesuit design adapted for the female body was developed

11. Which spacecraft was in orbit at the same time as Vostok-6?
Answer: the Vostok-5 spacecraft, piloted by cosmonaut Valery Bykovsky

12. How many times a day was the female astronaut supposed to eat on board?
Answer: 4 times

13. What famous phrase did Tereshkova say before the start?
Answer:"Hey! Sky! Take off your hat!

14. Was the launch of the ship piloted by Tereshkova carried out from the “Gagarin” site or not?
Answer: no, the start was made from a duplicate site

15. What movie did Russian cosmonauts usually watch (and are now watching) on ​​the eve of launch?
Answer: movie " White sun desert"

16. What were the weather conditions in which Tereshkova landed?
Answer: Tereshkova landed in a thunderstorm with low clouds

17. Valentina Tereshkova was awarded an order, which is awarded less frequently than all other awards of the Russian Orthodox Church. What is the name of this order?
Answer: Order of Glory and Honor (1st class)

18. Who is cheaper to send into space - a woman or a man?
Answer: It is cheaper to equip women into space than men: they are smaller and lighter, and this saves fuel, food and oxygen.

19. What words did cosmonaut Valery Bykovsky, who was in space with Tereshkova at the same time, say when he learned about her return to Earth?
Answer:"Cheers cheers". He was overjoyed.

Valentina Tereshkova is the first woman to go into space. To this day, she remains the only woman in the world to go on a space flight alone, without assistants or 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 Bolshoye Maslennikovo, Yaroslavl region. Valentina's parents came from Belarusian peasants. The mother of the future space explorer worked at a textile factory, and her father was a tractor driver. He took part in battles during Soviet-Finnish war and died.

Young Tereshkova visited Yaroslavl school, received high grades, 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 support the family and got a job as a bracelet maker at the Yaroslavl Tire Factory. However, the purposeful girl did not intend to give up education: she combined work with studying at evening school.

The next stage of Valentina Vladimirovna’s life also did not foretell the heights that she was to achieve. So, she studied in absentia at a technical school for light industry and worked for seven years as a weaver at a nearby plant called “Red Perekop.” At this time, Tereshkova began to get involved in parachuting. She enjoyed going to the local flying club and fearlessly jumped from great heights.

Cosmonautics

Valentina's new hobby sealed her fate. By a happy coincidence, just at that time, a Soviet scientist was inspired by the idea of ​​sending a woman into space. The idea was received 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 “cosmonaut”. 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 space industry were looking for the ideal candidate from hundreds of candidates. As a result of a tough selection, five “finalists” were identified: Irina Solovyova, Tatyana Kuznetsova, Zhanna Yorkina, Valentina Ponomareva and Valentina Tereshkova.

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

The training included techniques to develop the body’s resistance to the peculiarities space flight. For example, girls learned to move in zero gravity, tested the body’s resources in a thermal chamber and a soundproof chamber, and performed parachute training, mastered the use of a spacesuit. The training in a soundproof 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 were taken into account:

• completion of training, level of practical training, knowledge of theory, results of medical examinations;
• origin (that Valentina Vladimirovna came 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 in the first two points other candidates were not inferior to Tereshkova, then in public speaking skills she had no equal. Valentina Vladimirovna easily communicated with journalists and other people, gave laconic and natural answers to questions, and did not forget to add a few words about greatness communist party. She was eventually chosen as the leading candidate to fly into space. Irina Solovyova received the status of backup cosmonaut, and Valentina Ponomareva was appointed as a reserve candidate.

A 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 duplicate one). The way the first female cosmonaut conducted the launch and the reports she gave were highly appreciated by experts. They assured that Tereshkova performed the launch better than experienced male cosmonauts.

Soon after the start, Tereshkova’s health worsened; she moved little, did not eat, and sluggishly negotiated with ground stations. Nevertheless, she survived for three days, 48 ​​revolutions around the Earth, and regularly kept a logbook throughout the flight.

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

Upon completion of the flight (the ship arrived at Altai region) Valentina Vladimirovna distributed food from her diet local residents, and she herself ate the traditional food of these places. This, as well as Tereshkova’s poor health, as well as problems with the orientation of the ship, upset Sergei Korolev. He even promised not to let any more women into space until his death. The next similar flight occurred long after the gifted engineer passed away.

Subsequent career

Since then, Valentina Tereshkova has no longer flown into space. She became an astronaut instructor, 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 works. Valentina Vladimirovna stated that she was ready (for a one-way flight).

Tereshkova continues to be involved in politics. During the Soviet Union, she was a member of the CPSU, and in the 2000s she was elected as a deputy of the regional Duma of her native Yaroslavl region from the party “ United Russia" She also took part in the opening ceremony of the Sochi Olympic Games 2014, became president charitable foundation“Memory of Generations” 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 Adriyan Nikolaev. The wedding ceremony took place in 1963, and the guests of this ceremony can be seen in the photo. The family broke up in 1982, when the daughter of Adriyan and Valentina, Elena Tereshkova, turned 18 years old. Subsequently, Tereshkova admitted that among close people her husband showed himself to be a despot, which is why their relationship came to naught.

Valentina Vladimirovna’s second husband was Major General of the Medical Service Yuli Shaposhnikov. No children were born in this marriage. But Elena Tereshkova gave her mother grandchildren Alexei Mayorov and Andrei Rodionov. It is noteworthy that both of Elena’s husbands turned out to be pilots. The only heir of Valentina Tereshkova works at the 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 study political career. So, in 2016, during the next parliamentary elections, Tereshkova was elected as a deputy State Duma. The first female cosmonaut loves her native region very much and strives to help Yaroslavl orphanage, home school, engage in improvement of the city and help open new educational, industrial, and infrastructure institutions in it.

Despite her retirement age, Valentina Tereshkova can boast of good health. In 2004, she underwent complex heart surgery because otherwise she would have suffered a heart attack. From then to serious problems there was no information about Valentina Vladimirovna’s health, but according to her active labor activity we can conclude that they are absent.

• 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, would fly into space. In reality this did not happen.
• Initially, it was 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 single flight record that still stands to this day.

• Newsreel footage shown to the Soviet people and the whole world, were staged. They were re-shot a day after Valentina Vladimirovna’s actual arrival on Earth, since in the first hours after her return she felt very bad and was hospitalized.

My grandfather, a hereditary peasant with an incomplete school education (the war got in the way), was an unusually intelligent person. And when I, as a boy, told him about Tereshkova, about the first woman in space and so on, he just snorted contemptuously. He said that a sack of potatoes would have coped with such a flight no worse - they say they stuffed Tereshkova into a rocket like a simple load, launched her into orbit, and that’s all her achievements. And this was not sexism, not disdain for the achievements of women from the man - he spoke about Savitskaya quite respectfully. I don’t know where he knew such details from during the Soviet years, but Dnepropetrovsk in those days was not the last locality from space, perhaps some rumors reached him.
But, like, 80 years and all that... one could pretend that everything is fine, but it doesn’t work out.

Space pioneer Valentina Tereshkova has forever secured her place in the history books. In June 1963, it orbited the Earth 48 times. However, the astronaut was unable to achieve any significant achievements, since 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 a propaganda point of view, the flight of “Chaika” - that was Tereshkova’s call sign - was a serious breakthrough. After the launch of the first satellite in 1957, as well as after the flight of Yuri Gagarin in 1961, this achievement managed to deal the US another blow to the US in the struggle for dominance in the world. outer space. However, with scientific point From my point of view, this flight brought only disappointments, and with them - catastrophic consequences for other cosmonaut candidates.

Space sickness and programming errors

Korolev allegedly said in a narrow circle: “With me, there won’t be a single woman in space again.” Moreover, the word “woman” was most likely invented by journalists so that this much more rude phrase could be published at all. The main purpose of Tereshkova’s flight was to study the influence of space environmental conditions on the functioning of the female body, to improve the control system of the Vostok spacecraft, as well as to photograph the Earth and the Moon. In parallel with Tereshkova, Valery Bykovsky flew around the Earth on the Vostok-5 spacecraft.

However, the astronaut had to deal with space sickness from the very beginning, and, incidentally, she hid this fact from the ground control team. Tereshkova did not follow 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 of the oppressive cramped conditions in the capsule. She could not take notes because she had broken her pencils in the 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 spaceships was impossible, and radio communication capabilities were limited.

To the horror of the doctor, Tereshkova, who landed by parachute 620 kilometers northeast of Karaganda (Kazakhstan), distributed her space food to local residents, while she herself ate potatoes with onions and drank kumiss, which was strictly prohibited.

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

For Korolev, the problems and malfunctions that arose during Tereshkova’s flight became a pleasant confirmation of his prejudice, which persists in Russia to this day, that women, in fact, have nothing to do in space. That is why the first squad 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 women astronauts went into space. In the active cosmonaut corps, along with 33 men, there is only one woman, and she 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, Svetlana Savitskaya made her flight, becoming the second Russian woman in space, 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 as not to have to lie. For this she was forced to come to terms with the fame 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; she graduated, like Gagarin, from the Air Force Engineering Academy. N. E. Zhukovsky and quickly made a career. She became a deputy Supreme Council USSR and a member of the Central Committee of the CPSU, head of the Soviet Women's Committee, 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 Russian history to hold the rank of aviation major general.

"Benefactor" Valentina

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

She decisively 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, but today Tereshkova appeals directly to Putin. The President certainly understands what he owes to Tereshkova. Some of the fame of the cosmonautics icon, still very popular in Russia, goes to him too.

450 red roses for the President

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

Shortly before his death in 2011, Boris Chertok found conciliatory words for Tereshkova. Soviet scientist, throughout for long years Korolev, who was Korolev’s closest ally, hinting at her unsuccessful flight, told her that in “public and government activities“She achieved “truly cosmic heights.”