Even with some lollygagging (he was likely distracted by ice particles) he got more done than Tereshkova. NASA still needed things done up in orbit and they weren’t keen on publicity stunts like the Soviets. So while the Soviets had an impressive record of ‘firsts’ (first woman, first capsule with 3 men, first ‘space walk’, etc) they were actually messing up future development.
Still, it was all very early days. By any reasonable standard, serious use of spaceflight didn’t start until the multi-man Gemini and Voshkod flights, more than a year later. I doubt the USSR had a better-qualified - by terms of the era - woman available to make the flight. We certainly didn’t…
Don’t be so sure: Mercury 13: First Lady Astronaut Trainees (FLATs)
My question: the Voskod space capsule-was it controlled by the occupant? I recall reading that it was controlled from the ground-the cosmonaut basically went along for the ride.
This article says nothing about any of the women candidates’ qualifications, mentioning only that NASA held to its rule that astronauts had to be qualified jet pilots and have an engineering degree. That’s what I meant by “terms of the era.” I don’t see anything about these women’s abilities other than being in good enough health to withstand the training. There’s an implication that some were pilots, but expressly not jet pilots.
Arguably, that’s all that was needed. But I’ll note the first US woman in space was a Ph.D. with three other degrees; they held that bar pretty high.
Yes. Their descent was radio controlled. Mercury had its descent controlled by the astronaut. Neither model could do any changes once in orbit, however. but it is a little unfair to say the astronauts/cosmonauts were ‘just along for the ride’.