Valentina Tereshkova

On June 16, 1963, 40 years ago, the first female cosmonaut in history, Valentina Tereshkova, launched into space aboard Vostok-6.

Born in 1937 to a peasant family in Yaroslavl region, 18-year-old Tereshkova started her working life in a textile mill and received no special education for her trip into outer space. It was not until 1969, six years after her historic flight, that she graduated as a pilot-cum-cosmonaut and engineer.

In 1961, when the Soviet space program first began considering sending women into space, Tereshkova was just a zealous member of an amateur parachuting club. Since there were few female pilots at that time, women parachutists made an excellent pool to choose from. Tereshkova, who had made 163 parachute jumps, applied to be a cosmonaut and was selected to train with three other women.

All aspects of the Soviet space program were shrouded in secrecy, and the female cosmonauts’ training was no exception. The training program was essentially the same as for male cosmonauts and included time in an aerobatic jet, classroom study and parachute jumps. Even cosmonauts’ families knew nothing about their children’s future flights.

Tatyana Morozycheva, who had been recruited from the same parachute club as Tereshkova, had been the first choice to become the world’s first woman in space. But she got pregnant and Tereshkova was moved to the head of the line. She underwent two long training simulations on the ground—of six and twelve days’ duration, respectively. Her real flight aboard Vostok-6 (in which her call sign was Chaika, “seagull”) lasted 70 hours 50 minutes and consisted of 48 Earth orbits.

Tereshkova’s flight was deliberately planned to coincide with the second flight of Valery Bykovsky, who had gone into space on Vostok-5 two days earlier. Thus, two ships were in orbit at the same time, and ground control maneuvered them to within 5 km of one another, so that the cosmonauts could exchange greetings and communicate.

In actuality, Tereshkova’s flight was, for her, a living hell. She vomited repeatedly in space and, when her craft landed near Karaganda (Kazakhstan), she struck her head against the helmet, resulting in a huge bruise on her cheek and temple. Nearly unconscious, she was taken to the hospital, and only in the evening was it announced that her life was out of danger. The next day, the landing was re-staged for the newsreel: Tereshkova was put back in the capsule and actors, hurrying to open the cover, discovered her in there, smiling and happy. These were the pictures that traveled around the world.

Tereshkova married another famous Soviet cosmonaut, Adrian Nikolaev, in November 1963, and together they parented the first child of two cosmonauts. It was a severe trial to be a star in the USSR at that time: any family quarrel among cosmonauts was a matter for a special committee. The couple later divorced due to irreconcilable differences.

Tereshkova continued her training as a cosmonaut until 1968, when the USSR’s female cosmonaut program was disbanded. She traveled frequently around the USSR and internationally, later serving as president of the Soviet Women’s Committee (1968-1987). Among her many awards are Hero of the Soviet Union and the Order of Lenin; in 2000, the British International Society named her “The Woman of the Century;” a crater on the dark side of the moon is named for her; the famous Chaika watch brand was begun after her flight. She was elected to the USSR Congress of Peoples Deputies (1989) and, in 1992, was appointed to head the Russian Association for International Cooperation, which she chairs to this day. When she retired from the military as a major general, she became the Russian Army’s only female general.Today, Valentina Tereshkova leads a quiet life in Moscow, receives visitors and enjoys the company of her grandson.