thumb|Savitskaya on Soyuz T-12, and her spacewalk
Svetlana Yevgenyevna Savitskaya (; born 8 August 1948) is a Russian former aviator and Soviet cosmonaut who flew aboard Soyuz T-7 in 1982, becoming the second woman in space. On her 1984 Soyuz T-12 mission she became the first woman to fly to space twice, and the first woman to perform a spacewalk.
She set several FAI world records as a pilot.
Early life and early career
Svetlana Savitskaya was born in a privileged family. Her father, Yevgeny Savitsky, was a highly decorated fighter pilot during the Second World War, which later brought him to the position of Deputy Commander-in-Chief of Soviet Air Defense. Her mother was a Moscow Communist party leader. Over the course of her flying experience, Savitskaya achieved three world record jumps from the stratosphere and 15 world record jumps from jet planes. In May 1978 she went to work for the aircraft manufacturer Yakovlev, as a test pilot. In her flight experience, she became the first woman to reach 2,683 km/h in a MiG-25 aircraft. An experienced and highly educated woman in the Soviet Space Program, Savitskaya was reportedly an extremely serious, unbending, and steely woman.
Soviet space programme
thumb|right|200px|Savitskaya on a 1983 postage stamp
In 1979, Savitskaya participated in the selection process for the second group of female cosmonauts. On 30 June 1980, she was officially admitted to the cosmonaut group. Of the nine women selected, Savitskaya was the only test pilot. Savitskaya was chosen above other female cosmonauts due to her extensive flight experience and physical ability to perform the necessary operations in a heavy, bulky space suit for multiple hours. The importance of their mission was to test the Universal Hand Tool or Universalny Rabochy Instrument (URI). This tool created at the Paton Institute in Kiev, Ukraine could be used to cut, solder, weld, and braze in space. During the EVA, Savitskaya performed a total of 6 cuts of titanium and stainless steel, 2 coatings of anodized aluminum, 6 tests of tin and lead solder, and test cuts of a 0.5 mm titanium sample. In February 1986, she graduated from the Bauman Moscow Higher Technical School. From 1983 to 1994 Savitskaya held a position of Deputy Head of NPO Energia.
A committed communist, Savitskaya was elected as a people's deputy of the USSR from 1989 and a people's deputy of Russia in 1990, a position she held until 1992. She did not welcome the collapse of the Soviet Union, noting that her parents would live a "second death" were they to see Russia as it was.
Savitskaya retired in 1993 from the Russian Air Force with the rank of Major. In 1994/95 she worked as an assistant professor in Economics and Investment at the Moscow State Aviation Institute. In 1996, she was elected a deputy of the State Duma representing the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, and has been re-elected four times since then. She presently serves as Deputy Chair of the Committee on Defence, and is also a member of the Coordination council presidium of the National Patriotic Union.
!Class
!Discipline
!Plane
!Result
|-
|6 June 1974
|turbojet
|Climb to 6000 m
|MiG-21
|1:20.4 min
|-
|6 June 1974
|turbojet
|Climb to 9000 m
|MiG-21
|1:46.7 min
|-
|7 June 1974
|turbojet
|Climb to 3000 m
|MiG-21
|0:59.1 min
|-
|7 June 1974
|turbojet
|Climb to 12000 m
|MiG-21
|2:35.1 min
|-
|15 November 1974
|rocket plane
|Climb to 3000 m
|MiG-21
|0:41.2 min
|-
|15 November 1974
|rocket plane
|Climb to 9000 m
|MiG-21
|1:21 min
|-
|15 November 1974
|rocket plane
|Climb to 12000 m
|MiG-21
|1:59.3 min
|-
|2 June 1975
|turbojet
|Speed over 15/25 km
|MiG-25
|2683.45 km/h
|-
|31 August 1977
|turbojet
|Altitude in horizontal flight
|MiG-25
|21,209.9 m
|-
|21 October 1977
|turbojet
|Speed over circuit of 500 km
|MiG-25
|2466.31 km/h
|-
|12 April 1978
|turbojet
|Speed over circuit of 1000 km
|MiG-25
|2333 km/h
|-
|17 January 1979
|internal combustion plane
|Climb to 3000 m
|Yak-50
|4:21.4 min
|-
|23 April 1981
|turbojet, take-off weight 16–20 tons
|Payload at 2000 m altitude
|Yak-40K
|5012 kg
|-
|24 April 1981
|turbojet, take-off weight 12–16 tons
|Payload at 2000 m altitude
|Yak-40K
|4084 kg
|}
Honours and awards
- Hero of the Soviet Union, twice (1982, 1984)
- Orders of Lenin, twice (1982, 1984)
- Order of the Badge of Honour (1976)
- Medal "For Merit in Space Exploration" (12 April 2011) – for great achievements in the field of research, development and utilization of outer space, many years of honest work, public activities
- Pilot-Cosmonaut of the USSR
- Honoured Master of Sports
- Gold Medal and 18 degrees FAI
- 16 gold medals, sports of the USSR
- Special medal for the women's world record stay in space
- Honorary Citizen of Baikonur (1982)
Savitskaya was one of five cosmonauts selected to raise the Russian flag at the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics opening ceremony.
The asteroid 4118 Sveta is named after her.
See also
- List of female spacefarers
- List of female Heroes of the Soviet Union
References
External links
- Interview shortly before her 1995 election to the State Duma
- 2010 interview with The Voice of Russia radio website