Valentina Tereshkova was born on March 6, 1937 into a peasant family in the village of Bolshoye Maslennikovo, Yaroslavl Region. Her father was a tractor driver, her mother was a worker in a textile factory. Drafted into the Red Army in 1939, Tereshkova's father died in the Soviet-Finnish war.

In 1945, the girl entered secondary school number 32 in the city of Yaroslavl, graduating from seven classes in 1953. To help the family, in 1954 Tereshkova went to work at a tire factory, at the same time enrolling in evening classes at a school for working youth. Continuing her work at a textile mill, from 1955 to 1960 she completed correspondence courses at the technical school of light industry.

In March 1962, Tereshkova joined the CPSU.

Even while working and part-time studies at the technical school, the future first woman-cosmonaut was carried away by the sky - while studying at the local flying club, she made 163 parachute jumps. However, the girl wanted to fly - and she achieved enrollment in the first female cosmonaut corps, where she, in particular, was taught to fly an airplane. Tereshkova was enrolled in the cosmonaut corps on March 12, 1962 and was in it until April 28, 1997.

"The workload of the women's group of five was greater than that of the men," Tereshkova recalled, specifying that in general the training system in those years was excessively tough. But everyone "had one crazy idea - by all means to be impeccably trained and fly."

Tereshkova's flight in the Vostok-6 spacecraft in near-earth orbit together with the Vostok-5 spacecraft piloted by Valery Bykovsky lasted two days 22 hours 50 minutes.

Colonel Nikolai Kamanin, who was involved in the selection and training of astronauts, described Tereshkova's launch in his book "Hidden Space".

"The preparation of the rocket, the ship and all the maintenance operations were extremely clear. Tereshkova's launch reminded me of Gagarin's launch in terms of the clarity and coherence of the work of all services and systems. As on April 12, 1961, on June 16, 1963, the flight was prepared and began perfectly. Everyone who saw Tereshkov, during the preparation of the launch and the launch of the spacecraft into orbit, who listened to her reports on the radio, unanimously said: “She made the launch better than Popovich and Nikolayev.” Yes, I am very glad that I was not mistaken in choosing the first woman cosmonaut, ”notes Kamanin.

Vostok-6 (Vostok-3KA No. 8)

Launch date - 06/16/1963 12:29:51 PMV (09:29:52 UTC)

Index - 1963-023A

USA QC Catalog - 00595

Cosmodrome - Baikonur (NIIP-5) Station Pl. No. 1

Launch vehicle - Vostok (8K72K)

Astronaut landing - 06/19/1963 11:20 AM

Landing site: 620 km northeast of Karaganda, Kazakh SSR

Flight duration: 2 days 22 hours 40 minutes 48 seconds (ejection); 2 days 22 hours 50 minutes (landing)

Pilot - Tereshkova Valentina Vladimirovna (call sign "Chaika")

Reserve pilots - Solovieva Irina Bayanovna, Ponomareva Valentina Leonidovna

Features of the flight: V.V. Tereshkova is the first woman in the world to fly into space. Until now, she is the only woman who made space flight alone (without a crew).
Research program: During the flight, Tereshkova carried out a large program of work to control and monitor various ship systems. She maintained radio communication with the Earth and between ships. In addition, Valentina also conducted scientific observations - astronomical, geophysical and biological.

The main biomedical research during the flight of Tereshkova was reduced to the study of: long-term influence on the human body of all factors associated with space flight; psychophysiological capabilities and human performance under conditions of long-term (for that period of the development of cosmonautics) weightlessness in combination with other flight factors; the characteristics of the reactions of the woman's body to the effects of space flight conditions; daily periodicals of human physiological processes in space flight; the effectiveness of methods for the selection and special training of astronauts; work of the system of medical and biological control over the state of astronauts and the microclimate of the spacecraft cabin; the efficiency of life support systems and safety equipment in space flight.

Design features: In preparation for the flight of the Vostok-5 and Vostok-6 spacecraft, a number of difficulties were overcome, associated with ensuring good image quality. For example, the technical problem of uniform illumination of the cockpit was solved so that the illumination did not deteriorate even when the astronaut left the chair; an automatic adjustment of the image brightness in the event of a change in illumination has been achieved; and special high-aperture optics have been developed. A reduced frame rate was used to narrow the transmission bandwidth. At the Moscow Television Center, the incoming synchronization signals were recorded in order to reduce the distortions arising in the transmission lines.

Flight Chronicle:

On June 16, at 12:30 pm Moscow Time, the Vostok-6 spacecraft was launched with Valentina Tereshkova on board. The entire preparation of the launch vehicle and the spacecraft, as well as the launch of Vostok-6, in contrast to Vostok-5, passed without remarks or any delays.
The Vostok-6 spacecraft entered the calculated orbit (183x233 km, 65 °, 88.3 min). According to the reports of the first woman-cosmonaut, her health was good, all the systems of the spacecraft were working normally. Radio communication with both the Earth and Valery Bykovsky was maintained steadily. But the cosmonauts failed to see each other ... During the flight, Valentina Tereshkova was filming the Earth and the Moon. She did not conduct biological experiments, since she could not get the objects out of the box.

On the second day, June 17, the flight leaders drew attention to Tereshkova's not always clear, evasive answers to questions. This alerted and raised doubts about her cheerful reports of wellness.
Subsequently, Valentina Vladimirovna, in the report of the State Commission, noted that she practically did not feel the spacesuit for the first day. On the second day, aching pains appeared in the right lower leg, which did not go away until the end of the flight. The helmet was in the way and pressed on the shoulder. I felt itching and pain under the sensor on my head. Despite everything, according to Tereshkova, her health was good throughout the flight, but one day she vomited. She blamed this not on vestibular disorders, but on the poor quality of food. Tereshkova did not keep a logbook, as both pencils broke. Tereshkova maintained radio contact with "Yastreb" (Bykovsky to Vostok-5) until the second day and even sang songs to him. Then, due to the divergence of the ships in orbits, there was no radio communication between the cosmonauts.

On June 18, due to a sharp decrease in the orbit of Vostok-5 due to solar activity, the State Commission decided to plant Vostok-5 at the 82nd orbit, and plant the Seagull at the 49th orbit. On this day, Tereshkova was supposed to test manual control, but she failed to orient the ship "in landing" the first time. This caused a lot of stress on Earth, because if the automatic system fails, the return of the ship will become impossible. But on the 45th orbit, B.V. Raushenbach and the flying cosmonauts gave Tereshkova a briefing - and on the morning of June 19, a few hours before landing, manual orientation of the spacecraft was nevertheless completed. The cosmonaut maintained the required orientation of the spacecraft for 15 minutes, which she joyfully reported back to Earth. Valentina explained her failure by the fact that it was difficult to work with the remote control. She did not reach the Globe and other devices, and had to untie herself from the chair.

The first, as planned, returned to Earth was the Vostok-6 spacecraft. On June 19 at 09:39:40 the UHF was instructed to start the automatic landing cycle. The command "passed" - but Tereshkova did not report on this, as well as on the construction of orientation, on and off the TDU, and on other stages of the descent. A serious excitement arose on Earth - after all, no one knew what happened to the ship and the astronaut ...
Valentina Vladimirovna recalled that when the SA coating was on fire, flakes flew past the window, and the cabin was filled with smoke. The bailout went smoothly - and Tereshkova sank to Earth 400 m from the SA. Due to the inability to control the parachute, Valentina landed on her back and hit her face hard on the helmet of the spacesuit. The result is a bruised nose and a black eye. The people who came running helped Tereshkova to take off her spacesuit, and she, as a token of gratitude, gave them samples of onboard food. And they, in turn, fed her with potatoes and onions and watered her with kumis. It was strictly forbidden - but the euphoria of returning from space made them forget the instructions.

And there was no information about what was happening with Vostok-6! On Earth, the tension was growing. Only two hours after landing it became clear that Tereshkova landed normally, but the landing site was 2 "farther than the calculated one. An hour later she was discovered by a search service plane, from where two parachutists descended. Three hours later, V. Tereshkova was able to report personally to NS. Khrushchev about the successful completion of the flight.
As it turned out later, instead of oral reports, Tereshkova transmitted information about the orientation of the ship, turning on and off the remote control and the progress of the descent in Morse code "on the key", but no one received these signals. Everyone was waiting for an oral presentation on other frequencies.

Flight results:

Successful forecasting of the activity of the Sun and constant monitoring of it, the appropriate choice of orbits and the precise placement of ships into the specified orbits, along with special measures of protection against radiation effects, led to the fact that the total radiation dose received by Tereshkova is very small and equal to 25 millirads.
The cosmonauts endured both the prelaunch period and the entire flight well and completed the planned amount of work. Tereshkova's pulse rate ranged from 58 to 84 beats per minute, respiratory rate - from 16 to 22 beats per minute.
Stable radio communication was maintained between the ships and the Earth on short and ultra-short waves. For the first time, ultra-short wave duplex communication was used; Filters were used in the onboard equipment, which allowed the astronauts to receive radio signals from the Earth while simultaneously operating their onboard transmitter without interference from it. The terrestrial radio communication network was significantly expanded, which ensured the quality of communication and the range of transmissions. Television transmissions were received from the ships, which were transmitted over land lines to the Moscow television center and from there to the television network of the USSR, as well as to the Intervision and Eurovision systems.

At the dawn of astronautics, all projects were carried out in the strictest secrecy. This gave rise to many rumors and speculation, not supported by any evidence. Passing from mouth to mouth, "secret information" about incidents in orbit acquired new vivid details, forcing the listeners to listen to the narrator with admiration and horror. One of the most exciting and tragic legends - the terrible death of cosmonaut Lyudmila.

"Success" of Italian radio amateurs

On October 4, 1957, the first artificial Earth satellite was launched from the 5th research site of the USSR Ministry of Defense "Tyura-Tam" (later the Baikonur cosmodrome).

"Beep! Beep! " - his signals were enthusiastically caught by radio amateurs all over the world. The Italian brothers could not stay away from this epoch-making event. Achilles and Giovanni Battista Giudica-Cordilla(Judica-Cordiglia)

For a nominal fee, they acquired an old World War II German bunker near Turin and equipped it with a powerful radio station. The brothers installed a parabolic antenna, which made it possible to very successfully listen to the air, and all their free time they searched in the VHF range. And they have achieved such success that professionals would envy them.

Italian enthusiasts not only caught the signals of almost all the first Soviet and American satellites, but even made tape recordings. In the future, they contacted other radio amateurs and created a triangulation network that allows them to fairly accurately determine the location of objects that send radio signals.

The results of their work impressed even NASA, which invited the brothers to the United States to exchange experiences.

However, many experts were very skeptical about the achievements of the Italians. In particular, after listening to some tape recordings, they accused the brothers of misinterpreting them, or even outright forgery.

For example, the Italians claimed that in November 1960 they managed to intercept telemetry radio signals of the cosmonaut's heartbeat in orbit, and in February 1961 - negotiations with the Earth of a Soviet crew of several people.

The Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera provided a transcript of these negotiations: "Conditions are getting worse ... why don't you answer? .. The speed is dropping ... The world will never know about us ..." - and even named the names of the allegedly deceased cosmonauts: Alexey Belokonov , Gennady Mikhailov and Alexey Grachev.

The Soviet leadership did not even begin to refute this absurdity: we just did not yet have multi-seat spaceships, and in general, no one flew to the stars before Gagarin. But the neglected duck went for a walk in the world media.

Burned alive

After that, the Italians-radio amateurs gave another super sensation to the mountain. On May 17, 1961, that is, shortly after the flight of Yuri Gagarin, they recorded the negotiations of the woman-cosmonaut with the Mission Control Center. She spoke Russian, but with a terrible accent, and besides, her speech was clogged with strong interference on the air, so it was very difficult to make out the words.

“Five ... four ... three ... two ... one ... Listen! .. Listen! .. One-one-one! Speak! .. Speak! .. I'm hot! .. I'm hot! .. What? .. Fifty-five? .. What? .. Fifty-five? .. Fifty? .. Yes ... Yes ... Yes. .. Breathing ... Breathing ... Oxygen ... I'm hot ... It's not dangerous? .. Everything ... It's not dangerous? .. Everything ... What? .. Speak! .. How should I pass? .. Yes ... Yes ... Yes ...

What? .. Our program will be right now ... I'm hot ... I'm hot ... I'm hot ... I see a flame! .. What? .. I see a flame! .. I see a flame! ..

I'm hot ... I'm hot ... Thirty-two ... Thirty-two ... Forty-one ... Forty-one.,.

We have an accident ... Yes ... Yes ... I'm hot! .. "

Handing over the tape with this recording to the newsmen, the brothers declared that they were absolutely sure that the radio message came from near-earth orbit. According to them, the Soviet spacecraft lost its heat shield and gradually burned up in the dense layers of the atmosphere.

The European media unanimously began to savor this sensation, describing in paints the agony of a woman roasted alive in the cramped cabin of a spaceship. In addition, at about the same time as the Italians, the British Jodrell Bank radio telescope caught unknown signals.

And on May 23, 1961, the TASS agency reported that a huge automatic satellite had burned out in the dense layers of the atmosphere. Some English newspaper suggested that it was the automatic interplanetary station "Venera-1", the connection with which was allegedly lost shortly after the launch.

But this version does not stand up to criticism, since the launch of "Venera-1" was carried out on February 12, 1961, and on May 19 it passed 100 thousand kilometers from Venus and entered the solar orbit. So this spacecraft could not be in near-earth space and burn in the atmosphere. And therefore, the dominant position was taken by the version about the terrible death of a Soviet woman-cosmonaut.

Something is wrong here!

The recording, made by Italian radio amateurs, has survived to this day and is still circulating on the Internet. Officials have never commented on it. But the question arises: did this "cosmonaut Lyudmila" exist or is it a duck invented by the brothers for their own PR?

Firstly, anyone familiar with the rules of radio traffic will understand that something is wrong with this recording. First of all, the cosmonaut and the MCC use callsigns to correctly identify each other. For example, Yuri Gagarin had the call sign "Kedr", Valentina Tereshkova had "The Seagull". And in the conversations recorded by the Italians, the callsigns are absent.

Further. The cosmonaut has a program that he must carry out, transmit detailed information to the MCC, how he does it - even in force majeure circumstances. Even if there is fire, heat, the threat of imminent death, the cosmonaut will still describe the situation: what is burning, what are the readings of the instruments, etc. And it is unlikely to fall into a stupor - courageous people with a proven strong psyche are launched into orbit.

Secondly, the woman's accent is alarming. The fact is that when recruiting cosmonauts to the cosmonaut corps, among other parameters, special attention was paid to the candidate's diction and his knowledge of the Russian language. After all, everyone who has been in space will inevitably become stars, doomed to many appearances on radio, television, various meetings and rallies. Here you cannot do without good diction.

And even during the flight, with the then communication level, when the signal from space reached the ground support services through the network of repeaters, through a lot of interference in the air, the operators simply had no time to sort out the "porridge in the astronaut's mouth", and the speech clarity had to be perfect. And the "cosmonaut Lyudmila" speech is completely indistinct.

Thirdly, it is not clear where this name came from at all - Lyudmila. It did not sound in any way during the communication session. In addition, the female cosmonaut corps began to form only in 1962. It includes Valentina Tereshkova, Zhanna Erkina, Tatyana Kuznetsova, Valentina Ponomareva and Irina Solovieva. There is no Lyudmila on this list.

The legend of the "red space"

But even if we assume that a little over a month after Yuri Gagarin, the remaining unknown woman flew into space, the question arises: why was such urgency needed?

The first manned flight into space ended in complete success, Gagarin became a hero of all mankind, the most popular person on the planet, basking in the rays of glory and universal love. It was a triumph for Soviet cosmonautics, science and technology. In this situation, a new start would be hasty and completely inappropriate.

So the agony of a woman who burned to death - the terrible legend of the "red space" - is most likely a fake, made by enterprising Italian brothers in order to raise the prestige of their enterprise. As they say, only business and nothing personal.

Mikhail YURIEV, "Secrets of the XX century" magazine, 2016

Now you will not surprise anyone with space flights. Of course, they are not yet perceived as an everyday occurrence, but still there is no such excitement that accompanied the first steps of mankind in the foundation of the unknown endless starry sky. More than half a century has passed since the first flight into space in history. During this time, more than five hundred people managed to see through the window glass how endless the expanses of the Universe are. Not only men flew on board. Among them were and are women-cosmonauts of the USSR and Russia.

The first in the world

The championship in this area belongs to one of the most famous personalities in the world - Valentina Tereshkova. She was born in 1937 in a small village located near Yaroslavl. When she turned 22, she became seriously interested in skydiving.

In 1962-1997 she was a member of the female cosmonaut corps. In addition to her, there were 4 more applicants for the flight. I must say that Tereshkova was not the best in terms of endurance and physical fitness. But the then government made the decision to send it first into space.

There were two reasons that influenced this decision. The first is origin. Valentina Tereshkova was, as they said at the time, a native of the people. The second reason is good looks, charm and charisma.

Despite the fact that the flight was officially recognized as successful, it was not without difficulties. Tereshkova was not feeling well, and the suit was very uncomfortable. Because of this, she was unable to complete all the scheduled tasks in full. In addition, a number of other technical difficulties were revealed. For example, when assembling the manual controls, mistakes were made that almost led to the deviation of the ship from orbit. But since the automation was at its best, the landing went well.

In 1963, Tereshkova received the title In addition, she is so far the only woman in the Russian army holding the military rank of Major General.

I must say that all women from Russia who have been in space have made an invaluable contribution to the development and study of our Universe. But only Valentina Tereshkova and to this day is the first and only representative of the fair sex who made a solo flight into the Earth's orbit.

The first in outer space

The next woman to see space was She, born in 1947 into the family of a marshal and became an astronaut thanks to her strong sense of purpose, willpower and high professionalism.

Savitskaya's career began with NPO Vzlyot, where she worked as a test pilot. In 1982, she joined the crew of the Soyuz T-7 spacecraft, where she spent 8 days. And after 2 years she went into open space, where she stayed for 3 hours 35 minutes.

Longest flight

The next representative to add to the list of "and Russia" was She was born in 1957 in the Moscow region, in the town of Mytishchi. In 1989 she became a candidate for the cosmonaut corps and after special training received the qualification of a researcher.

Like her two predecessors, Elena Kondakova also became the first in terms of the duration of her stay in space. Its total duration was almost 179 days. She has two flights: one in 1994 at the Mir station, the second in 1997 on the Atlantis spacecraft (shuttle).

Women-cosmonauts of the USSR and Russia are not only space explorers, but also take an active part in the political life of the country. In 1999, Elena Kondakova was elected a deputy to the State Duma.

New "star woman"

After 17 years, on September 26, 2014, another spacecraft was launched from Baikonur, the crew of which includes this is her first flight. According to the plan, it should last 170 days and nights.

The fourth woman-cosmonaut was born in the seaside village of Vozdvizhenka. After graduating from the Moscow Aviation Institute, she was hired at She constantly improved her qualifications and in 2009 became a test cosmonaut.

Women-cosmonauts of the USSR and Russia are always at their best. Their profession requires a lot of courage, strong willpower, as well as the ability not to get confused and cope with any freelance situation.

And although the list of female cosmonauts from our compatriots is not long, they have everything ahead. After all, there is still a lot of the mysterious and unexplored that is fraught with a truly endless Universe.

For exactly one month, the Soyuz crew has been working on the ISS, including Elena Serova. The fourth woman in Russian cosmonautics in Earth orbit.

Today, for Elena, the ISS is like a large orbital house in which she works and rests. For the first time, she conducts a short video tour of the Russian segment of the station.

• September 27th, 2014, 10:47 am

Cosmonaut-researcher Elena Serova launched from Baikonur to the International Space Station on the eve of the feast of the saints Faith, Hope, Love and their mother Sophia. Therefore, the documentary film about the life, difficulties, victories and sorrows of the family of the fourth Russian woman who went into orbit is called "Vera, Hope and Love of Elena Serova".

Her family is not quite ordinary. Elena's husband Mark is also an astronaut. However, after ten years of training at the Cosmonaut Training Center, he never flew into orbit. Now Mark is busy developing a new ship, which will replace the legendary Soyuz in the near future. The filmmakers watched the life of this unusual family for several years. Lena, their 11-year-old daughter, will share her thoughts about her parents. And Mark will talk about what it is like to be the husband of an astronaut.

The creators of the picture tried to trace the history of the development of the "female space". For some reason, in the exploration of outer space, the fair sex is much less numerous than the number of men. Women's space programs were allowed, prohibited, then reopened. Why? Maybe the female body is to blame? How does he endure the most severe training? After all, neither doctors nor examiners do any favors for the fair sex. How does a woman feel in space? How does her relationship with the male team develop?

If in Russia there are only three women for 119 cosmonauts, then in America there are already more than fifty women who have looked at our planet from orbit.

Elena Serova is Russia's fourth female cosmonaut. She flew to the ISS on September 26, 2014. The first and most difficult test for her is the long separation from her husband and daughter. However, both Mark and Lena Jr. are used to these separations. During several years of preparation for the flight, she disappeared in training. Either she survived for five days in a snowy forest, then she gave distress signals at sea for weeks, then she trained for six hours in a heavy spacesuit in a huge pool of underwater space, after which I needed to come to my senses for a day.

The preparations are now over. Elena was in no way inferior to the men around her. And she even proved that in some ways she can be even stronger and more persistent than her colleagues.

The heroines of the documentary are: Peggy Whitson is the first woman commander of the ISS in history, Nicole Stott is an astronaut-researcher who has twice visited space, Katherine Coleman, who brilliantly docked the new American spacecraft Dragon from the ISS, Valentina Tereshkova, Svetlana Savitskaya, Elena Kondakova is the third Russian woman astronaut.

• September 26th, 2014, 05:50 pm

The next ISS expedition has started

Elena Vtoraya, Elena Zvezdnaya, Elena Kosmicheskaya - whatever they call Elena Serova, the second Russian woman who went on a space flight. She really seems extraordinary, unearthly. A real beauty, a talented woman, wife and mother, who can handle all the hardships of a difficult life in orbit. Elena became the guest of honor of the Moscow Planetarium, having visited it in April 2012.

The ISS Expedition 41/42 crew, which included Elena Serova, launched on September 26 at 00.25 Moscow time. And while we were flying in a dream, the cosmonauts were racing in a rocket and after a few hours they entered the calculated orbit.

Even as a child, stories about space made a huge impression on Elena, but the path to the stars, as you know, is long and thorny. In 2001, Serova graduated from the Aerospace Faculty of the Moscow Aviation Institute with a degree in engineer. In 2003 she received a diploma in economics from the Moscow State Academy of Instrumentation and Information. Before joining the cosmonaut corps in 2006, Elena worked at RSC Energia and the Mission Control Center. In 2011, she became a test cosmonaut of the Roskosmos cosmonaut corps and began to prepare for a flight as part of the Soyuz TMA-14M crew. In addition to Elena Serova, the ISS expedition included Alexander Samokutyaev and NASA astronaut Barry Wilmore. In orbit, the cosmonauts have a difficult job: it is planned to conduct 59 experiments and go into outer space.

You can find out how cosmonauts prepare for a flight, go through all stages of training, try on a spacesuit and even make a landing on the moon at the first interactive exhibition in Russia "I want to be an astronaut!" , which takes place at "Level 9" of the Moscow Planetarium. How is life on the ISS, is it difficult to work in open space and what can you eat at the end of the working day - the guests of the unusual exposition will learn about this. To confirm that the flight was successful, you can take a photo of yourself in "open space" and send it to your friends by email. Tickets for the exhibition can be purchased at the box office of the Moscow Planetarium or on the website in the "Buy a ticket" section.

Where does space begin? Of course, from the Moscow Planetarium and the exhibition "I want to be an astronaut!" Hurry up! The exhibition will run until October 31, 2014.

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• September 22nd, 2014, 10:12 am

“Tarkhany” is the call sign of the Soyuz TMA-14M commander Alexander Samokutyaev. Very soon he will lead his team to the start: Barry Wilmore and Elena Serova - the fourth woman-cosmonaut in Russian history.

At Baikonur, the Soyuz rocket and the ship of the same name are being prepared for launch. This will be the 40th Earth-ISS flight. Start on September 26.

• June 3rd, 2014, 10:35 am

Preparation of the Soyuz TMA-14M manned spacecraft for the flight to the International Space Station (ISS) of the new crew, which will include Elena Serova, began at Baikonur, Roscosmos reports.

The launch of Soyuz TMA-14M is scheduled for September 25, 2014. It is planned to deliver three members of the ISS-41/42 expedition to the ISS. Russians Alexander Samokutyaev and Elena Serova, as well as American Barry Wilmore, are preparing for the flight under this program.

Elena Serova will become the first Russian woman-cosmonaut after a long break and the fourth in history. She was enrolled in the squad in 2006. Among the current candidates for test cosmonauts there is another Russian woman - Anna Kikina.

In total, over the past more than half a century, three of our compatriots have visited space. Valentina Tereshkova became the world's first woman astronaut. Svetlana Savitskaya worked twice in orbit, she is also the first woman in the world to go into outer space. Elena Kondakova flew twice, who spent 178 days in zero gravity and became a stellar "long-liver".

Russia remains the only participant in the ISS program, providing crew changes at the station, and bears the main burden of delivering cargo to the ISS. Each manned Soyuz can carry a crew of three cosmonauts on board the ISS. After docking, the Soyuz spacecraft are used as a lifeboat as part of the ISS, then the spacecraft undocks, and the cosmonauts return to Earth in its descent vehicle. Cargo ships supply the ISS with fuel, deliver scientific equipment, cargo for astronauts. Each truck carries more than 2.5 tons of cargo to the station.

• April 10th, 2012, 11:30 am

On April 6, Russian cosmonauts Mark and Elena Serov visited the Planetarium of Moscow. The guests got acquainted with the exhibitsthe classical museum of Urania , conducted their own experiments ininteractive museum "Lunarium" and looked at the program inGreat Star Hall .

The astronauts shared their impressions of the Planetarium in the Visitor's Book:

- With great appreciation and gratitude for the hospitality and the opportunity to touch the mysteries of the Universe and the beauty of the starry sky.

Test cosmonaut Serova Elena Olegovna,
Test cosmonaut Mark Serov
Serova Elena Markovna.

Photo report:

() - asked Serov the head of Roscosmos Vladimir Popovkin at a personal meeting... The woman astronaut said that she was always ready for flight and that everything that depended on her had already been done.

In response, the head of Roscosmos set the task: to prepare Elena Serova for a full-fledged flight to the ISS lasting from 160 to 170 days.

Since the crews on the ISS are formed two and a half years before the flight, the Serova space expedition may take place no earlier than 2013, explained the head of the Roscosmos manned programs department Alexei Krasnov.

"We do not want to delay the process of resolving this issue. By the end of the year we will decide which crew we will put her in," - assured Krasnov.

Elena Serova admitted that she was always attracted to astronautics. And as soon as the opportunity presented itself, she immediately applied to the cosmonaut corps. While working at the Cosmonaut Training Center, Serova took courses on survival in the desert, in winter, and also successfully completed water training.

The Russian cosmonaut noted that her choice is fully approved by her 9-year-old daughter, who, like her mother, is also called Lena, and her husband Mark, who, by the way, is also an astronaut. "My parents are also very happy for me and fully support me in everything," she added.

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