Valentina Tereshkova

Valentina Tereshkova
Tereshkova in 1969
Soviet cosmonaut
Nationality	Soviet Russian
Born	(1937-03-06) 6 March 1937 (age 80) Bolshoye Maslennikovo, Tutayevsky District, Yaroslavl Oblast, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union
Other names	Valentina Vladimirovna Tereshkova
Other occupation	Pilot
Rank	MajGen, Soviet AF
Time in space	2 days, 23hrs, and 12mins
Selection	Female Group
Missions	Vostok 6
Mission insignia
Awards

Valentina Vladimirovna Tereshkova (Russian: Валенти́на Влади́мировна Терешко́ва; IPA: [vɐlʲɪnʲˈtʲinə vlɐˈdʲimʲɪrəvnə tʲɪrʲɪʂˈkovə]; born 6 March 1937) is a retired Russian cosmonaut, engineer and politician. She is the first woman to have flown in space, having been selected from more than 400 applicants and five finalists to pilot Vostok 6 on 16 June 1963. She completed 48 orbits of the Earth in her three days in space.

In order to join the Cosmonaut Corps, Tereshkova was honorarily inducted into the Soviet Air Force and thus she also became the first civilian to fly in space.

Before her recruitment as a cosmonaut, Tereshkova was a textile-factory assembly worker and an amateur skydiver. After the dissolution of the first group of female cosmonauts in 1969, she became a prominent member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, holding various political offices. She remained politically active following the collapse of the Soviet Union and is still regarded as a hero in post-Soviet Russia.

In 2013, she offered to go on a one-way trip to Mars if the opportunity arose. At the opening ceremony of the 2014 Winter Olympics, she was a carrier of the Olympic flag.

Tereshkova was born in the village of Maslennikovo in Tutayevsky District, Yaroslavl Oblast, in central Russia. Her parents had migrated from Belarus. Tereshkova's father was a tractor driver and her mother worked in a textile plant. Tereshkova went to school in 1945 at the age 8; however, she left school in 1953 and continued her education by correspondence courses.