Svetlana Savitskaya
| Svetlana Savitskaya | |
|---|---|
.jpg) |
|
| Cosmonaut | |
| Nationality | Soviet / Russian |
| Born |
August 8, 1948 Moscow, Soviet Union |
|
Other names
|
Svetlana Yevgenyevna Savitskaya |
|
Other occupation
|
Flight engineer |
|
Time in space
|
19 days 17 hours 06 minutes |
| Selection | 1980 (Female Group 2) |
|
Total EVAs
|
1 |
|
Total EVA time
|
3 hours 35 minutes |
| Missions |
Salyut 7-EP2 (Soyuz T-7 up, Soyuz T-5 down), |
|
Mission insignia
|
 |
| Awards |
|
Salyut 7-EP2 (Soyuz T-7 up, Soyuz T-5 down),
Svetlana Yevgenyevna Savitskaya (Russian: Светла́на Евге́ньевна Сави́цкая; born August 8, 1948) is a retired Soviet aviator and cosmonaut who flew aboard Soyuz T-7 in 1982, becoming the second woman in space. On her 1984 mission she became the first woman to fly to space twice, and the first woman to perform a spacewalk.
Daughter of Soviet military commander Yevgeniy Savitskiy, Svetlana started her aerospace career as a test and sports pilot. Starting from 1974 she set 18 international world records on MiG aircraft and three records in team parachute jumping. She won first place at the 6th FAI World Aerobatic Championship in 1970. She started training as a cosmonaut in 1980.
In 1982, Savitskaya flew to space as part of the Soyuz T-7 mission, alongside Leonid Popov and Aleksandr Serebrov, becoming the second woman to fly to space, some 19 years after Valentina Tereshkova. On her second spaceflight, on July 25, 1984 she also became the first woman to perform a space walk. She conducted an EVA outside the Salyut 7 space station for 3 hours and 35 minutes during which she cut and welded metals in space along with her colleague Vladimir Dzhanibekov. Of the 57 Soviet/Russian spacewalkers through 2010, she is the only female.
In 1995, Savitskaya gave an interview to Baltimore Sun journalist Clara Germani. She recalled encountering some sexism from her male crewmates and that upon entering Salyut 7 for the first time, Valentin Lebedev presented her with an apron and told her "to get to work". She stated that "I was quickly able to establish a working, professional relationship with them."
Savitskaya recalled that, during her second mission, she expressed concern about the extravehicular welding exercises, as "I did not understand the point of it. We might burn our spacesuits or the exterior of the station." but her overall excellent performance on both flights silenced critics who questioned a female's capability to perform space missions.
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Wikipedia