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Vostok 6A
Part of Vostok
Vostok-1KP
Vostok-1KP
Credit: Manufacturer Image
Cancelled female cosmonaut flight. Originally Vostok 5/6 were to be dual female flights. Two capsules would be launched a day apart; each would remain aloft for three days. Changed by leadership to single female flight in March 1963.

Launched: 1963 June. Number crew: 1 .

From August 1962 until February 21, 1963 it was planned that the next two Vostok flights (Vostok 5 and 6) would take place in March-April 1963 and be a dual female flight. Two capsules would be launched a day apart; each would remain aloft for three days. Tereshkova would be pilot for Vostok 5, and Ponomaryova was considered most qualified candidate for Vostok 6. This dual female flight plan was approved all the way up the Soviet hierarchy until it was killed at the last moment at a meeting of the Presidium of the Communist Party on 21 March 1963 by party ideologue Kozlov and Ministry of Defence Chief Ustinov. Only one female would be allowed to fly for propaganda purposes. A male cosmonaut (Bykovsky) was rushed into final training, delaying the dual flights for two months. Tereshkova made it into space aboard Vostok 6, following Bykovsky aboard Vostok 5. Ponomaryova and the other female cosmonauts trained in the 1960's never flew.

Although a final decision would only be made at the last minute, cosmonaut chief Kamanin always planned to name Tereshkova for the first flight. She was appropriately feminine and modest, and always mouthed the correct Communist party line in interviews. Ponomaryova was considered the most qualified candidate technically and emotionally for the Vostok 6 flight. However her aggressive feminism and failure to mouth Soviet catch-phrases were considered drawbacks by the male Communist stalwarts that ran the program.



People: Ponomaryova, Yerkina. Country: Russia. Spacecraft: Vostok.

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