Who is the first woman in space?
Valentina “Vladimirovna” Tereshkova, who was born on March 6, 1937 in Maslennikovo, Russia, was the first woman cosmonaut to visit the outer space. She was the chief pilot of Vostok VI flight on June 16 1963 at 12:30pm with her radio callsign “Chaika” or Seagull. She orbited the earth 48 times (1,200,000 miles) and lasted almost three days (70 hrs. 50 mins) in space before returning safely to earth. Her flight confimed that women had the same resistance as men to the physical and psychological stresses while on space.This flight made Tereshkova a national hero in Soviet Union and was honored with the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star Medal. After her Vostok flight, she continued working as an aerospace engineer and also became a Soviet politician. She married her fellow Soviet cosmonaut Colonel Andrian Nikolayev in 1963. Tereshkova before she became a Russian cosmonaut was a textile-factory worker and a skilled amateur skydiver.
