At the age of 26 Soviet Cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman to travel to space on June 16, 1963 orbiting earth in the Vostok 6 capsule. This blog post tells you about the first lady who visited space in a solo mission, her journey and family background is also given here.
Quick notes – First woman to go to space Valentina Tereshkova, date 16 June 1963, solo mission, orbited earth alone, time spent almost 3 days.
First woman to go to space Valentina Tereshkova Soviet Cosmonaut
Valentina Tereshkova belongs to Russia and was a cosmonaut. Tereshkova was the first lady who went to space on a solo mission. She orbited earth alone during her Vostok 6 mission and spent almost 3 days in space. This mission took place in 1963 and she orbited earth on 16 June 1963.
Russian lady Valentina Tereshkova remains the youngest woman to fly to space. She is the first civilian who travelled to space and the only female to travel to space alone.
Tereshkova received a number of prestigious medals and held many political positions. The lady cosmonaut also toured the world as an advocate for soviet science.
Early life
Valentina Tereshkova was born on March 6, 1937 to a swain family. As per history.com her father was a tractor driver and her mother was working in a Russian textile factory. As per the European space agency (ESA) she worked in a textile factory at the age of 18 only to support her family financially. She faced the toughest situation when her father was killed in World War 2.
She was passionate about skydiving and her passion inspired her to become a cosmonaut. At the age of 22 she jumped for the first time with a parachute with a local aviation club named Yaroslavl Air Sports Club. Her skydiving passion brought her attention towards the Soviet space program.
Cosmonaut corps selection -In the year 1962 on 16th of Feb 5 women were selected out of 400 applicants to join cosmonaut corps. Those five ladies were Tatyana Kuznetsova, Irina Solovyova, Zhanna Yorkina, Valentina Ponomaryova and Valentina Tereshkova.
Vostok 6 mission
Tereshkova watched 2 days before Vostok 5 and Bykovsky were launched on 14 June 1963. She was actually making her final preparation and observing and learning the things on vostok 5 launch which took place just two days before the launch of Vostok 6. Vostok 6 contains an automatic control system so Valentina never took control of the craft during the flight. However, Vostok 5 and 6 have different orbits but they came within around 3 miles closer to each other during their respective flights. This helped Tereshkova and Bykovsky to communicate briefly with each other.
During Vostok 6 flight Tereshkova also communicated with Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev by radio and her images were broadcasted across the Soviet Union. The first female cosmonaut collected data about her body reaction to spaceflight. She captured the image of Earth and some of which were later used to identify aerosol layers in our planet’s atmosphere.
Mission time – The Vostok 6 mission completed just before 48 hours of 3 days. The mission took a total 71 hours 12 minutes and during the 3 days Tereshkova made 48 orbits of the Earth. The mission was longer than the combined flight time of every U.S. Mercury astronaut.
Safe landing date – Vostok 6 re-entered the earth’s atmosphere on June 19, 1963. The first space lady Tereshkova ejected at an altitude of 20000 feet and landed safely with a parachute back to earth. Just a few hours later Vostok 5 also returned to the earth.
After this mission Tereshkova never returned to space. After 19 years in 1982 Svetlana Savitskaya became the second Russian woman in space.
After space Personal life
- Awarded the order of lenin and the hero of Soviet Union Awards.
- In 1963 she married fellow cosmonaut Andrian Nikolayev.
- In 1964 they had a daughter.
- In 1966 Tereshkova became a member of the World Peace Council.
- In 1967 she served as a member of Yaroslavl Supreme Soviet.
- From 1967 to 1970 she served as a member of the Council of the Union of the Supreme Soviet.
- Separated in 1979 and divorce finalized in 1982.
- In 1978 Tereshkova met military medical physician Shaposhnikov and lived together for 20 years.
3 Interesting facts about Valentina Tereshkova
- She married fellow cosmonaut Andriyan who was a Vostok 3 crew member.
- Her daughter was born in 1964 and she was the first baby who had two parents who had successful journeys to space.
- At the age of 86 Tereshkova wants to be the first woman to travel to Mars.
FAQ
Who was the first lady to travel to space?
Russian girl Valentina Tereshkova.
How old was Valentina Tereshkova when she went to space?
She was 26 years old.
What is Tereshkova’s husband’s name?
Andriyan Nikolayev.
Where did Tereshkova born?
She was born in Maslennikovo, near Yaroslavl in Russia.
When did Tereshkova born?
She was born on 6th March 1937 in Russia.
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