Almost died and was silent about it for 30 years. Interesting facts about the first woman astronaut

“What kind of fear? You have to work there," Valentina Tereshkova says about space flight. In the month and year of the 85th anniversary of the first female cosmonaut, he released a documentary film about her. Well, we have chosen for you interesting facts about how it was then and what - after. There were five girls Selection for the first female cosmonaut corps were five young women - healthy, strong, carefully prepared for flight. “There was despair, it seemed that life was over,” said the second understudy Tereshkova, Valentina Ponomareva. “Then it didn’t seem to us at all that she should fly, then we completely disagreed with this.” Almost died There was a design error in the Vostok-6 ship: instead of descending, he began to gain altitude. There was a real danger that it would turn into a satellite of the Earth, and the astronaut would die. Moreover, this became known after many years: “I gave my word to Sergei Pavlovich Korolev, I kept this secret for 30 years,” Tereshkova said. “And no one would ever know.” The silence was broken by one of the ship's designers, Yevgeny Basharov. She insisted on continuing the flight After Valentina coped with the emergency during the flight, she offered to extend it. “You know, the flight was planned for one day. And I flew for three days. And according to my photographs, after all, a whole direction in science. Tereshkova surveyed the horizon line and aerosol layers of the atmosphere. Became a Scientist In 1976, she completed her Ph.D. in Engineering on an interesting topic: piloting of spacecraft in emergency situations in the modes of mooring, docking and hovering. Valentina worked a lot on the safety of crews in space. The famous video with MILK - reconstruction Footage of the astronaut drinkingmilk, taken the day after landing. At that time, the landing looked like this: at an altitude of 7 kilometers, the pilots of the Vostoks ejected, at 4 kilometers, they unfastened their seat and landed on parachutes. Valentina literally fell on the heads of random collective farm workers. They helped take off the parachute and spacesuit and fed them potatoes and onions, while the guest shared tubes of space food. Saved on food By the way, Tereshkova wrote in the logbook that she had used all the tubes of food. Later, this became the subject of a conversation with Korolev - the cosmonauts had to record everything that actually happens to them, in order to then use this experience for others. According to eyewitnesses, Valentina was terribly worried after that conversation with Sergei Pavlovich. Landed with a black eye Girl came back with a broken eye because she hit the pressure helmet during the landing. In fact, a common story for that time - the astronauts literally tumbled during landing. This was specially practiced before the start. "I must have been a seagull" During Tereshkova's visit to Calcutta, people were so eager to see the first woman in space that they broke through the cordon and poured onto the runway. The guards could not appease the crowd of many thousands - even the bamboo sticks used did not help. In India, Valentina was often asked who she was before and who she would like to reincarnate into. One day she answered: “How by whom? I must have been a seagull." Seagull and Falcon The call sign of Valentina's first husband, cosmonaut number three, Andrian Grigoryevich Nikolaev, was "Falcon". Little is known about the novel - well, except that it was exclusively official.
The couple was beautiful, even on screen - both astronauts, both heroes. However, acquaintances say that there can be no talk of a marriage of convenience: “If Valya didn’t love ... With her tough character, she would never give up.” Their daughter became the first child of astronauts in the world. It was said that the alien The first "space" child was just the same target for fables. Elena Nikolaeva-Tereshkova herself recalls how her grandmother scolded a woman who came up to ask if the child was like the rumors describe him. Little Lena had only one difference from other girls: Elizabeth II herself sent diapers to her. As the British newspapers wrote, "in memory of the meeting of two ladies in an interesting position." Trained two female crews Valentina trained two crews of female cosmonauts. But after the death of the chief designer Sergei Korolev, these plans were not destined to come true. The idea of ​​women flying into space was returned only 11 years later, already under the new chief designer and longtime rival of Korolev, Valentina Glushko.
Tereshkova, Sergei Pavlovich's favorite, was an active cosmonaut and passed a medical examination, but her candidacy was rejected. She did not ask why, and later said: “No, I didn’t go to Glushko. Change Sergei Pavlovich Korolev? No, I still have pride.

| Prepared by Yana BOLOTNIKOVA based on the documentary. | Screenshots from the documentary "Valentina Tereshkova. Star of cosmic happiness.

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