“Let’s go!” Yuri Gagarin said, and the word instantly swept around the world. Humanity entered the “space age.” Success spawned new ideas, and as a result the 2nd detachment of cosmonauts was formed. For ideological reasons, it was decided to send a woman into space. To do so, eight female candidates—volunteers—were selected according to an enormous number of parameters: health, height, weight. But the deciding factor turned out to be the previous place of work: Khrushchev insisted on sending the least qualified candidate—one who couldn’t complete the flight program, but had gone to “work” in the Supreme Soviet, where she still sits to this day, and the road to space for women was closed for 18 years, until Soviet test pilot Savitskaya broke through—proving that the issue wasn’t gender, but the candidate’s abilities. Today, women have become ordinary participants in space missions. As for me, I was intrigued by a case that really happened to one of the candidates. What came of it—read this book.