Tatyana Kuznetsova

Life

Tatyana Kuznetsova was born in Moscow in 1941. After finishing secondary school in 1958, she spent the next year learning typing and shorthand. Her first job came in 1959 as a stenographer at the Ministry of Radioelectronic Industry in Moscow, followed by secretarial positions at other government research institutes. In 1958, as a teenager, she took up parachuting as a hobby, and by 1961 she was a regional and national champion.

In 1964, she became a parachuting instructor. In December 1961, the Soviet government authorised the selection of female cosmonaut trainees, specifically to ensure the first woman in space was a Soviet citizen. In February 1962, Kuznetsova was selected from over 400 applicants to join a group of five female cosmonauts training for a solo Vostok spaceflight. Though only 20, her skill and courage in parachuting led recruiters to choose her.

In early training, she was the favourite to become the first woman in space, but by late summer 1962, failures in the physically and emotionally tough preparation regime resulted in her removal from training. She was recalled in January 1965 to prepare for a two-woman Voskhod 5 mission, but the project was cancelled before she could fly. Kuznetsova retired from the cosmonaut program in 1969 when it became clear no women would be included on future Soviet flights, but she stayed at the training centre assisting with geophysical experiments and studies.

From 1979, she served in the Air Force Reserves, rising to lieutenant-colonel before retiring in 1991. She died on 28 August 2018.