A Space Lady
Not only men dream of space, the beautiful half of humanity has long been conquering outer space. After Yuri Gagarin’s successful space flight, Sergei Korolev – the chief constructor of Soviet spaceships – suggested to select women for the cosmonaut corps.
Applicants were selected according to strict criteria – height no higher than 170 cm, weight up to 70 kg, age no older than 30 years. At first, there were 20 top parachutists, but after grueling training and a complex preparatory program, only five women remained. Among them was Valentina Tereshkova. She became the first female astronaut on a spacecraft board launched in 1963.
However, after her, women did not appear in space for a long 20 years. But for the best half of human being, nothing is impossible – test pilot Svetlana Savitskaya, who launched as part of the “Soyuz T-7” spacecraft, became the second female cosmonaut, and two years later – the first girl in the world to go into outer space. Svetlana spent 3 hours and 34 minutes in an airless space.
In 1983, the first American woman in space was astrophysicist Sally Ride, who flew into space on board of the Shuttle Challenger-18.
To date, 65 women from different countries of the world have been in space – Russia, the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Japan, France, South Korea, China and Italy. Brave space explorers set new records and make discoveries. Annie Fisher – the first “space” mother, she went into orbit 15 months after the birth of her daughter. Barbara Morgan is the oldest female cosmonaut, her first flight into orbit took place at the age of 55.
A few publications will not be enough to tell the story of each space lady in detail. Some heroines, unfortunately, are no longer alive, but the romance of space still excites the minds of people, because the craving for all the unknown in humanity is eternal.
Turkmenistan is also taking successful steps in the development of near-earth space. In 2011, the National Space Agency of Turkmenistan was established, which organizes satellite communications and manages the first Turkmen artificial earth satellite – Türkmen Älem 52E.
There is also an interesting fact that since 2004, the national flag of Turkmenistan has been present in space, which was delivered to orbit by the “Dnepr” carrier rocket in a special container.
Selbi CHARYEVA
