11 questions · Society & Everyday
When Valentina Tereshkova is born in 1937 in the village of Maslennikovo on the Volga, nothing hints at a place in history. Her father, a tractor driver, is killed in the war against Finland; her mother works in a textile mill and soon Valentina is standing at the looms of Yaroslavl herself. Her heart, though, belongs to an unusual hobby: at the local aeroclub she jumps out of planes, logging well over a hundred parachute jumps. That is precisely what makes her a candidate when, after Yuri Gagarin's triumph, the Soviet Union secretly starts looking for women to fly in space. Vostok cosmonauts did not land inside their capsule: they were ejected by catapult seat and floated down by parachute. Out of hundreds of applicants, the weaver is chosen. On 16 June 1963 she lifts off aboard Vostok 6: the first woman in space. Her call sign: "Chaika", the seagull. She stays up for almost three days and circles the Earth 48 times: accumulating more hours in space than all American astronauts combined up to that point. The flight is no joyride: she suffers from nausea, and an error in the automatic guidance system has to be corrected by radio. But she lands safely in a field in the Altai region: where villagers promptly offer her bread and cheese, while she hands out her tubes of space food in return. After landing, Tereshkova becomes a Soviet icon: she marries fellow cosmonaut Andriyan Nikolayev, completes an engineering degree and later enters politics, where she has served for years as a deputy in the State Duma. One record still stands: she remains the only woman ever to have flown in space entirely alone and it took 19 years before another woman, Svetlana Savitskaya, reached space at all.
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first woman in space
Just two years after Yuri Gagarin, the first human in space.
💡 Did you know? On 16 June 1963 Tereshkova was launched as the first woman into space: 20 years before an American woman followed.
Vostok 6
It was the final flight of the Vostok programme.
💡 Did you know? Aboard Vostok 6, Tereshkova orbited the Earth alone for almost three days.
textile worker
On the side she parachuted at the local aeroclub: her ticket to space.
💡 Did you know? Before her selection Tereshkova worked in a textile factory; a „simple worker“ in space was a propaganda coup for the Soviet Union.
parachuting
Vostok cosmonauts left the capsule by ejection seat and landed by parachute: jump experience was essential.
💡 Did you know? Decisive for her selection was her experience as a keen parachutist: cosmonauts then had to land by parachute.
Chaika (seagull)
During her flight Tereshkova used the call sign „Chaika“: Russian for „seagull.“
💡 Did you know? Her call "This is Chaika!" became legendary in the Soviet Union.
almost three days (48 orbits)
That gave her more hours in space than all US astronauts combined at the time.
💡 Did you know? In almost three days Tereshkova circled the Earth 48 times: more than all US astronauts up to then combined.
only woman to fly solo in space
Tereshkova remains the only woman ever to fly into space entirely alone.
💡 Did you know? Every woman who flew after her did so as part of a larger crew.
19 years (Svetlana Savitskaya, 1982)
The first American woman, Sally Ride, followed in 1983: twenty years after Tereshkova.
💡 Did you know? Only 19 years later, in 1982, did a second woman, Svetlana Savitskaya, fly into space.
Andriyan Nikolayev
Shortly after her flight Tereshkova married the cosmonaut Andriyan Nikolayev; their daughter was the first child of two space travellers.
💡 Did you know? Their daughter was the first child whose parents had both been to space.
politician (Duma deputy)
She also completed a degree at the Air Force engineering academy.
💡 Did you know? After her spaceflight Tereshkova became a prominent politician and was elected to the Russian State Duma in 2011.
Foto: Mikhail Klimentev · CC BY 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Valentina Tereshkova
Valentina Tereshkova (b. 1937) is a Soviet cosmonaut and was, in 1963, the first woman in space.
💡 Did you know? As a „simple textile worker“ who flew to space, Tereshkova became a global symbol: still the only woman to fly a solo space mission.
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