Russian Women in Space Fun Facts

Fun Facts about Russian Women in Space

1.  There have only been five Russian women cosmonauts who have flown in space: Valentina Tereshkova, Svetlana Savitskaya, Yelena Kondakova, Yelena Serova, and Anna Kikina.

2. On October 5, 2021, Russian film actress Yulia Sergeevna Peresild flew to the International Space Station, while shooting the movie ‘The Challenge’ (‘Vyzov’), effectively making her the sixth Russian woman, although not a cosmonaut, to travel in space. This also made her the first professional actress to perform in space.

3. While the women were training in the space program, the Soviet State Commission devised coded messages to describe malfunctions in attempts to fool any Western tracking stations spying on their communications. Phrases and words used were usually botanical or organic, such as "dahlia," "oak," "elm," "mountain ash”.

4. Cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova flew in space longer than all the U.S. Mercury astronauts combined – 70 hours, 50 minutes. The combined space time for the six Mercury astronauts was 53 hours, 55 minutes and 27 seconds.

5. Tereshkova was the first woman cosmonaut to urinate on a bus tire. This Russian tradition for good luck was started by other cosmonauts emulating Yuri Gagarin’s need to relieve himself before his historic 1961 flight.

6. Nineteen years passed between cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova’s flight in 1963 and the next history-making flight into space by female cosmonaut Svetlana Savitskaya in 1982.

 7. Cosmonaut Svetlana Savitskaya, the second Russian woman in space, met secretly with Astronaut Sally Ride in Hungary, September 1983, several months after Ride became the third woman and first American woman in space. The two spacefarers swapped stories about their shared experiences in space.

8. The Soviet Union assembled an all-female crew consisting of Svetlana Savitskaya, Yelena Dobrokvashina, Yekaterina Aleksandrovna, and Irina Pronina in 1985. Although the women trained for this mission, it was cancelled.

9. Another long duration of time, seventeen years, passed between cosmonauts Yelena Kondakova’s 1997 flight and Yelena Serova’s 2014 flight.

10. Toy manufacturer Mattel made a Barbie astronaut doll in cosmonaut Anna Kikina’s likeness in the spring of 2021.