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We don't know how other women would fare. Maybe something will go slightly wrong and there will be a tragedy that might break the whole space program for a few
by guard-of-terra 11y ago
We don't know how other women would fare. Maybe something will go slightly wrong and there will be a tragedy that might break the whole space program for a few years.
Space is the world of chances anyway.
Think about this: USSR could select whatever they likes into this position. There probably was 10 million girls: Russian, party member, of common ancestry. But they did enroll Tereshkova in this program. Means she at least passed basic tests.
- jkot 11y agoI disagree. You can train for motion sickness and parachute jumps. There were three final candidates: Ponomarjovová graduated at Moscow Aviation Institute, had 320 flight hours as a sport pilot and 10 parachute jumps. Solovjovová graduated at Ural Construction Faculty, had 900 jumps and was national sport champion. Tereshkova had 78 jumps and no university or mid education, only 8 years of basic school.
- guard-of-terra 11y agoIt isn't her fault. They should have had dozens of candidates with diverse background and identical training. But there wasn't, and she did what she could, after all the politicking. I imagine, for every one of us on HN, there exist a teenager in rural China (northern Nigeria, brazilian favelas) who could have done our work better than we are, theoretically, provided (s)he had all the training and expertise. But nevertheless we do what we do, we got there on merit AND chance, don't steal out achivements and Tereshkova's too.