In June 1983, when Americans gathered in front of the television to watch Sally Ryder, the first American woman to go into space, she didn't know she wasn't the first woman to go into space. In fact, this honor belongs to the former Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova.
△ 1963-03-06 In the Vostok 6 capsule, cosmonaut Nana Tereshkova entered the capsule
Twenty years ago, in June 1963, Tereshkova made history aboard the Soviet space shuttle Vostok 6. She is a woman in history who completed a solo space mission, spending nearly three days in space and successfully returning to Earth after 48 circles around the earth.
During the space mission, however, there was a serious emergency on the spacecraft that had been kept secret for decades until recently.
Poor childhood
Valentina Vladimrovna Tereshkova was born in 1937 in a poor village nearly 200 miles north of Moscow, with neither electricity nor running water. In 2010, it was also reported that only 9 people lived in the village.
When Tereshkova was 2 years old, during World War II. Her father, a tractor driver, was drafted into the army as a tank soldier and froze to death in the battlefield a few months later.
Impoverished families did not prevent Tereshkova's dream of becoming a railway engineer. To support her family, she worked in a tire factory and later in a textile factory.
Although the work during the day was hard, at night Tereshkova insisted on going to school. He graduated from the Institute of Textile Technology in 1960 and obtained an engineering degree in 1960.
With her efforts, Tereshkova dreams of more. In 1958, she joined an aviation club and trained as a skydiver. Having completed more than 160 skydives, Tereshkova said: "I feel like I want to do it every day. ”
△ Tereshkova joined the parachute club
It was then that the space race caught Tereshkova's attention. In April 1961, Yuri Gagarin became the first man in space, and she and her Skyclub friends watched in awe.
After the inspiring flight, Tereshkova's mother said to her:
"Now a man has flown in space; The next one is the woman's turn. ”
In fact, it was about to happen, and this woman was her daughter.
In September 1961, shortly after the flight of cosmonaut Gherman Titov, she wrote a letter to the space center volunteering to serve the astronaut team. Unbeknownst to her, Soviet space officials were considering picking a group of female skydivers.
Soviet cosmonaut Gherman Titov
Be the first woman to go into space
In December 1961, Tereshkova was invited to Moscow for an interview and medical examination. There were hundreds of female applicants, mostly pilots with extensive experience. Although she didn't have any advantages in flying, she entered the final stage with 4 other women due to her extensive skydiving experience.
Over the next 18 months, Tereshkova and other female cosmonauts underwent a rigorous training course. In addition to simulating spaceflight, the women also learned gymnastics to strengthen their bodies. Tereshkova also spent several days in the isolation room, preparing for being locked up in the capsule.
Originally, Tereshkova was at the bottom of the list of 5 candidates. But in the 1960s, politics were important, and her working-class background and strong skydiving experience eventually made her stand out. Tereshkova was chosen as the pilot of Vostok 6.
Until a successful launch, the entire mission was classified. On the day of the flight, Tereshkova told her family that she was going to a skydiving competition. Later, Tereshkova's mother learned her daughter's true whereabouts on the radio, and by that time Tereshkova had been sent into space to fly around the earth.
Tereshkova's mission was a twofold mission.
On June 14, 1963, another Valery Bykovsky was launched aboard Vostok 5. Two days later, Tereshkova took off in Vostok 6. This time the mission was for the two spacecraft to fly in different orbits within a distance of 5 kilometers and set endurance records for space flight.
She spent a total of 70 hours and 50 minutes in space, orbiting the Earth 48 times, more than all previous American astronauts combined.
During Tereshkova's space mission, a serious emergency occurred on board, and the flight almost turned into a tragedy, and this fact was kept secret for about 40 years.
△ Tereshkova and Valery Baikovsky
The flight almost caused a tragedy
Only recently did Tereshkova break her silence and publicly reveal the truth.
As early as 1963, when Vostok 6 was in space, there was a problem with the spacecraft's autopilot software. Tereshkova has tried to turn the capsule towards Earth, but each time it flies away from Earth. She reported the problem to the ground command. Soviet scientists quickly calculated a new landing algorithm and manually entered the correct data into the program before returning to Earth.
△ Vostok 6 space capsule
Here's how Tereshkova recalled the thrilling return mission:
I have done all the preparations before landing. I manually enter the data into the program.
I reported to the ground that the attitude control mission had been completed and I was ready to return home.
At first, the spacecraft moved smoothly, but then it began to rock.
The surface of the spacecraft began to burn, and the engine room filled with smoke and dust. My seat left the spacecraft at a very slow pace.
The capsule was ejected 7 kilometers from the ground, but the capsule's parachute did not open for a long time.
"I had to open it manually. But it was too windy to control it. During the descent, it was once upside down. Finally I untied the strap of the parachute and left a big bruise on my nose as well"
On June 19, 1963, he landed in the Altai region of southern Siberia, Russia.
Almost unconscious when landing. After landing, he was taken to a hospital in Moscow by local villagers. Doctors reported that she was in poor health.
In fact, the video of her landing was taken the next day. The ground reception team released Tereshkova back into his capsule, and the actors played the person who ran to the capsule. An actor opened the capsule. Tereshkova sat there, unscathed and smiling.
The video then made headlines around the world.
After the spaceflight, Valentina Tereshkova caused a world sensation, being the first woman to perform a space mission alone and staying for 70 hours.
△ Tereshkova Into space, the West ridiculed as a propaganda stunt
On November 3 of the same year, Tereshkova married Andreya Nikolaev, who was also an astronaut. There was speculation that their marriage took place at the behest of scientists who wanted to study the effects of space travel on reproduction.
In June 1964, Tereshkova gave birth to her first and only child, a daughter named Elena. The girl became the first child in the world whose parents were both astronauts. In 1982, when their daughter came of age, Tereshkova and Nikolaev divorced.
△ In November 1963, Valentina Tereshkova married Andrian Nikolaev, who was also an astronaut
A controversial legacy
The Soviet Union believed that sending the first woman into space would represent a major victory in the space race — and it did, because the United States didn't choose to compete until 20 years later.
In the 1950s and '60s, NASA banned women from joining the space program. Despite women like Jerry Cobb (who nearly became America's first astronaut in 1960), they were rejected for Congress and NASA. NASA officials at the time even mocked Valentina Tereshkova's cross-era spaceflight, calling it a "propaganda stunt." A NASA official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the idea of women in space made him "sick to his stomach."
△ Jerry Cobb, who was supposed to be America's first astronaut
Journalists in the United States listed Tereshkova as a textile worker. Tereshkova countered that her training and solo flights proved that she "has the same expertise as men."
Tereshkova has never returned to space, becoming a member of Russia's parliament in 2011 and under fire in 2020 for supporting a constitutional amendment in which she proposed removing presidential term limits.
Quotes from Tereshkova
As for how Tereshkova evaluates her career as a cosmonaut:
"If women can be railway workers in Russia, why can't they fly in space?"
"Once you go into space, you understand how small and fragile the Earth is."
"Anyone who spends any time in space will love it for the rest of their lives. I fulfilled my childhood dream of the sky. ”
"Despite all my protests and arguments, they forbade me to fly. Once in space, I longed to get back there. But that didn't happen. ”
△ Tereshkova and South Korean President Moon Jae-in in the Russian State Duma in 2018