An architect by training and an artist at heart, Balashova went on to spend three decades designing the interior of the Soyuz and other Soviet spaceships, making sure the crafts were not just metal carcasses stuffed with equipment, but also living spaces.
Beginning in 1963 over just one weekend, she sketched the interior of the Soyuz craft at home after Sergei Korolyov, the father of the Soviet space programme, asked that the ship be made habitable.
Engineers had fitted out the module with two giant boxes of instruments, but Korolyov had rejected the design and decided to get outside help.
\u00ab\u00a0They didn’t understand what a living space is, they don’t use spatial thinking but think in terms of instruments,\u00a0\u00bb said Balashova, now in her 80s.
\u00ab\u00a0Over the weekend, I thought of how to place the instruments, designing a sort of cupboard on one side and a sort of sofa on the other, where they could nap\u00a0\u00bb — a ubiquitous setup in Soviet households.
After Korolyov approved her sketch, which included the landscape drawing on the wall, she also had to provide the actual watercolour painting that would go up into space.
Since Korolyov had approved the design with a landscape drawing, the engineers \u00ab\u00a0always asked for one\u00a0\u00bb on subsequent modules. \u00ab\u00a0Nine of (the paintings) went to space,\u00a0\u00bb laughed Balashova.
Despite that, Balashova says she was not allowed to put her name under her work, complaining that her bosses took the credit.
Balashova still lives in her tiny apartment in Korolyov, a town outside Moscow that is home to Russia’s space mission control and named after the space travel visionary.
Sitting in her living room, Balashova spreads out her watercolour space designs on the table, their airy pastels in odd contrast with the militaristic nature of the programme during the space race era.
\u00ab\u00a0At first I wanted to create a space for microgravity that would not have a floor or ceiling,\u00a0\u00bb she said.
But the futuristic vision was discarded for practical reasons.
\u00ab\u00a0Humans train on Earth and they are used to the concepts of top and bottom. \u00ab\u00a0
Cosmonaut Pyotr Klimuk, who travelled to space as part of the Soyuz and Salyut programmes, agreed that it was important for colours and other elements of the Soyuz interior to create a \u00ab\u00a0cosy\u00a0\u00bb atmosphere.
In the orbit module \u00ab\u00a0certain elements were painted certain colours and special fabric was used\u00a0\u00bb, he said.
\u00ab\u00a0Delicate colours are better\u00a0\u00bb and no matter the microgravity, the human eye \u00ab\u00a0still believes there is a floor and ceiling\u00a0\u00bb, like on Earth, he said.
Colours were especially important in Balashova’s work on the 1975 US-Soviet Apollo-Soyuz project, which would be seen by millions around the world and needed to fit in additional photo and video equipment.
\u00ab\u00a0My bosses wanted a red sofa but red showed up as black on film,\u00a0\u00bb she said.
She struggled through four versions of the craft before finding a solution \u00ab\u00a0when suddenly things were human-scale and there was harmony\u00a0\u00bb, she said.
The resulting orbital module had a green sofa and velcro belts with which cosmonauts attached themselves, and even a folding table where they ate and signed the documents marking the symbolic joint flight.
When visiting the module, American astronaut Vance Brand praised its \u00ab\u00a0very convenient setup\u00a0\u00bb.
Balashova still sits in a chair upholstered with the same green fabric she used to cover the Soyuz sofa.
That too was a product of experimentation. Initial attempts to use velcro on the furniture led to cosmonauts \u00ab\u00a0losing their jersey pants\u00a0\u00bb on it, she giggled.
Her flat is filled with books and watercolour portraits of family, with almost no sign that she influenced the look of generations of Soviet spaceships.
She says her engineering bosses didn’t value her work, looking down on her as an artist and a woman — one of the few working in the Soviet space industry and the only female in a creative position in Korolyov’s team.
\u00ab\u00a0I was alone working with only men, and they treated me like a servant. \u00ab\u00a0
After she retired, her drawings spent over a decade gathering dust under her bed.
Balashova now lives on a pension of 18,000 rubles ($297, 287 euros) a month.
\u00ab\u00a0I never wanted to go to space,\u00a0\u00bb she admitted. But as an architect, she found the work interesting, she said, and found her inspiration in constantly striving for harmony in her designs.
\u00ab\u00a0When I got it, I felt goosebumps down my back,\u00a0\u00bb she said.<\/p>\n

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