The head of the Soviet Union's space program, Sergei Korolev, personally selected her from among five candidates to pilot the Vostok 6 (Horizon 6) spacecraft into space. The purpose of the mission was to study the function of the female body in space.
Vostok 6, with Tereshkova as its sole passenger, was launched on the morning of 16 June 1963 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The young girl, despite her apparent inexperience, accomplished the mission. But there were more than a few times during her two-day flight in space when she experienced stomach problems and nausea.
In total, Tereshkova in "Vostok 6" made 48 orbits around the Earth and after 2 days, 22 hours and 50 minutes in space, she successfully landed on 19 June at a site near Baikonur. The landing was done the way Tereshkova knew best, by parachute, having separated from the spacecraft a few minutes earlier. However, she did not avoid a bruised nose as she tried to free herself from the parachute lines.
Among the valuable services her mission provided to science were the photographs she took during the flight, which were a key source of information for the study of aerosol layers in the atmosphere, which play an important role in shaping the weather.
Tereshkova never flew in space again after the Vostok 6 mission. She devoted herself to her family, her studies in aerospace engineering and politics. Although, initially, there were plans for more women's space flights, it took 19 years for another Soviet cosmonaut, Svetlana Savitskaya, a member of the Salyut T-7 spacecraft (10 December 1982), to repeat one.
Source: sansimera.gr
Contents of this article including associated images are belongs Cyprus Times
Views & opinions expressed are those of the author and/or Cyprus Times
Source
