Tatyana Kuznetsova

Tatyana Dmitryevna Kuznetsova (; 14 July 1941 – 28 August 2018) was a Soviet cosmonaut. She was the youngest person ever selected by a government human spaceflight program. Life Kuznetsova was born in Moscow in 1941. In 1958 she completed her secondary schooling and the following year enrolled to study typing and shorthand. Her first job, in 1959, was 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 was a regional and national champion. In 1964 she became a parachuting instructor. In December 1961, the selection of female cosmonaut trainees was authorised by the Soviet government, with the specific intention of ensuring 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 to be trained for a solo spaceflight in a Vostok spacecraft. Even though she was only 20 years old, her skill and courage in parachuting led the cosmonaut recruiters to select her for their programme. In the early days of her training, Kuznetsova was the favourite to become the first woman in space, but by late summer 1962 some failures in the physically and emotionally tough preparation regime resulted in her being removed from training.