Over the five decades of space exploration, more than 550 people have visited orbit, of which almost 60 are women. Only three represented the USSR and then Russia. Svetlana Savitskaya is one of them. She went down in history as the second female astronaut.
Biography
Svetlana Evgenievna Savitskaya was born on August 8, 1948 in Moscow. From childhood, planes were present in her life. This is understandable, because Svetlana was the daughter of Air Marshal and twice Hero of the Union Yevgeny Savitsky. Her mother was also a military pilot. Svetlana's fate was predetermined.
Subsequently, the nickname "Marshal's daughter" was firmly entrenched for her. Svetlana constantly tried to prove to the public that she really loves aviation and is able to achieve a lot even without her father's cronyism.
While still at school, Savitskaya became interested in aviation sports. When she was 17 years old, she made as many as three world records for jumping from the stratosphere with a parachute.
At 22, Svetlana became the absolute world champion in aerobatics on piston aircraft. She performed and studied: first at the DOSAAF Central Flight Technical School, and then at the Ordzhonikidze Moscow Aviation Institute and the flight school in Kaluga.
Career: path to the stars
After the institute, Svetlana became an instructor pilot of the V. P. Chkalov. She flew on MiG-15, MiG-17, MiG-21, MiG-25 fighters.
Savitskaya never stopped improving her skills and education. In 1976 she completed training at the ministerial test pilot school. Subsequently, she began to test aircraft at many aviation enterprises of the Union. In 1986 she defended her Ph. D. thesis in this field.
On the way to orbit, she tested aircraft, set speed records. On her account - records for flights not only on piston, but also jet aircraft. And many of them haven’t been beaten yet. Svetlana literally "breathed" aviation, like her father, who continued flying until the age of 70.
In 1980, Svetlana joined the cosmonaut corps. At that time, the Union, after a long hiatus, decided to send women back to "roam space." There were many applicants, and the competition between them was serious. Experts have chosen Savitskaya. On August 19, 1982, she flew into space on the Soyuz T-7 spacecraft. Together with her, Leonid Popov and Alexander Serebrov went into orbit. The flight lasted about eight days and was successful.
Two years later, Svetlana was entrusted with an honorary mission for the first ever woman's exit into open space. She stayed there for 3 hours and 35 minutes.
In 1993, she was expelled from the lists of astronauts due to her retirement. After that, Svetlana took up teaching technical specialties and politics.
Personal life
Svetlana Savitskaya is married to Viktor Khatkovsky. The spouse is also associated with aviation. Khatkovsky was a pilot and design engineer at the Moscow Machine-Building Plant. Ilyushin. In 1986, a son, Constantine, was born in marriage.
