Selection and training Tereshkova had not expressed any particular desire to go into space before being recruited. Rather, her experience at skydiving contributed to her selection as a cosmonaut. After the flight of
Yuri Gagarin in 1961,
Nikolai Kamanin, director of cosmonaut training, read in the American media that female pilots were training to be astronauts as part of
Mercury 13. In his diary, he wrote, "We cannot allow that the first woman in space will be American. This would be an insult to the patriotic feelings of Soviet women." Approval was granted to place five female cosmonauts in the next group, which would begin training in 1963. To increase the odds of sending a Soviet woman into space first, the female cosmonauts began their training before the men. The rules required that the potential cosmonaut be a parachutist under 30 years of age, less than in height, and no more than in weight. By January 1962, the All-Union Voluntary Society for Assistance to the Army, Air Force and Navy (
DOSAAF) had selected 400 candidates for consideration. After the initial screening, 58 of those candidates met the requirements, which Kamanin reduced to 23. On 16 February 1962, Tereshkova was selected, along with four other candidates, to join the female cosmonaut corps. Since they had no military experience, they started with the rank of
private in the
Soviet Air Forces. Training included isolation tests, centrifuge tests, thermo-chamber tests, decompression chamber testing, and pilot training in
MiG-15UTI jet fighters. Tereshkova underwent water recovery training at sea, as part of which several motorboats were used to agitate the water, in order to simulate the rough conditions of space travel. She also began studying at the
Zhukovsky Air Force Engineering Academy and graduated a few years after her flight. The group spent several months in basic training and, after they finished their training and passed an examination, Kamanin offered them the option to be commissioned as regular Air Force officers. With advice from the male cosmonauts, they chose to accept Kamanin's offer, as it would make it harder for the programme to get rid of them after the first flight. All five women became
junior lieutenants in the Air Force in December 1962.
Tatyana Kuznetsova became ineligible for the first flight due to illness, and
Zhanna Yorkina was performing poorly in training, leaving Tereshkova,
Irina Solovyova, and
Valentina Ponomaryova as the leading candidates. a few weeks before their mission Originally, a joint mission profile was developed that would involve launching two women into space, on solo Vostok flights, on consecutive days in March or April 1963. It was intended that Tereshkova would launch first, in
Vostok 5, while Ponomaryova would follow her into orbit in
Vostok 6. However, this flight plan was altered in March 1963. Vostok 5 would now carry a male cosmonaut,
Valery Bykovsky, flying alongside a woman aboard Vostok 6, both to be launched in June 1963. The State Space Commission, at their meeting on 21 May, nominated Tereshkova to pilot Vostok 6. Kamanin called her "Gagarin in a skirt."
Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev was happy with the propaganda potential of her selection, since she was the daughter of a collective farm worker who had died in the Winter War; he confirmed her selection. Solovyova was appointed as her first backup. Tereshkova was promoted to lieutenant before her flight and to
captain mid-flight.
Vostok 6 in 2016 After the successful launch of Vostok 5 on 14 June, Tereshkova began final preparations for her own flight. On the morning of 16 June 1963, Tereshkova and her backup Solovyova were both dressed in spacesuits and taken to the
launch pad by bus. Following the tradition set by Gagarin, Tereshkova also urinated on the bus tire, becoming the first woman to do so. After completing her communication- and life-support checks, she was sealed inside the Vostok. After a two-hour countdown, Vostok 6 launched faultlessly, and Tereshkova became the first woman in space; she remains the only woman to have flown into space solo, and, at 26 years of age, the youngest. Her call sign on this flight was
Chaika (); in commemoration, this name was later bestowed on an asteroid,
1671 Chaika. After her launch, she radioed down: Vostok 6 was the final Vostok flight and was launched two days after Vostok 5 which carried Bykovsky into a five-day mission. The two vessels spent three days in orbital planes 30° apart and, during Tereshkova's first orbit, approached each other to within . Although they were able to communicate by radio, neither could be sure if they saw each other. Tereshkova also maintained a flight log and took photographs of the horizon, which were later used to identify
aerosol layers within the
atmosphere. In this single flight, she logged more flight time than the combined times of all American astronauts who had flown before that date. Her mission was used to continue the medical studies on humans in spaceflight and offered comparative data about the effects of space travel on women. Although Tereshkova experienced
nausea and physical discomfort for much of the flight, she orbited the earth 48 times and spent 2 days, 22 hours, and 50 minutes in space. As planned in all Vostok missions, Tereshkova ejected from the capsule during its descent at about four miles above the Earth Tereshkova later disclosed that she encountered challenges in managing her parachute due to violent gusts of wind. However, she landed safely but received a bruise on her nose, then she had dinner with some local villagers in the
Altai Krai who helped her to get out of her spacesuit. == After the Vostok 6 flight ==