The first woman-cosmonaut is the one before whom the sky "took off her hat"

The first woman-cosmonaut is not just a separate page in the encyclopedia, not just another stage of the Soviet-American space confrontation, it's not even the well-deserved exclamations of admiration and respect. This is an exhausting struggle. Fighting against oneself, with circumstances and even with nature. The struggle, the result of which was immortality.

The first woman-cosmonaut, Valentina Tereshkova, embodied the dream of many generations of earthlings to see our planet with a height unattainable for most people. She was jealous, admired by her, and many even sympathized, because they understood that behind these three days of flight there were years of grueling training and testing.

The initiator of sending a woman into space was, of course, SP Korolev. The space race between the two superpowers after Gagarin's flight not only did not end, but gained a new impetus. It was necessary a new tangible proof of the leadership of domestic science and technology. Such a proof was the first woman-cosmonaut.

Preparation for this flight began in 1962, when throughout the Union began to look for fragile girls under the age of 30, not more than one hundred and seventy centimeters tall with excellent parachute training and impeccable reputation. In order to win the title of "the first woman-cosmonaut" hundreds of applicants responded, however, the commission settled on five nominees, among which V. Tereshkova took the leading role almost immediately.

Preparation for the flight took place in very tough conditions, which even not all men could withstand. In particular, young girls were compulsorily conducted through a special thermal chamber, the temperature at which was kept at the level of seventy degrees above zero, and also left for ten days all alone. In addition, during a flight on a special aircraft, potential zero-flight conquerors were given zero-gravity sessions, during which they had to perform special tasks.

The first flight of a woman-cosmonaut concealed a lot of tricky questions about which they did not even think when they were preparing men. Among other things, considerable time was spent on parachute training, so without these skills it would be impossible to return to Earth alive and unharmed.

The choice of V. Tereshkova fell not only because she passed all tests with brilliance, demonstrating a fair amount of self-control, purposefulness and self-confidence. The so-called political aspect was also important: like Gagarin, Valentina Vladimirovna was born and grew up in the usual working environment, which was given considerable importance.

The ship, which housed the first female astronaut, was launched on June 16, 1963, its flight lasted about three days. During this time, V. Tereshkova took a lot of pictures of the Earth's surface, conducted a series of medical experiments, conducted diary entries. As it turned out later, during her 48 historical turns, she experienced a monstrous discomfort, but with brilliance she brought the case to the end. Returning to Earth, she immediately turned into a legend.