The outfit that Tereshkova wore to train for her flight is today displayed at the Zhukovsky Air and Space Museum in Moscow. The backup suit is also held there, but in storage. The actual thermal suit that Tereshkova wore in space is today displayed by Zvezda, the company responsible for its production, at its museum outside of Moscow. In addition to the one sewn to her flown suit, two others decorated training and backup thermal garments.įor decades, the only way to see the patch was to seek out those historic flight suits. Only a few of the patches were made before Tereshkova's flight. See for the full patch and additional photos. Valentina Tereshkova's Vostok 6 mission patch, as seen still sewn to the thermal garment that she wore in space in 1963. "I am Seagull" ("Ya Chayka") she reported from on board Vostok 6. Tereshkova later described the mission patch as showing a seagull, in reference her flight's call sign. "Beneath the dove, the initials CCCP had been strikingly embroidered in red cotton," the authors concluded. "It depicted a small snow white dove clutching an olive branch, flying against a backdrop of golden sunrays." "Sewn onto the left breast of a blue thermal outfit, was a large dark-blue flight patch specially prepared by a couple of women in the Zvezda spacesuit research bureau," co-authors Colin Burgess and Francis French described in their 2007 book, "Into That Silent Sea: Trailblazers of the Space Era" (University of Nebraska Press). And on the left shoulder of that flight suit was a large embroidered emblem, the world's first space mission patch. The only identifier was printed across the front on her helmet, the Cyrillic letters "CCCP" (USSR).īut underneath that outer layer and the pressure garment it covered, hidden from view, Tereshkova wore a sky blue thermal garment. The exterior of the bright orange spacesuit was devoid of any markings. Designated the SK-2, the suit was tailored for a woman, with a tapered shoulder, wider hip and narrower opening for the neck. When Tereshkova reported to the launch pad on June 16, 1963, she was suited in a female version of the spacesuit previously donned by Yuri Gagarin, the world's first human in space, and the Vostok cosmonauts who followed him.
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