The history of one exhibit: a unique tea house "Cosmonaut Family"
19.06.2023 | 14:27 |Recently, the 60th anniversary of the flight of the first female cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova was celebrated, which became a grandiose historical event not only for the USSR, but also for all mankind.
There have been interesting publications on this topic these days, and the ORIENT editorial office was sent a link to one interesting post in the social networks of the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center, which we decided to share with readers. The publication was prepared jointly with the CPC Museum within the framework of the project "The History of One exhibit" and is dedicated to the 60th anniversary of the flight of the world's first female cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova.
On June 16, 1963, the Vostok-6 spacecraft was launched from Baikonur. On board was Valentina Tereshkova, the sixth Soviet cosmonaut and the first woman in the world to overcome gravity. In addition, until now, Valentina Vladimirovna is the only woman who has piloted a spacecraft alone.
During the flight, the "Seagull" (call sign Tereshkova) had difficulties with building the orientation of the ship. Valentina Vladimirovna underwent the same training as her squadmates and was ready for the same tests as they were. Having fulfilled the recommendations received from the Ground, Valentina Tereshkova countered the emergency situation and continued the flight, which lasted almost three days.
Vostok-6 with Valentina Tereshkova made 48 revolutions around the Earth and landed in the Altai Territory on June 19.
At the same time, the Vostok-5 spacecraft, launched on June 14 and piloted by Soviet cosmonaut Valery Bykovsky, was in near-Earth orbit. A significant part of the Vostokov joint flight was devoted to experiments on radio communication, including between ships. More than 55 years after this flight, Valentina Tereshkova, speaking about Valery Bykovsky, called him her "space brother".
It was especially difficult for the first cosmonauts, because they were waiting for an unknown space, dangerous and uninhabitable. Against this background, the cosmonaut squad has become a large and friendly family, in which its members overcome trials together, go from candidate to veteran cosmonaut, sincerely cherish and are proud of common memories.
On April 12, 1971, the museum fund of the Cosmonaut Training Center was replenished with a unique exhibit. The museum was presented with a tea set "Cosmonaut Family" for 23 people, made at the porcelain factory in Rybinsk.
On the dishes with the symbols of the Soviet Union, portraits of 23 people who changed the world, paved the way to space and together mastered this unfamiliar path were depicted. The tea "Cosmonaut Family" was headed by the founder of practical cosmonautics Sergey Korolev, the world's first cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin and the first woman in space Valentina Tereshkova.
Portraits of the general designer and 22 members of the cosmonaut squad adorn the exhibit, which has no analogues and preserves the history of the first decade of manned cosmonautics.
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