Valentina Tereshkova
1937 – ? Russian cosmonaut, engineer, politician
First woman in space, who flew solo aboard Vostok 6 in 1963.
- Affiliations
- Soviet space program, Communist Party of the Soviet Union
Valentina Tereshkova was a textile-factory worker and amateur parachutist when she was selected for the Soviet cosmonaut program. In June 1963 she flew Vostok 6 alone, orbiting the Earth 48 times over three days and becoming the first woman in space, a feat no other nation matched for two decades. Her flight was a propaganda triumph for the Soviet Union in the space race. She went on to a long career as a public figure and politician, holding senior posts in Soviet and later Russian political life.
Connections
- associate of Sergei Korolev — The chief designer whose program selected and trained her.
- associate of Yuri Gagarin — Fellow Soviet cosmonaut; she followed his first orbit as the first woman in space.
In the timeline
- 1963 Tereshkova, the first woman in space the first woman in space