So, one of the family heroines is Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman in space. How would I go about getting a letter to her, and maybe getting a signed photo for my daughter? Do I include some cash for her trouble and a reply? How?
Any ideas?
I was thinking a good avenue would be a western journalist who has spoken to her at some point but I can’t find anything recent.
Maybe start with contacting the US Bureau of RT, the Russian international TV station?
I was thinking suit up for the next Vostok mission.
I’d suggest searching the Russian Federal Space Agency website. They should have a similar address for requests from the public.
This web site focuses on the old Soviet space program. Try emailing journalist Anatoly Zak. Zak might even forward your letter for you.
http://www.russianspaceweb.com/
Theres a mailbox link on that RussianSpaceWeb page. Zak would be the first guy I’d try. Mention how much you like his web site and ask about contacting Valentina Tereshkova.
I met her and Gherman Titov at a reception in Moscow back in the 80s. She and Titov were surprise attendees at a reception for visiting foreigners I attended. They really didn’t have any reason to be there other than to grace all of us with their presence. I always assumed by that time they were used to doing such PR events at someone’s whim.
She’s apparently still a member of the Duma, which is the lower house of the Russian Parliament. Here’s here Duma webpage: http://www.duma.gov.ru/structure/deputies/131193/
That’s where I’d start.
She was one of the bearers of the Olympic flag during the opening ceremony of the Sochi games. She also shares a birthday with me. 
And she was one of my childhood heroes; I could use her as an example to the contrary when I was told that girls couldn’t be astronauts. However, a little-known fact about NASA is that some women were trained in the Mercury, Apollo, and Gemini programs. After John Glenn rode on the space shuttle at age 77, several of them came forward and asked to go themselves, but none met current fitness or health guidelines. The best known among them are (were?) Wally Funk and Jerrie Cobb.
I’m not sure I would trust the RT to follow through with something like this. Hell, I’m not sure I would trust the RT people to even pass the email through to whoever you want to get it (the journalist). If you wanted to go that route I would attempt to find a journalist from another country, any other country that’s done an article on her in the last year or so and may have her email address or some kind of contact information that can pass it along.
My first guess would be to try to find a facebook page. A personal one, not a fan page and send it there. Looking very quickly, I couldn’t find a personal page for her or her husband. If you dug deeper you might be able to find one for a kid or niece/nephew. But if you needed to you might be able to send if to a fanpage if you could verify that they were, in any way, in contact with her.