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Aviation History
1964
1964 - 0411.PDF
258 FLIGHT International, 13 February 1964 At a luncheon given by the Minister of Aviation on February 5: (left to right) Professor Sir Bernard Lovell; the Soviet Ambassador, Mr A. A. Soldatov; Mrs Nikolayeva- Tereshkova wearing the Gold Star of a Hero of the Soviet Union, and the Pilot-Cosmonaut badge; and Mr Julian Amery, Minister of Aviation Missiles and Spacedight VALENTI.NA VISITS BRITAIN "For how long did you have manual control of the spacecraft during the Vostok 6 flight?"—"Manual guidance of the ship was done according to the programme on the prearranged trajectories." We settled back to enjoy the strains of a familiar melody—Varia- tions on a Press-conference Theme, scored for solo cosmonaut and chorus of journalists. If the melody was familiar, the soloist was new—a smiling, attractive young woman, wearing a blue two-piece on which were pinned two simple medals. One was the Gold Star of a Hero of the Soviet Union; the other an unobtrusive pentagon worn by no other woman—the badge of a pilot-cosmonaut. Mrs Valentina Nikolayeva-Tereshkova arrived in Britain on the morning of Tuesday, February 4 and was met at London Airport (Heathrow) by a group which included top people from the British Interplanetary Society, the Soviet Embassy and the Ministry of Aviation. In the absence of a British spacewoman the party also included Air Commandant Dame Jean Conan Doyle of the Women's Royal Air Force. The Soviet cosmonaut had come to receive a Gold Medal awarded by the BIS for "outstanding contri- butions to astronautics," to wit her 72-hour, 48-orbit flight in Vostok 6 on June 16-19,1963, In accordance with the planned programme, Mrs Nikolayeva- Tereshkova carried out a number of other prearranged activities at scheduled times during her visit: these included a BIS dinner on the day of her arrival; an audience with the Queen and lunch with the Minister of Aviation and others on February 5; a visit to the Royal Society and two receptions at the Soviet Embassy on Febru- ary 6; a visit to the Houses of Parliament, a reception given by the Great Britain-USSR Association and a public meeting organized jointly by the National Assembly of Women and the British-Soviet Mrs Nikolayeva-Tereshkova was presented with a Gold Medal of the British Interplanetary Society in London on the evening of February 5. She is here seen with Dr L. R. Shepherd, president of the BIS, who made the presentation Friendship Society on February 7; a visit to the grave of Karl Marx in Highgate Cemetery and a reception given by the Society for Cultural Relations with the Soviet Union on February 8; and visits to William Shakespeare's birthplace, Ann Hathaway's cottage and other places in Stratford-on-Avon on February 9. Speaking at Mr Amery's lunch on February 5, Mrs Nikolayeva- Tereshkova said: "Cosmonauts hope that in the near future there will be flights to other planets. We hope they will be joint flights. We should like it to be arranged for our young men and your girls to fly together" (a sentiment she was to repeat more than once during the next few days—British Women Pilots Association, please note). The Minister of Aviation, as quick to take advantage of a situation as Miss Tereshkova had been to rise from the pad at Baikonur, said that politicians had been arguing for some time that Britain should have a more active space programme. "But your example is much more important and effective than all our argu- ments, and I do not doubt that your presence in London will encourage many people in the view that a lot of us hold that we also ought to explore this exciting new world of space." In the Piccadilly Hotel on the evening of February 5, the special meeting of BIS members, guests and others got under way, rather later than the scheduled programme had specified, with a short black-and-white film entitled Seagull in Space. This and a colour film later in the programme concerned the preparations for and the events following Valentina Tereshkova's orbital flight: the first contained our old-favourite non-Vostok launch sequence, while the second needed its colour to do justice to the sunbronzed backs of a group of male cosmonauts. The presentation of the BIS Gold Medal to Mrs Nikolayeva- Tereshkova was made by Dr L. R. Shepherd, president of the Society, "as a symbol of the recognition of our Society, of your great valour in carrying out your dangerous and exacting flight of June 1963 to prove that women could meet to the full the physical and psychological demands of spaceflight." The Soviet cosmonaut emphasized in her speech of thanks that she regarded the award as a recognition of the efforts of the entire team who had made her flight possible. ,- The evening also included a "press conference" at which 15 selected written questions handed-in over an hour previously were put to Mrs Nikolayeva-Tereshkova by the Soviet Ambassador, Mr Alexander Soldatov, before an audience in which journalists were outnumbered by at least 5:1. Asked whether she had used binoculars to observe the Earth, the cosmonaut said that she did have binoculars in her cabin but she did not use them. The Ambassador brought the proceedings to a close by saying that he was not going to announce "some rather intimate questions" because he knew Mrs Nikolayeva-Tereshkova would not want to answer them. Although the Ambassador did not mention it, one unannounced question which apparently fell into the "rather intimate" category was "How many times, and for how long, was Vostok 5 visible from Vostok 6 ?" Cosmonaut Valentina will be remembered with affection by those who met her during her visit to Britain. As an individual she has intelligence and charm; as the sixth of the new class of cosmonaut- diplomats she carried out her duties, in Britain as in space, capably and in accordance with the planned programme. KENNETH OWEN
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