First woman of space

Abstract

Just as with NASA’s space programme administrators, Soviet space chiefs soon came to the realization that they would need to recruit new pilots for future spaceflights—in their case, beyond Vostok. Among those who supported this further and ongoing recruitment was Nikolai Kamanin, in his role as director of cosmonaut training. But it had also been noted in American magazines and newspapers that a number of women pilots were currently undergoing extensive (albeit unofficial) training as possible NASA astronaut candidates, and that did not sit easily with the influential Kamanin. “We cannot allow that the first woman in space will be American,” he wrote in his diary. “This would be an insult to the patriotic feelings of Soviet women” [1].