Valentina Tereshkova

Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova was born in Maslennikovo town, Yaroslavl Region of Russia on March 6, 1937. She was the second born of three children. Her father, a tractor driver, was killed in action during World War II. Her mother, Elena Fedorovna, worked in a textile plant. Valentina has a younger brother, Vladimir, and an older sister.

Valentina started school in 1945 when she was eight years old, just when WWII was over. She left school to begin working in a textile plant in 1953 to support her family. However, she insisted and continued her education through correspondence courses.

Valentina became interested in parachute jumping when she was 18. She joined amateur parachute club and was a hard worker in gaining mastering in this area. Later, at the age of 24, she applied to become a cosmonaut.

Overseen by the first person in space, Yuri Gagarin, the selection process of first woman to become cosmonaut began in mid-1961. Since there weren't many female pilots, women parachutists made an excellent field to choose from. Valentina Tereshkova, three other women parachutists, and a female pilot were selected to train as cosmonauts in 1962.

As per the cold war paranoia of the time, the entire program was shrouded in secrecy. When she left for training, Tereshkova reportedly told her mother she was going to a training camp for an elite skydiving team. It wasn't until the flight was announced on the radio that her mother learned the truth.

The historic first flight of a female cosmonaut was slated to concur with the second dual flight (a mission on which two craft would be in orbit at the same time, and ground control would maneuver them to within 5 km (3 mi) of each other). Scheduled for June of the following year, the flight left only about 15 months for training. Basic training for the women was very similar to that of the male cosmonauts. It included classroom study, parachute jumps, and time in an aerobatic jet. They were all commissioned as second lieutenants in the Soviet Air Force. At that time, the air force had control over the cosmonaut program.

Valentina Tereshkova was chosen to fly aboard Vostok 6, scheduled for a June 16, 1963 launch date. It is believed that her backup was Irina Solovyova. Tereshkova's training included at least two long simulations on the ground, of 6 days and 12 days duration. on June 14, 1963 cosmonaut Valeriy Bykovsky launched on Vostok 5. Tereshkova and Vostok 6 launched two days later, flying with the call sign Chaika (Seagull). Flying two different orbits, Vostok 5 and 6 came briefly within roughly 5 km (3 mi) of each other, and the cosmonauts exchanged brief communications. Tereshkova followed the Vostok procedure of ejecting from the capsule some 6000 m (20,000 ft) above the ground and descending under a parachute. She landed near Karaganda, Kazakhstan, on June 19, 1963. Her flight lasted 48 orbits totaling 70 hours 50 minutes in space. She spent more time in orbit than all the U.S. astronauts by that time combined.

The launch of the first woman into space creates a newspaper sensation throughout the world. Upon completion of her mission, Tereshkova was honored with the title Hero of the Soviet Union.

It's possible that Valentina may have trained for a Voskhod mission that was to include a spacewalk, but the flight never happened, and the female cosmonaut program was disbanded in 1969. It wasn't until 1982 that the next woman flew in space. That was Soviet cosmonaut Svetlana Savitskaya, who went into space aboard a Soyuz flight. The US did not send a woman into space until 1983. Sally Ride, an astronaut and physicist flew aboard the space shuttle Challenger.

In November of 1963, Valentina Tereshkova married Andrian Nikolayev, also a cosmonaut. Rumors that Valentina's marriage to fellow cosmonaut was just for propaganda purposes have never been proven. Their daughter, Elena, was born in 1964 thus becoming the first child in the world born to a mother and a father who had both travelled in space. When grown up, Elena became a successful physician. Later, Valentina and Andrian divorced.

Valentina never flew into space again, but she did become the president of the Soviet Women's Committee, a member of the Supreme Soviet, the USSR's national parliament, and the Presidium, a special panel within the Soviet government and Goodwill Ambassador for the Soviet Union. While fulfilling this role, she received the Simba International Women’s Movement Award; the Joliot-Curie Gold Medal and the United Nations Gold Medal of Peace.

By NASA materials