Svetlana Savitskaya is a former Soviet Cosmonaut. She was the second woman in space and the first one to walk in space. She was born on August 8, 1948 in Moscow, Russia. Her father Yevgeny Savitsky was a World War II fighter ace.
Svetlana received her engineering degree from Moscow Aviation Institute in 1972 and was accepted as a test pilot candidate. She was selected to join the Soviet space program in 1980 and started training for work with Soyuz and Salyut spacecraft.
Quick Facts: –
- Svetlana Savitskaya entered outer space on August 19, 1982 as part of the Soyuz T-7 mission to the Salyut 7 space station.
- She is qualified to fly more than twenty different types of aircrafts.
- She orbited the earth a total of 126 times in her career. Her first time was in 1982.
- She launched into space for a second time on 25 July 1984, as part of the Soyuz T-12 mission.
- Savitskaya performed her first spacewalk on her second trip to the Salyut 7 space station.
- During her entire space career she had spent a total time in space of 19 days, 17 hours, and 6 minutes.
- Svetlana was twice awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union, the highest honor bestowed by the country.
- She also made various women’s speed and altitude records in her career.
- She entered politics in 1989 and became an elected people’s deputy of the USSR.
- In 1990 she became a people’s deputy of Russia and in 1996 she was elected a deputy of the State Duma (parliament).
