Zhanna Dmitriyevna Yorkina (Russian: Жанна Дмитриевна Ёркина; 6 May 1939 – 25 May 2015) was a Soviet citizen who received cosmonaut training, but never flew in space.

[1] Zhanna Yorkinna was born in Soltsy in the Novgorod Oblast in the Soviet Union.

In February 1962, Yorkina was selected as a member of a group of five female cosmonauts to be trained for a solo spaceflight in a Vostok spacecraft.

[5] In order to meet the qualifications and rigors for the space program, the female candidates also needed to be less than 30 years old, under 170 cm (5 ft 7 in) and less than 70 kg (154 lb).

The mission was cancelled in 1966 leaving Yorkina to train for the Soyuz spacecraft until the eventual disbanding of the female cosmonaut team.

[9] Yorkina was considered one of the least capable of the five female cosmonauts, and Nikolai Kamanin specifically complained that she was "too fond of chocolate and cakes".

[7] She was included in plans for Vostok 5, an all-female duration and spacewalk (EVA) mission, but only as the secondary member of the backup crew.

[1][10] Another issue that arose for Voskhod 5 was that Zvezda, the company that developed the spacesuits, declined to fabricate a special EVA suit for the women.

Following the death of Sergei Korolev, the space program was halted and all cosmonauts were moved to the development of the Soyuz.

This dual flight approach was created by Sergei Korolev and was on its path to completion until 21 March 1963 when Ministry of Defense Chief Ustinov, Kozlov, and Vershinin rejected the proposal.

Eventually, the Vostok program settled on a single flight approach which Tereshkova had in space.