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The Guardian Interviews Valentina Tereshkova, the First Woman In Space (theguardian.com)
Oxygen99 writes: The Guardian published an interview today with the first woman in space, Valentina Tereshkova, ahead of her forthcoming exhibition at the London Science Museum. An interesting and informal chat with perhaps the most visible and famous living face of the Soviet space program. Here's an excerpt from the interview: "Over 50 years ago, in 1963, Tereshkova became the first woman to go into space, and it was her parachuting experience that qualified her for selection. She was only 26 when she made her one and only space flight, but that feat has defined the rest of her life. It propelled her into the upper reaches of the Soviet elite, and gave her security for life. That elevation though came at a life-long cost: a treadmill of obligations that has lasted more than half a century. Public speaking, accepting honors, roving the world as a citizen-diplomat, being a very visible part of Soviet, and now Russian, public life, are roles that she continues to fulfill to this day. Hence her visit to London for the opening of a display of artifacts linked to her cosmonaut's life. It is one of a series of UK-Russia collaborations, following the hugely successful Russian space exhibition at the museum last year."
The first woman in space didn't come backu. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Sgc1I9sjfc
Actually I suffered under commies although that was nothing like a prison for my pa for having wrong nationality - I just got bad notes for some subjects at school and could not make any hobby rockets 'because' commies...
Whether the US reactions to communism were not as bad - I am not sure. They surely supported some nasty killers because of democracy of course. I must say however that I have this warm feeling last couple of years because I feel like back in my youth - the media are as skewed and biased as they were there. Not much changed one may say. Not sure if that is good. Some of these changes are what I percieve as Russia bashing - there is a lot that can be used but bashers are usually very lazy. I digress however - Russians built few amazing things and did it albeit they should not have been able too judging on their backwardness. I acknowledge that not because I like them but because these were great feats in history of mankind. Werner von B.'s achievements and eventual landing on the moon (a big step for mankind etc) were based on his works with the nazis. Does this make his achievement less remarkable?
You do understand that being a representative of the Soviet Union (and to a slightly lesser extent Russia) carries a very large risk of a long and unpleasant internment or 'accident' if you say the wrong thing?
Here in the West you get 'disgraced' and might have trouble finding work if the employer thinks of themselves as a patriot. There it's jail or death.
You can read it in the interview (between the lines). She's still afraid, which is why she's kissing Putin's ass. She's a state asset for life.
I think you are putting far too modern a "spin" on it. There was apparently a bit of a long term plan (or more like a dream really) to have large space stations some day equivalent to a small town, so there was some curiousity to see if anything unexpected would happen with a woman in space. File it with the much later missions where they kept cosmonauts in space for over a year to see what would happen.