'@Dan' details vary, the least controversial position is that she got a bad case of space sickness, did not communicate well with ground control, had difficulty with manual orientation (automatic attitude control was programmed incorrectly by some technician) for reentry burn, did not communicate before and after reentry burn (opinions vary about it being her fault or equipment malfunction) and violated protocol for medical experimentation by eating food provided by locals after she landed. According to Boris Chertok, later she was personally debriefed by Korolev for thirty minutes and, apparently, driven to tears in the process.
There are also claims that she became hysterical either before launch or during the flight and later missed communication window with ground control due to unscheduled sleep, but that may well be untrue.
Cynical view is that getting first woman to space was a technical "first" that didn't require any new equipment and a batch of spacecraft made obsolete by improved "Voskhod" had to be used up anyway. Having woman at controls would also support the position of design bureau that system they've built could be operated by someone without Air Force experience. Tereshkova's difficulties with manual orientation of spacecraft were, in fact, used by General Kamanin to argue that only fighter pilots can be trusted with controls under the stress and unfamiliar conditions of space flight.
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'@Dan' details vary, the least controversial position is that she got a bad case of space sickness, did not communicate well with ground control, had difficulty with manual orientation (automatic attitude control was programmed incorrectly by some technician) for reentry burn, did not communicate before and after reentry burn (opinions vary about it being her fault or equipment malfunction) and violated protocol for medical experimentation by eating food provided by locals after she landed. According to Boris Chertok, later she was personally debriefed by Korolev for thirty minutes and, apparently, driven to tears in the process.
There are also claims that she became hysterical either before launch or during the flight and later missed communication window with ground control due to unscheduled sleep, but that may well be untrue.
Cynical view is that getting first woman to space was a technical "first" that didn't require any new equipment and a batch of spacecraft made obsolete by improved "Voskhod" had to be used up anyway. Having woman at controls would also support the position of design bureau that system they've built could be operated by someone without Air Force experience. Tereshkova's difficulties with manual orientation of spacecraft were, in fact, used by General Kamanin to argue that only fighter pilots can be trusted with controls under the stress and unfamiliar conditions of space flight.