Irina Solovyova

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

Irina Solovyova emerged as a public figure in the midst of the Cold War. The idea to launch the first female flight was conceived by Nikolai Kamanin in 1961. Kamanin convinced Sergey Korolev, former Soviet rocket engineer to consider his idea, and half a year later an agreement was reached to recruit five female cosmonauts. Solovyova's replacement and fellow trainee in Star City, Valentina Tereshkova, spent three days in space aboard Vostok 6, and then successfully parachuted to earth. Solovyova's colleague, Tereshkova, went on the receive the Order of Lenin and Hero of the Soviet Union awards, the highest award in the Soviet Union.

Solovyova, originally from Ural, was an engineer with a science degree before she was chosen to join the space squad.

Education

1959Graduated from Sverdlovsk Polytechnic Institute with a degree in mechanical engineering

1967Graduated from Zhukovsky Air Force Engineering Academy, Monino

1980Candidate of psychological sciences degree

Training

Irina Solovyova was a trained civilian cosmonaut. She is a retired Colonel in the Soviet Air Force. She completed cosmonaut training from April 1962 through the 29th of November in 1962 alongside Kuznetsova and Tereshkova. under 30 years of age under tall under in weight

The five Soviet women selected were: Kuznetsova, Ponomaryova, Solovyova, Tereshkova, Yorkina on 16 February 1962 and reported for training a month later. However, the flight of a woman in space had little support from Chief Designer Korolev or Kamanin's military commanders.

Training The five female cosmonaut group underwent the complete course of cosmonaut training including weightless flights, parachute jumps, isolation tests, centrifuge tests, and academic studies of rocket theory and spacecraft engineering. The women undertook 120 parachute jumps and received pilot training in MiG-15UTI jet trainers.

In May 1962 a Soviet delegation, including cosmonaut Gherman Titov and Kamanin, visited Washington. Meeting astronaut John Glenn, they learned of the Mercury 13, a privately funded program where 13 American women were selected by NASA for project Mercury. The female pilots had passed the astronaut physical and were lobbying to be trained as Mercury astronauts. Kamanin learned from Glenn that the first American woman would make a three-orbit Mercury flight by the end of 1962. Seeing the competition, Kamanin decided to move ahead with the first flight of a Soviet women within weeks of his return.

At the initial stages of the training, Kamanin places Solovyova in the first ranks as most likely to be first in space.

Future Expedition Involvement Solovyova was involved in the plans for another expedition in 1965, when Kamanin proposed new missions for the Voskhod system in April of that year. Ponomaryova and Solovyova were proposed for an all-female spacewalk mission, with Ponomaryova as pilot and Solovyova the spacewalker. The female cosmonauts were informed of the proposed mission, but Kamanin warned them that there might be strong opposition. He was correct. The U.S. Gemini program had just announced a mission that would last 7 to 8 days. In an attempt to maintain their supposed lead in crewed spaceflight, the Soviets planners altered their timetable and the Ponomaryova-Solovyova mission never happened.