Cosmonaut and the first woman to fly in space, born in Maslennikovo, W Russia. She worked in a textile factory, qualified as a sports parachutist, and entered training as a cosmonaut in 1962, becoming a solo crew member of the three-day Vostok 6 flight launched on 16 June 1963. She was made a hero of the Soviet Union, and married fellow cosmonaut Andrian Nikolayev later that year. Their daughter Elena became the first child born to parents who had both travelled in space. She became a member of the Central Committee of the Soviet Communist Party in 1971, and in 1992 she became chairman of the Russian Association of International Co-operation. Later she served as the president of the Soviet Women's Committee and became a member of the Supreme Soviet, the USSR's national parliament, and the Presidium, a special panel within the Soviet government. In later years, she led a quiet life in Moscow.
Valentina Vladimirovna Tereshkova|
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| Cosmonaut | |
|---|---|
| Nationality | Soviet |
| Born |
March 6, 1937 Yaroslavl Oblast, USSR |
| Occupation | Pilot |
| Rank | Major General, Soviet Air Force |
| Space time | 2d 22h 50m |
| Selection | Female Group |
| Mission(s) | Vostok 6 |
| Mission insignia | |
born March 6, 1937), is a retired Soviet cosmonaut and was the first woman to fly in space, aboard Vostok 6 on the 16th of June 1963. In 1961 she became secretary of the local
Komsomol (Young Communist League) and later joined the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.Career in Soviet space programAfter the flight of Yuri Gagarin in 1961, Sergey Korolyov, the head Soviet rocket engineer, came up with the idea of putting a woman in space. Tereshkova was considered a particularly worthy candidate, thanks in part to her "proletarian" background, and also because her father had died as a war hero fighting the Nazis. The Soviet leadership considered flights of women into space only to be for propaganda purposes. On June 16, 1963 she flew on Vostok 6, and became the first woman and first civilian to fly into space. It was later reported that Korolyov was unhappy with Tereshkova's performance in orbit and she was not permitted to take some manual control of the spacecraft as had been planned. Vostok 6 was the final Vostok flight and was launched only two days after Vostok 5 which carried Valery Bykovsky into orbit for five days, landing only three hours after Tereshkova in Vostok 6. Even though there were plans for further female flights it took 19 years until the second woman, Svetlana Savitskaya, flew into space, with the pressure of impending American Space Shuttle flights with female astronauts. Later careerAfter her flight she studied at the Zhukovsky Air Force Academy, and graduated with a distinction as cosmonaut engineer in 1969. Due to her prominence she was chosen for several political positions: From 1966 to 1974 she was a member of the Supreme Soviet, from 1974 to 1989 in the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet, from 1969 to 1991 she was in the Central Committee of the Communist Party. After the Vostok 6 flight a joke began circulating that she should marry Andrian Nikolayev (1929–2004), the only bachelor cosmonaut to have flown. She gave birth to their daughter Elena Andrianovna (who is now a doctor and was the first person to have both a mother and father who had travelled into space) in 1964. Valentina Tereshkova later became a prominent member of the Soviet government and a well known representative abroad. She was made a member of the World Peace Council in 1966, a member of the Yaroslavl Soviet in 1967, a member of the Soviet of the Union of the Supreme Soviet in 1966-1970 and 1970-1974, and was elected to the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet in 1974. She attained the rank of deputy to the Supreme Soviet, membership of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Central Committee, Vice President of the International Woman’s Democratic Federation and President of the Soviet-Algerian Friendship Society. She was decorated Hero of the Soviet Union, the USSR's highest award. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Tereshkova lost her political office but none of her prestige.
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