Today, well yesterday to be more accurate, is the 57th anniversary of the day (16/06/63 ) that Valentina Tereshkova, the first, as well as the youngest woman to undertake a space flight, took off to space in Vostok 6. The choice of a woman as a cosmonaut lay in the U.S/USSR rivalry, there was a bit of a 'let us send up a woman, before the Americans do', in the whole choice. And of course they made sure they chose a highly photogenic woman. However, in the early days of space flight, as now, whatever the reason for the choice, the cosmonaut, whose path to the space program came out of her training as a parachutist, had to undergo the gruelling training schedule, and prove that she was fit to go up in space and handle her mission. This Tereshkova did, with huge success.
Her post flight career was no let down either. She graduated from the Air Force Engineering Academy, became a cosmonaut instructor, retrained to rejoin the space program (although she never went back on a space flight) and rose all the way to be a Major General in the Air Force. This was followed by a successful career as a politician, and still holds office at the age of 83.
Her personal life started with a fairy tale wedding to the cosmonaut Andriyan Nikolayev, attended by Nikita Khruschev himself. Their daughter Elena might be the only person to have two cosmonauts as parents. Unfortunately, the marriage did not last, unlike her second marriage to Yuli Shaposhnikov, a surgeon, which lasted till his death.
Tereshkova became a feminist icon, especially to women in STEM fields, and often performed the duties of a science and technology ambassador for the USSR. As the daughter of a war hero, and a mill worker, and a textile mill worker herself in early life, her story was the quintessential story of a woman of the Soviet Union. Her call sign Chaika (Sea Gull) was heard round the world. May the sea gull soar for many more years, and inspire many more by her life and example.
This blog post is by Neelima Gupte and Sumathi Rao.
Her post flight career was no let down either. She graduated from the Air Force Engineering Academy, became a cosmonaut instructor, retrained to rejoin the space program (although she never went back on a space flight) and rose all the way to be a Major General in the Air Force. This was followed by a successful career as a politician, and still holds office at the age of 83.
Her personal life started with a fairy tale wedding to the cosmonaut Andriyan Nikolayev, attended by Nikita Khruschev himself. Their daughter Elena might be the only person to have two cosmonauts as parents. Unfortunately, the marriage did not last, unlike her second marriage to Yuli Shaposhnikov, a surgeon, which lasted till his death.
Tereshkova became a feminist icon, especially to women in STEM fields, and often performed the duties of a science and technology ambassador for the USSR. As the daughter of a war hero, and a mill worker, and a textile mill worker herself in early life, her story was the quintessential story of a woman of the Soviet Union. Her call sign Chaika (Sea Gull) was heard round the world. May the sea gull soar for many more years, and inspire many more by her life and example.
This blog post is by Neelima Gupte and Sumathi Rao.
