"Let's go!" – Gagarin said, and this word instantly spread around the world. Humanity has entered the “space age”. Success gave rise to new ideas, resulting in the emergence of the 2nd Cosmonaut Squad. For ideological reasons, it was decided to send a woman into space. For this, eight volunteer candidates were selected based on a huge number of parameters: health, height, weight. But the previous place of work played a decisive role in the choice of a candidate: Khrushchev insisted on sending the least prepared candidate, who was unable to complete the flight program, but went to “work” in the Supreme Council, where she still sits, and the road to space for women was closed for 18 years , until USSR test pilot Savitskaya broke through and was able to prove that it was not a matter of gender, but of the candidate’s abilities. Now women have become common participants in space flights. I was interested in a case that actually happened to one of the candidates for the flight. Read what came of it in this book.