Valentina Vladimirovna Tereshkova
Valentina Vladimirovna Tereshkova is a Soviet cosmonaut, engineer, and politician who became the first woman in space. She flew Vostok 6 in June 1963, completing 48 orbits during a solo mission that lasted nearly three days.
- Born
- March 6, 1937
- Died
- N/A
- Birthplace
- Bolshoye Maslennikovo, Yaroslavl Oblast,Soviet Union
Flights
1
Spacewalks
N/A
EVA time
N/A
In space
2 days, 22 hours, 50 minutes
Bio
Before cosmonaut selection, Tereshkova worked in a textile factory and became an amateur parachutist. Her parachuting experience mattered because Vostok cosmonauts ejected from the and landed separately under parachute.
Vostok 6 launched on June 16, 1963 and flew in parallel with Valery Bykovsky's Vostok 5 mission. Tereshkova kept a flight log, photographed Earth, manually oriented the spacecraft, and used the call sign Chaika, meaning Seagull.
After spaceflight, Tereshkova remained a symbol of Soviet space achievement, trained as an engineer, served as a cosmonaut instructor, and moved into long public and political service. She remains the only woman to have flown a solo space mission.