Valentina Leonidovna Ponomaryova (russian: Валентина Леонидовна Пономарёва, born 18 September 1933) is a former

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

cosmonaut An astronaut (from the Ancient Greek (), meaning 'star', and (), meaning 'sailor') is a person trained, equipped, and deployed by a human spaceflight program to serve as a commander or crew member aboard a spacecraft. Although generally r ...

, pilot and scientist. Ponomaryova left the school for girls No.156 in Moscow with a gold medal in 1951. She graduated from the

Moscow Aviation Institute Moscow Aviation Institute (National Research University) (MAI; russian: Московский авиационный институт, МАИ) is one of the major engineering institutes in Moscow, Russia. Since its inception MAI has been spearhe ...

in 1957 and the Zhukovsky-Academy, Monino in 1967. In December 1961, the selection of female cosmonauts was authorized by the Soviet Government, with the specific intention of ensuring the first woman in space was a Soviet citizen. In February 1962 Ponomaryova was selected in a group of five female cosmonauts to be trained for a

Vostok Vostok refers to east in Russian but may also refer to: Spaceflight * Vostok programme, Soviet human spaceflight project * Vostok (spacecraft), a type of spacecraft built by the Soviet Union * Vostok (rocket family), family of rockets derived from ...

flight. The group spent several months in intensive training, concluding with examinations in November 1962, after which the four remaining candidates were commissioned Junior Lieutenants in the Soviet Air Force. Ponomaryova established herself as one of the leading candidates with

Valentina Tereshkova Valentina Vladimirovna Tereshkova ( rus, Валентина Владимировна Терешкова, links=no, p=vɐlʲɪnʲˈtʲinə vlɐˈdʲimʲɪrəvnə tʲɪrʲɪʂˈkovə, a=Valentina Tereshkova.ogg; born 6 March 1937) is an engine ...

and

Irina Solovyova Irina Solovyova, born on September 6, 1937, is a retired Soviet cosmonaut active from 1962–1969. Solovyova was born in Kireyevsk, Tula in Russia and she is known for being one out of the five women chosen to join the Soviet Union's all-female sp ...

, and a joint mission profile was developed that would see two women launched into space, on solo

flights on consecutive days. The honour of being the first woman in space was to be given to

who would launch first on

Vostok 5 Vostok 5 (russian: Восток-5, ''Orient 5'' or ''East 5'') was a joint mission of the Soviet space program together with Vostok 6; as with the previous pair of Vostok 3 and Vostok 4 the two Vostok spacecraft came close to one another in orbit a ...

while Ponomaryova would follow her into orbit on

Vostok 6 Vostok 6 (russian: Восток-6, ''Orient 6'' or ''East 6'') was the first human spaceflight to carry a woman, cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova, into space. Mission The spacecraft was launched on 16 June 1963. While Vostok 5 had been delayed by t ...

. However, Ponomaryova did not respond with standard Soviet cliches in interviews and her feminism made the Soviet leadership uneasy, and this led to the flight profile being altered in March 1963.

would now carry a male, cosmonaut

Valery Bykovsky Valery Fyodorovich Bykovsky (russian: Вале́рий Фёдорович Быко́вский; 2 August 1934 – 27 March 2019) was a Soviet cosmonaut who flew on three space flights: Vostok 5, Soyuz 22, and Soyuz 31. He was also backup for Vo ...

, flying the joint mission with Tereshkova aboard Vostok 6 in June 1963. Tereshkova's backup was

, with Ponomaryova in a supporting 'second back-up' role. Despite this setback, Ponomaryova remained with the program until 1969. She was at one stage slated to fly on a circumlunar

Soyuz Soyuz is a transliteration of the Cyrillic text Союз (Russian and Ukrainian, 'Union'). It can refer to any union, such as a trade union (''profsoyuz'') or the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (Сою́з Сове́тских Социалис� ...

flight in 1965 before substantial delays in the Soyuz spacecraft led to the cancellation of this flight. She was also to lead an all-female crew on a ten-day mission aboard

Voskhod 5 The Voskhod programme (russian: Восход, , ''Ascent'' or ''Dawn'') was the second Soviet human spaceflight project. Two one-day crewed missions were flown using the Voskhod spacecraft and rocket, one in 1964 and one in 1965, and two dogs fle ...

but the program was cancelled before she had a chance to fly. Ponomaryova retired in 1969 when it became clear that there were no plans for a female Soyuz flight. Ponomaryova later worked in orbital mechanics at the Gagarin Training Center. Following this, she was a research scientist at the Institute of Natural Historic Sciences. She was awarded a Candidate of Technical Sciences degree in 1974. She married fellow cosmonaut

Yuri Ponomaryov Yury Anatolyevich Ponomaryov (russian: Юрий Анатольевич Пономарёв; 24 March 1932 – 13 April 2005) was a Russian cosmonaut. He married fellow cosmonaut Valentina Ponomaryova in 1972 and the couple had two children before ...

in 1972 and the couple had two children before divorcing. As with Valentina, Yuri did not get to fly into space although he did serve on the

Soyuz 18 Soyuz 18 (russian: Союз 18, ''Union 18'') was a 1975 Soviet crewed mission to Salyut 4, the second and final crew to man the space station. Pyotr Klimuk and Vitaly Sevastyanov set a new Soviet space endurance record of 63 days and the mar ...

backup crew.Cosmonaut Biography: Yuri Ponomaryov
Spacefacts.de. Retrieved on 15 July 2014.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ponomaryova, Valentina 1933 births Women astronauts Living people Soviet cosmonauts Soviet women aviators