Major Valentina Vladimirovna Tereshkova, Hero of the Soviet Union, photographed in 1969. (RIA Novosti)
16 June 1963, 09:29:52 UTC: Cosmonaut Valentina Vladimirovna Tereshkova (Валенти́на Влади́мировна Терешко́ва) was launched aboard Vostok 6 from Gagarin’s Start, Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan. The spacecraft was a Vostok 3KA and the launch vehicle was a Vostok 8K72K rocket. She was the first human female in space.
Prior to her acceptance in the cosmonaut corps, Tereshkova had been a textile worker. She was also an amateur parachutist. The qualifications for the Soviet space program were that the women be parachutists under the age of 30 years, less than 170 centimeters (5 feet, 7 inches) tall and weigh less than 70 kilograms (154.3 pounds). After an extensive training program with included pilot training in the Mikoyan Gurevich MiG 15UTI fighter and 120 parachute jumps, Tereshkova and three other women were commissioned as Junior Lieutenants in the Soviet Air Force.
Vostok 5 with Cosmonaut Valery Fyodorovich Bykovsky had been launched two days earlier on the same orbital path. During their flights they came within approximately 5 kilometers (3.1 miles) of each other.
Valentina Tereshkova completed 48 orbits of the Earth, reaching a maximum altitude of 212 kilometers (131.7 miles). Vostok 6 re-entered the atmosphere and Tereshkova parachuted from the capsule near the Pavinskiy Collective Farms, Altai Krai (approximately 150 miles/240 kilometers southwest of Novosibirsk), landing at 08:20 UTC, 19 June 1963. The total duration of her flight was 2 days, 22 hours, 50 minutes.
Cosmonaut Valentina Vladimirovna Tereshkova before launch, 16 June 1963.
For her support of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, in 2022, the United States of America placed Tereshkova on the Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List. Her assets were frozen and U.S. persons are prohibited from dealing with her.
The Vostok 3KA spacecraft consisted of a spherical crew module and a service module. It could support one person in a full-pressure suit for a maximum of 10 days. There were two view ports. The Vostok used pressurized gas jets for attitude control while in orbit, but was not capable of changing its orbit. The vehicle had a total height of 4.40 meters (14 feet, 5¼ inches) and total mass of 4,730 kilograms (10,428 pounds). The descent module diameter was 2.3 meters (7 feet, 6½ inches) and had a mass of 2,460 kilograms (5,423 pounds).
On descent, the cosmonaut used an ejection seat to leave the capsule prior to Earth landing, and parachuted to the ground.
Valentina Tereshkova (center, with back toward camera) with the Vostok descent module, 19 June 1963. (Space Facts)
The Korolev Design Bureau Vostok 8K72K launch vehicle was a three-stage liquid-fueled rocket developed from the Soviet R-7 “Semyorka” intercontinental ballistic missile, using RP-1, a highly refined form of kerosene, and liquid oxygen as propellant. It was 38.36 meters (125 feet, 10 inches) tall and had a maximum diameter of 10.3 meters (33 feet, 9 inches). Total mass at liftoff was 287,375 kilograms (633,553 pounds).
The first stage consisted of four boosters surrounding a central core. Each was powered by one Glushko Design Bureau RD-108 (8D75) engine with four combustion chambers and exhaust nozzles. The RD-108 was rated at 713.600 kilonewtons of thrust (160,424 pounds-force) at Sea Level. Burn time was 118 seconds. The second stage used one RD-108 engine fired for 301 seconds. The third stage had one Kosberg Design Bureau RD-0109 engine rated at 54.520 kilonewtons (12,257 pounds-force) of thrust, with a burn time of 365 seconds.
Valentina Tereshkova Monument at the site of Vostok 6 landing.
Colonel Vladimir Mikhailovich Komarov (Alexander Loktionov/RIA Novosti)
23–24 April 1967: At 00:35:00 UTC, 23 April, Soyuz-1, the first manned flight of the Soyuz 7K-OK spacecraft, was launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome Pad 1/5 (Gagarin’s Start). On this first test flight, only one person was aboard the craft, which had been designed to carry three cosmonauts. Colonel Vladimir Mikhailovich Komarov was the pilot. He had previously flown Voskhod-1, a 24-hour mission, in 1964.
A Soyuz 7K-OK space craft assembly. (Space Rocket History)
The mission plan called for a second spacecraft, Soyuz-2, to be launched on the 24th, with a three-man crew. A rendezvous in orbit would be made.
Soyuz-1 was not ready to be flown. More than 200 faults were known, but the pressures brought about by politics required that the launch proceed.
On reaching orbit, two solar arrays were to deploy to provide electrical power for the spacecraft’s batteries. One panel did not deploy and this severely limited the power available.
The Soyuz stabilization system relied on sensors which would detect certain stars to provide orientation, but the failed solar panel covered them. Within a few orbits the system failed completely. Komarov used the ship’s thrusters to manually control stability, but this was only marginally effective.
There were also communications difficulties. With electrical power diminishing and reaction fuel being spent, the main goals of the mission could no longer be achieved. After 13 orbits it was decided to abort the mission.
An illustration of Soyuz-1
Komarov had to manually align the Soyuz-1 during the daylight phase of orbit 18. Gyroscopic stabilizers were supposed to maintain that alignment as the spacecraft passed into darkness. Komarov would once again align the craft when it came around into light, and hold that alignment through the reentry deceleration.
For some reason, the braking engine was 2 minutes, 23.5 seconds late in firing. The deceleration burn was planned for 2 minutes, 30 seconds, but an automatic system, recognizing that the gyro system was not holding the proper alignment, cut off the engine 4 seconds early. This meant that the Soyuz would travel farther down range than intended, and would not have slowed quite as much, although it was enough for re-entry.
Soyuz-1 impacted the Earth at 03:22:52 UTC, 1.9 miles (3.06 kilometers) to the west of Karabutak, Orenburg Oblast, at speeds estimated at from 30–40 meters per second (67–89 miles per hour) to as high as 640 kilometers per hour (398 miles per hour). It is believed that Vladimir Komarov died from injuries sustained at this time.
He was the first person to die during a space flight.
A rescue helicopter quickly located the Soyuz reentry module which was lying on its side in an open field with its parachute alongside. The rescuers reportedly saw the soft-landing rockets fire, which they should have done just before the module’s impact.
The module was on fire and by the time rescuers reached it, it was fully involved and molten metal was spreading on the ground. After expending their fire extinguishers, the rescuers tried to put of the fire by shoveling dirt on to it, but the the capsule completely collapsed.
Doctors on the scene pronounced Vladamir Komarov dead, with injuries to his skull, spinal cord, and numerous broken bones resulting from the impact. His body was completely burned. A postmortem examination at Moscow confirmed that the cosmonaut had been killed by the capsule’s impact.
Lieutenant Colonel Vladimir Mikhailovich Komarov, Cosmonaut.
Several theories have been published as explanation for the failure of the spacecraft’s parachute to safely slow Komarov’s descent, though with the craft completely destroyed by fire, it is unlikely that there could be any certainty. The official finding is that the drogue parachute did not apply enough force to pull the main parachute free. A backup parachute was deployed manually by Komarov but it fouled in the drogue ‘chute and did not open sufficiently to brake the craft.
Another theory is that a pressure sensor malfunctioned which prevented the automatic deployment of the main parachute. The drogue ‘chute should have been released at that time, but was not, which resulted in the reserve parachute fouling.
Third is that during an autoclaving operation the parachutes may have been contaminated with an adhesive substance.
And another story is this: During the design of Soyuz-1, the thickness of the heat shield was increased, and so the weight of the spacecraft went up. Engineers increased the size of the main parachute accordingly. But the compartment that it was to be stored in remained the same size. The fit was so tight that when the parachute was being installed, technicians had to hammer it into place with wooden mallets.
Burning wreckage of Soyuz-1, 24 April 1967. (Russian Federal Space Agency)
Vladimir Mikhailovich Komarov was born at Moscow, Russian Socialist Federated Soviet Republic (RSFSR), 16 March 1927. His father was killed early in The Great Patriotic War (World War II). At the age of 15 years, Vladimir Mikhailovich entered the 1st Moscow Special Air Force School and graduated in 1945. He then went to Sasovskoye for initial pilot training, and then to the Borisoglebsk Air Force Pilot School. In 1946 he was transferred to the A.K. Serov Bataisk Military Aviation School. He received his pilot’s wings and was commissioned as a lieutenant in the Soviet Air Force, 10 December 1949.
Lieutenant Komarov served as a fighter pilot of the 383rd Fighter Aviation Regiment at Grozny. The regiment was transitioning from the Mikoyan-Guervich MiG-9 turbojet-powered fighter to the new swept-wing MiG-15. While there, he met his future wife, Valentina Yakovlevna Kiselyova, a recent graduate of the Grozny Teachers’ Training Institute. They were married in 1950. They had two children, Yevgeny and Irina.
In 1952, Senior Lieutenant Komarov was assigned as senior pilot of the 486th Fighter Aviation Regiment, flying the MiG-15 and MiG-17. In 1954 he applied to attend the N.E. Zhukovsky Air Force Engineering Academy, from which he graduated in 1959. Promoted to Senior Lieutenant-Engineer, he was assigned as a test pilot at the Central Scientific Research Institute.
Colonel Yuri Alexseyevich Gagarin and Lieutenant Colonel Vladimir Mikhailovich Komarov at Star City, 1964. (Europress/AFP)
After promotion to captain-engineer, 3 September 1960, Komarov was selected for the first group of Soviet cosmonauts. He was older than most of the group, but was well liked and respected.
Colonel-Engineer Vladimir Mihailovich Komarov, Pilot-Cosmonaut of the USSR, was twice named Hero of the Soviet Union. He had also been awarded the Order of Lenin, Order of the Red Star, as well as several other decorations.
Following a state funeral, the cosmonaut’s ashes were interred in the Kremlin Wall at Red Square.
Colonel Vladimir Mikhailovich Komarov, Pilot-Cosmonaut, Hero of the Soviet Union. “Whoever has flown once, whoever has piloted an airplane once, will never want to part with either an aircraft or the sky.”
27 March 1943: Test pilot Captain Grigory Yakovlevich Bakhchivandzhi (Григорий Яковлевич Бахчиванджи) fired the rocket engine of his ski-equipped number three protototype Bolkhovitinov BI and accelerated across the ice-covered Lake Bilimbay near Koltsovo airport at Sverdlovsk, Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (now Koltsovo International Airport (SVX), Yekaterinburg, Russian Federation).
The tiny airplane quickly became airborne and Bakhchivandzhi climbed to 2,000 meters (6,562 feet), leveled off, then continued to accelerate in level flight. The rocket engine burned for 78 seconds before its fuel supply was exhausted. Various estimates are that the BI-3 reached a speed of 750 to 900 kilometers per hour (405 knots/466 miles per hour to 486 knots/559 miles per hour).
Suddenly the BI-3 pitched downward into a 50° dive. Without ever pulling out, it crashed into the frozen surface of the lake, about 6 kilometers (3.7 miles) south of the airfield. The BI-3 was destroyed and Grigory Bakhchivandzhi was killed.
Speculation at the time was the when the rocket engine shut down, the sudden deceleration threw Bakhchivandzhi forward and he struck his head on the gun sight, knocking him unconscious. Years later, wind tunnel testing revealed that at high speed, the Bolkhovitinov BI had a tendency to pitch downward. The elevators could not apply enough force to counteract this. Today, this is known as “Mach tuck.” At transonic speeds, shockwaves form on the wings and push the center of pressure aft.
BI-3 was the third of six prototypes for a rocket-powered close range fighter—a Blizhniy Istrebitel’ (Ближний Истребитель), hence its designation “BI.” It was designed by Aleksandr Yakovlevich Bereznyak (Александр Яковлевич Березняк) and Alexey Mikhailovich Isaev (Алексе́й Миха́йлович Иса́ев), of the experimental design bureau OKB-293, headed by Viktor Fyodorovich Bolkhovitinov (Виктор Фёдорович Болховитинов).
The first prototype, BI-1, made its first flight 15 March 1942, flown by Bakhchivandzhi. The 27 March 1943 flight was the eighth for the series and fourth for BI-3. It was Bakhchivandzhi‘s seventh flight in the type.
Grigory Yakovlevich Bakhchivandzhi climbs into the cockpit of BI-2, circa 1942.
The Bolkhovitinov BI ¹ was a series of seven small low-wing monoplanes with conventional retractable landing gear. They was flown by a single pilot. The airplane was built of 2 millimeter (0.8 inch) plywood covered with fabric. It was 6.400 meters (21 feet) long with a wingspan of 6.600 meters (21 feet, 7.8 inches) and height of 2.06 meters (6 feet, 11 inches).² The total wing area was 7.00 square meters (75.35 square feet). The airplane had an empty weight of 790 kilograms (1,742 pounds) and maximum takeoff weight of 1,683 kilograms (3,710 pounds). The normal wheeled main landing gear could be equipped with skis for operation on snow or ice.
Bolkhovitinov BI cutaway and three-view illustration with dimensions.
The fighter was powered by a throttleable Dushkin D-1-A-1100 rocket engine, designed by Leonid Stepanovich Dushkin (Леонид Степанович Душкин). It was fueled by kerosene and red fuming nitric acid (RFNA). The mixture was ignited by a glow plug. The D-1-A-1100 could produce a maximum thrust of 10.79 kilonewtons (7,958 pound-feet).
Dushkin D-1-A-11000 rocket engine
During flight testing, BI-3 had reached a maximum altitude of 4,000 meters (13,123 feet), and a maximum rate of climb of 83 meters per second (16,339 feet per minute).
The BI was armed with two 20 millimeter ShVAK autocannon mounted in the nose with 45 rounds of ammunition per gun. The cannon fired a 20 mm × 99 mm rimmed cartridge. The explosive projectile weighed from 91.0 to 99.0 grams, depending on type, and had a muzzle velocity of 750 to 790 meters per second (2,461 to 2,592 feet per second). The rate of fire could be selected, ranging from 550 to 800 rounds per minute. The BI could also carry ten 2.5 kilogram (5.5 pound) bomblets to be dropped on enemy bomber formations.
Only seven BIs were built. Following the crash of BI-3, a planned production of 40 to 50 operational interceptors based on the configuration of BI-4 was cancelled.
Grigory Yakovlevich Bakhchivandzhi was born 20 February 1908 in the village of Brinkovskaya, Temryuksky district, province of Kuban, Russian Empire. He was the son of Yakov Ivanovich Bakhchivandzhi, a mechanical engineer working in a steam plant, and Maria Evtikhievna Grechanaya. His mother died when he was six years old. Grigory and his brothers were raised by an aunt, Agnes Stepanova.
Bakhchivandzhi received only seven years of education in his village before going to work in a foundry at the age of 17 years. Later he was employed as an assistant locomotive engineer (driver).
In 1927 Bakhchivandzhi joined the Communist Youth League. In 1928 he worked at the Mariupol Metallurgical Plant (the Illich Iron & Steel Works, Mariupol, Ukraine).
Bakhchivandzhi joined the Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army in 1931. In 1932, he became a member of the Bolshevik Communist Party. He graduated from the Aviation Technical School in 1933, and the Orenburg Higher Military Aviation School for Pilots in 1934. He began flight testing at the Air Force Research Institute in 1935.
During the Great Patriotic War he flew with the 402nd Special Fighter Aviation Regiment in the Defense of Moscow. From 1 July to 10 August 1941, Bakhchivandzhi flew 65 combat missions in the Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-3 (which he had previously flown as a test pilot) and is credited with shooting down five enemy aircraft (3 shared with other pilots).³ He was promoted to the rank of captain in 1941.
Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-3, circa 1941–42. (Charles M. Daniels Collection, San Diego Air & Space Museum Archives, Catalog #: 15_002209)
Captain Bakhchivandzhi was awarded the Order of Lenin 17 October 1942 for his courage as the squadron commander. (He was nominated for Hero of the Soviet Union, but because of a “failure to comply with formalities,” this was not awarded.)
His remains are buried in a cemetery in the village of Maly istok, near the Koltsovo airport.
It is reported that Cosmonaut Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin, the first human in space, said, “Without the flights of Grigory Bakhchivandzhi, there might not have been April 12, 1961.”
On 28 April 1973, thirty years after his death, Bakhchivandzhi was named Hero of the Soviet Union. He was posthumously awarded a second Order of Lenin.
Memorial to Grigory Yakovlevich Bakhchivandzhi at Brinkovskaya, his hometown. (airforce.ru)
¹ Also known as the Bereznyak-Isayev BI
² Most sources give the wingspan of BI-1 as 6.48 meters (21 feet, 3.1 inches). BI-5, BI-6 and BI-7 were 6.940 meters (22 feet, 9.2 inches) long, with a wingspan of 6.615 meters (21 feet, 8.4 inches) and height of 2.500 meters (8 feet, 2.4 inches). The wing area was 7.04 square meters (75.78 square feet).
³ 4 July 1941, Dornier Do 217; 5 July, Junkers Ju 88; 7 July, Junkers Ju 88 (shared credit with Captain A.G. Proshakov); 10 July, Heinkel He 126 (shared with Lieutenant K. F. Kozhevnikov; 2 August, Junkers Ju-88 (shared credit with P. Kh. Ananekov and Zharov). (Other sources say that Bakhchivandzhi shot down two Dornier Do 215s on 4 July. During that air battle, the engine of his MiG-3 failed, and he made a perfect engine-off landing. The fighter was riddled with bullets and Bakhchivandzhi’s silk scarf had been penetrated by a bullet. The same source also credits him with a Henschel Hs 126 reconnaissance airplane, and Messerschmitt Bf 109 and Me 110 fighters, though the dates of these victories is not stated.)
Guards Lieutenant Natalya Fedorovna Meklin, Hero of the Soviet Union. (Colorized by Olga Shirnina: “Color by Klimbim.” Image used with permission.)
23 February 1945: Guards Lieutenant Natalya Fedorovna Meklin, a senior pilot with the 46th Guards Night Bomber Aviation Regiment, 325th Night Bomber Aviation Division, 4th Air Army, was awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union by decree of the Supreme Soviet of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. This was in acknowledgement of the 840 combat missions that Lieutenant Meklin had flown to date. She was also awarded the Order of Lenin with Gold Star. The medals were presented to her by Marshal Konstantin Rokossovsky, 8 March 1945, while she was on duty in Poland. By the end of The Great Patriotic War, she had flown 982 combat sorties.
Natalya Fedorovna Meklin, circa 1940
Natalya Fedorovna Meklin was born 8 September 1922, at Lubny, Poltava, Ukraine. As a teenager, she attended High School No. 79 in Kiev, where she participated in gymnastics and competitive small-bore rifle and pistol shooting. She graduated in 1940.
Following high school, Natalya Fedorovna learned to fly at the Kiev Young Pioneer Palace glider school. In 1941 she went to the Moscow Aviation Institute. During July and August the students were sent to Bryansk to dig tank traps as defense against the Nazi invasion.
Inspired by famed Soviet pilot Marina Mikailovna Raskova, in October 1941 Natalya Fedorovna joined the women’s aviation regiments being formed by Raskova. She was sent to the Engels Military Aviation School, near Saratov, Russia, where she spent seven months in training as a pilot and navigator. Graduating in May 1942, Lieutenant Meklin was assigned to the 588th Night Bomber Aviation Regiment as chief of communications. The unit was then fighting on the southern Caucasian Front.
The women in the night bomber regiments made night attacks behind enemy lines flying the Polikarpov U-2 light bomber. They often approached their target at very low altitude and made gliding attacks. Their effect was to demoralize enemy soldiers and keep them awake. The Germans called them die Nacthexen (the Night Witches).
Lieutenant Meklin circa April 1943. She is wearing the Order of the Red Star and Order of the Patriotic War.
Lieutenant Meklin was awarded the Order of the Red Star on 19 October 1942. In 1943, she became a member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Comrade Melkin flew 380 combat sorties as a navigator, and was then assigned as a pilot.
In February 1943, the 588th Aviation Regiment was redesignated the 46th Guards Night Bomber Aviation Unit. On 27 April 1943, Guards Lieutenant Meklin was awarded the Order of the Patriotic War, Second Class.
The following year, 14 April 1944, Lieutenant Meklin was awarded the first of three Orders of the Red Banner. A second followed on 14 December 1944, and the third, 15 June 1945.
Following The Great Patriotic War, Lieutenant Meklin’s status became that of a reserve officer. For the next two years, she studies at Moscow University, then in 1947, returned to active duty. She rose to the rank of major. She attended the Military Institute of Foreign Languages, graduating in 1953, and served as a translator in the 6th Directorate of the Ministry of Defense, where she was involved in the development of proposals for the production of various types of nuclear weapons, and preparation and coordination of tactical and technical requirements of nuclear weapons.
In January 1956, Major Meklin married Yuri Fedorovich Kravtsov, and she assumed the name Kravtsova.
Major Natalya F. Kravtsova retired from the Air Force in September 1957. She was employed as a supervising editor at the Publishing House of Military Technical Literature in 1960, and then in 1961 as a translator/editor inn the Bureau of Foreign Military Literature.
On 11 March 1985, Natalya Fedorovna was awarded the Order of the Patriotic War, First Class.
Natalya Fedorovna Kravtsova with her son, circa 1960.
Comrade Kravtsova was the author of many articles and books, the last being We Were Called Night Witches (published in 2005).
Natalya Fedorovna Kravtsova, Hero of the Soviet Union, died 5 June 2005, in Moscow. Her remains were interred at the Troyekurovskoye Cemetery in Moscow.
Three-view illustration with dimensions in millimeters. (Самолет У-2 manual)Михаи́л Миха́йлович Гро́мов
The Самолет У-2 (Airplane U-2) was designed by Nikolai Nikolaevich Poliparkov as a basic trainer. It made its first flight 7 January 1928 with test pilot M.M. Gromov. The airplane was produced in two- and three-place variants, some with an enclosed rear cabin. A float plane was also built.
Airplane U-2 was a single-engine, single bay biplane, constructed of a wire-braced wood framework, covered with fabric. There were ailerons on upper and lower wings. It was 8.170 meters (26 feet, 9.7 inches) long, with an upper wing span of 11.400 meters (37 feet, 4.8 inches), and lower span of 10.654 meters (34 feet, 10.9 inches). The wings’ chord was 1.650 meters (5 feet, 5 inches). The vertical gap between wings was 1.777 meters (5 feet, 10 inches), and the lower wing was staggered 0.800 meters (2 feet, 7.5 inches) behind the upper wing. The wings had 2° dihedral, and an angle of incidence of 2° 20′.
The U-2 was powered by a normally-aspirated, air-cooled, 8.590 liter (524.212-cubic-inch-displacement) Shvetsov M-11 five-cylinder radial engine, driving a two-bladed fixed-pitch wooden propeller. The engine produced 90 horsepower at 1,520–1,560 r.p.m.; 100 horsepower from 1,580–1,600 r.p.m.; and a maximum 110 horsepower at 1,650–1,670 r.p.m. The M-11 weighed 165 kilograms (364 pounds).
The U-2 was first armed in 1941. It could carry 350 kilograms (771 pounds) of bombs. A single 7.62×54mmR Shpitalny-Komaritskie (ShKAS) revolver machine gun was mounted in the rear cockpit.
The U-2 was redesignated Polikarpov Po-2 following the War. It was in production from 1928 to 1952. Sources vary as to the number built, ranging from 20,000 to 40,000.
Группа легких бомбардировщиков У-2 271-й ночной бомбардировочной авиационной дивизии летит на задание (“A group of U-2 light bombers of the 271st Night Bomber Aviation Division is flying on a mission.”)Cemetery
