Svetlana Savitskaya

Svetlana Savitskaya was born in a privileged family. Her father, Yevgeny Savitsky, was a highly decorated fighter pilot during the Second World War, which later brought him to the position of Deputy Commander-in-Chief of Soviet Air Defense. Her mother was a Moscow Communist party leader. Over the course of her flying experience, Savitskaya achieved three world record jumps from the stratosphere and 15 world record jumps from jet planes. In May 1978 she went to work for the aircraft manufacturer Yakovlev, as a test pilot. In her flight experience, she became the first woman to reach 2,683 km/h in a MiG-25 aircraft. An experienced and highly educated woman in the Soviet Space Program, Savitskaya was reportedly an extremely serious, unbending, and steely woman. == Soviet space programme ==

In 1979, Savitskaya participated in the selection process for the second group of female cosmonauts. On 30 June 1980, she was officially admitted to the cosmonaut group. Of the nine women selected, Savitskaya was the only test pilot. Savitskaya was chosen above other female cosmonauts due to her extensive flight experience and physical ability to perform the necessary operations in a heavy, bulky space suit for multiple hours. The importance of their mission was to test the Universal Hand Tool or Universalny Rabochy Instrument (URI). This tool created at the Paton Institute in Kiev, Ukraine could be used to cut, solder, weld, and braze in space. During the EVA, Savitskaya performed a total of 6 cuts of titanium and stainless steel, 2 coatings of anodized aluminum, 6 tests of tin and lead solder, and test cuts of a 0.5 mm titanium sample. Of the 57 Soviet/Russian spacewalkers through 2010, she is the only woman, and as of April 2020 is still the only Soviet/Russian woman to walk in space. The return to Earth took place on 29 July 1984. Savitskaya's and Dzhanibekov's training and tests allowed for Dzhanibekov to direct two members of the Salyut 7 crew, Kizim and Solovyov, who had performed multiple EVA's to repair the ship, in the techniques to operate the URI in order to fully repair the fuel line. The total duration of their mission lasted 11 days, 19 hours, and 14 minutes. Possible third spaceflight Upon returning to Earth, Savitskaya was assigned as the commander of an all-female Soyuz crew to Salyut 7 in commemoration of International Women's Day. She was chosen for this duty because she was the only experienced female cosmonaut still on active duty at the time. She was set to command Yekaterina Ivanova and Yelena Dobrokvashina, two younger female cosmonauts. In February 1985, however, the radio contact with Salyut 7 was lost; the space station was rescued by the Soyuz T-13 mission in the summer of 1985. When the next mission had to be stopped in November 1985, due to an illness of the commander Vladimir Vasyutin, the women's flight was finally canceled. In addition, after two unsuccessful flights in 1983, Soyuz T-8 and Soyuz T-10-1, not enough Soyuz spacecraft were available. Later it would have been possible to fly with a Soyuz-TM to the space station Mir. However, this plan was not pursued due to Savitskaya's pregnancy and birth of her son in 1986. == Biography ==

Savitskaya is married and has one child, a son Konstantin born on 7 November 1986. In February 1986, she graduated from the Bauman Moscow Higher Technical School. From 1983 to 1994 Savitskaya held a position of Deputy Head of NPO Energia. A committed communist, Savitskaya was elected as a people's deputy of the USSR from 1989 and a people's deputy of Russia in 1990, a position she held until 1992. She did not welcome the collapse of the Soviet Union, noting that her parents would live a "second death" were they to see Russia as it was. Savitskaya retired in 1993 from the Russian Air Force with the rank of Major. In 1994/95 she worked as an assistant professor in Economics and Investment at the Moscow State Aviation Institute. In 1996, she was elected a deputy of the State Duma representing the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, and has been re-elected four times since then. She presently serves as Deputy Chair of the Committee on Defence, and is also a member of the Coordination council presidium of the National Patriotic Union. == FAI World Records ==

• Hero of the Soviet Union, twice (1982, 1984) • Orders of Lenin, twice (1982, 1984) • Order of the Badge of Honour (1976) • Medal "For Merit in Space Exploration" (12 April 2011) – for great achievements in the field of research, development and utilization of outer space, many years of honest work, public activities • Pilot-Cosmonaut of the USSR • Honoured Master of Sports • Gold Medal and 18 degrees FAI • 16 gold medals, sports of the USSR • Special medal for the women's world record stay in space • Honorary Citizen of Baikonur (1982) Savitskaya was one of five cosmonauts selected to raise the Russian flag at the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics opening ceremony. The asteroid 4118 Sveta is named after her. == See also ==