Zhanna Yorkina

Zhanna Dmitriyevna Yorkina (; 6 May 1939 25 May 2015) was a Soviet citizen who received cosmonaut training, but never flew in space.

Early years Zhanna Yorkinna was born in Soltsy in the Novgorod Oblast in the Soviet Union. She graduated from the Pedagogic Institute in the city of Ryazan with a degree in English. Like several others in the group, she was an amateur parachutist. Being a qualified parachutist was almost a qualifying skill during the screening process. While at the time it was considered to be a classified reason, it was later revealed that due to the early models of Soviet spacecraft, it required the cosmonauts to be ejected from their capsules and deploy a parachute to land separately from the spacecraft. In order to meet the qualifications and rigors for the space program, the female candidates also needed to be less than 30 years old, under and less than .

Valentina Tereshkova was chosen to be the first woman in space. She launched into Earth orbit in June 1963 aboard Vostok 6. Tereshkova's backup was Irina Solovyova, with Valentina Ponomaryova in a supporting "second backup" role. Yorkina suffered another setback when she suffered an ankle injury while parachuting. This caused her to miss training which set her back against her peers.

Yorkina was considered one of the least capable of the five female cosmonauts, and Nikolai Kamanin specifically complained that she was "too fond of chocolate and cakes". Another issue that arose for Voskhod 5 was that Zvezda, the company that developed the spacesuits, declined to fabricate a special EVA suit for the women. This caused further delays and the eventual cancellation of any more Voskhod missions after Vostok 6.

Following the death of Sergei Korolev, the space program was halted and all cosmonauts were moved to the development of the Soyuz.

Following cancellation of the Voskhod Program, Yorkina worked at the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center, and was one of the cosmonauts involved in development of the Spiral spaceplane. She retired from the space program on 1 October 1969, and from active military duty in 1989. She achieved the rank of Lieutenant Colonel in the Air Force Reserve.