Valentina Tereshkova: First Woman in Space Valentina Tereshkova: First Woman in Space By Tim Sharp, Reference Editor | June 14, 2013 03:48pm ET MORE Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman to fly to space when she launched on the Vostok 6 mission June 16, 1963. Credit: NASA Valentina Tereshkova was the first woman to go into space when she flew Vostok 6 in 1963. She spent almost three days in space and orbited Earth 48 times. That was her only trip into space. Tereshkova later toured the world to promote Soviet science and became involved in Soviet politics. Early life Valentina Vladimirovna "Valya" Tereshkova was born on March 6, 1937, in Maslennikovo, a village near the Volga River about 170 miles (277 kilometers) northeast of Moscow. Her father was a tractor driver and her mother worked in a cotton mill.

Tereshkova's father was killed during World War II, leaving her mother to raise three children alone. Valentina didn't start school until she was 8, and had to leave school when she was 16. She became an apprentice at a tire factory and later joined her mother at the mill. She continued her education through correspondence courses. Tereshkova joined the mill's Young Communist League (Komsomol) and soon advanced to the Communist Party. She became interested in parachute jumping after joining the Yaroslavl Air Sports Club. Inspired by Gagarin After Yuri Gagarin became the first man in space in 1961, Tereshkova volunteered for the Soviet space program. Although she did not have any experience as a pilot, she was accepted into the program because of her 126 parachute jumps. At the time, cosmonauts had to parachute from their capsules seconds before they hit the ground on returning to Earth. Along with four other women, Tereshkova received 18 months of training, which included tests to determine how she would react to long periods of time being alone, to extreme gravity conditions and to zero-gravity conditions.

Of the five women, only Tereshkova went into space. Tereshkova became the first woman to fly in space on June 16, 1963. Credit: Karl Tate, SPACE.com Infographics Artist Tereshkova was chosen to pilot Vostok 6. It was to be a dual mission. Cosmonaut Valeriy Bykovsky launched on Vostok 5 on June 14, 1963. Two days later, Tereshkova launched. The two spacecraft took different orbits and came within 3 miles (5 km) of each other. The cosmonauts exchanged communications. [ Infographic: How Valentina Tereshkova's 1963 Vostok 6 Flight Worked ] Tereshkova logged more than 70 hours in space and made 48 orbits of Earth. Soviet and European TV viewers saw her smiling face and her logbook floating in front of her. They did not realize that the flight almost turned into tragedy, a fact that was classified for about 40 years. Tragedy averted An error in the spacecraft's automatic navigation software caused the ship to move away from Earth.

Tereshkova noticed this and Soviet scientists quickly developed a new landing algorithm. Tereshkova landed safely but received a bruise on her face. She landed in the Altay region near today's Kazakhstan-Mongolia-China border. Villagers helped Tereshkova out of her spacesuit and asked her to join them for dinner. She accepted, and was later reprimanded for violating the rules and not undergoing medical tests first. However, Tereshkova was honored with the title Hero of the Soviet Union. She received the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star Medal. She became a spokesperson for the Soviet Union and while fulfilling this role, she received the United Nations Gold Medal of Peace. Tereshkova never flew in space again. She later became a test pilot and instructor and earned a doctorate in technical sciences. On Nov. 3, 1963, Tereshkova married fellow cosmonaut Andriyan Nikolayev. Their first child, a daughter named Elena, was a subject of medical interest because she was the first child born to parents who had both been exposed to space. Elena later went on to become a medical doctor. Tereshkova and Nikolayev divorced in 1980.

Valentina Tereshkova turned 76 on March 6, 2013. Valentina Tereshkova: First Woman in Space - Seeker Jun 14, 2013 06:46 PM ET Valentina Tereshkova: First Woman in Space Fifty years ago, Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman in space. Continue reading → Previous Next On the afternoon of Sunday, June 16, 1963, Valeriy Bykovsky was in Earth orbit. He’d been up a little under a day, safely inside his Vostok 5 capsule, when he gained a companion: Valentina Tereshkova in Vostok 6. The two cosmonauts’ joint mission was similar to the joint Vostok 3/4 mission that had flown the previous August, but this mission had a twist. Tereshkova was the first woman in space. On Sunday, she’ll be celebrating the 50 year anniversary of this historic feat.

ANALYSIS: First Woman in Space Wants to Go to Mars Towards the end of 1961, Sergei Korolev, the Soviet space program’s Chief Designer and mastermind behind the nation’s earliest space triumphs, was looking for a new first in space. Having already launched Yuri Gagarin and Gherman Titov into orbit, he needed something new to maintain the Soviets’ lead over America in space. One idea he had was to launch a woman. A female cosmonaut would send the message that the Soviet Union valued its citizens equally and give little girls throughout the nation the belief that they, too, could go into space some day. The Central Committee of the Communist Party Korolev’s idea, and on February 16, 1962, five experienced parachutists became the first all female cosmonaut training group. PHOTOS: Ten People Who Overcame Their Limits to Achieve Greatness Among them was Valentina Tereshkova, a textile factory worker and avid skydiver.

But more importantly, she was an outspoken supporter of the communist party who had worked throughout her life – she began helping her widowed mother support their family at the age of 10 – within the Communist system to achieve great things. She was, like Yuri Gagarin before her, the picture of success in the Soviet Union. Tereshkova spent three days in space aboard Vostok 6, strapped to her ejection seat inside the seven-and-a-half foot wide pressurized cabin. She was wearing an SK-2 space suit similar to the SK-1 suit Gagarin wore on his mission. It was, for a spacesuit, a comfortable design, designed to be pressurized only in an emergency situation where the cabin pressure was lost. The joint mission between Vostoks 5 and 6 was similar to that between Vostoks 3 and 4. Neither spacecraft could change its orbit or properly maneuver in space, but they were launched such that they came within 3 miles of one another in orbit. Tereshkova swears that she could actually see Bykovsky in Vostok 5 during their brief close pass; as the mission wore on the spacecraft drifted further apart in their orbits.

The bulk of their remaining time in space saw Tereshkova and Bykovsky run a series of biomedical experiments while learning to live and work in microgravity. Valentina Tereshkova Biography - life, parents, school, mother, young, book, information, born, time, achievements Valentina Tereshkova Biography Maslennikovo, Russia Russian cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova was the first woman in space, orbiting the earth forty-eight times in Vostok VI in 1963. She orbited the Earth for almost three days, showing that women have the same ability in space as men. Later she toured the world promoting Soviet science and feminism. She also served on the Soviet Women's Committee and the Supreme Soviet Presidium (government committee). Early years Valentina Vladimirovna "Valya" Tereshkova was born on March 6, 1937, in the Volga River village of Maslennikovo. Her father, Vladimir Tereshkov, was a tractor driver.

He had been a Russian Army soldier during World War II (1939–45; a war fought mostly in Europe that pitted Great Britain, France, the United States, and the Soviet Union against Italy, Germany, and Japan). He was killed during the war when Valentina was two. Her mother Elena Fyodorovna Tereshkova was a worker at the Krasny Perekop cotton mill. She single-handedly raised Valentina, her brother Vladimir, and her sister Ludmilla in economically trying conditions. Valentina helped her mother at home and was not able to begin school until she was ten. Tereshkova later moved to her grandmother's home in nearby Yaroslavl, where she worked as an apprentice at a tire factory in 1954. In 1955 she joined her mother and sister as a loom operator at the cotton mill. Meanwhile, she took correspondence courses (courses taught through the mail) and graduated from the Light Industry Technical School. An ardent communist (believer that there should be no private property), she joined the mill's Komsomol (Young Communist League) and soon advanced to the Communist Party.

Joins space program In 1959 Tereshkova joined the Yaroslavl Air Sports Club and became a skilled amateur (nonprofessional) parachutist. Inspired by the flight of Yuri Gagarin (1934–1968), the first man in space, she volunteered for the Soviet space program. Although she had no experience as a pilot, her achievement of 126 parachute jumps gained her a position as a cosmonaut (Russian astronaut) in 1961. At the time the Russian space program was looking for people with parachuting experience, because cosmonauts had to parachute from their capsules after they came back into Earth's atmosphere. Five candidates were chosen for a onetime woman-in-space flight. Tereshkova received a military rank in the Russian air force. She trained for eighteen months before becoming chief pilot of the Vostok VI. All candidates underwent a rigorous (difficult) course of training, which included tests to determine the effects of being alone for long periods, tests with machines made to create extreme gravity conditions, tests made to duplicate the zero gravity weightless conditions in space, and parachute jumps.

Admiring fellow cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin was quoted as saying, "It was hard Valentina Tereshkova. Reproduced by permission of the Corbis Corporation . for her to master rocket techniques, study spaceship designs and equipment, but she tackled the job stubbornly and devoted much of her own time to study, poring over books and notes in the evening." Into space At 12:30 P.M. on June 16, 1963, Junior Lieutenant Tereshkova became the first woman to be launched into space. Using her radio callsign (nickname) Chaika (Seagull), she reported, "I see the horizon. A light blue, a beautiful band. This is the Earth. How beautiful it is! All goes well." Tereshkova was later seen smiling on Soviet and European TV, pencil and logbook floating weightlessly before her face. Vostok VI made forty-eight orbits (1,200,000 miles) in 70 hours, 50 minutes, coming within 3.1 miles of the previously launched Vostok V, which was piloted by cosmonaut Valery Bykovsky.

By comparison, the four American astronauts who had been in space before this flight had a combined total of thirty-six orbits. Tereshkova's flight confirmed Soviet test results that women had the same resistance as men to the physical and psychological stresses of space. In fact, tests showed that women could actually tolerate G-forces (gravitational forces) better than men. Upon her return Tereshkova and Bykovsky were hailed in Moscow's Red Square, a large plaza in Moscow used for official celebrations. On June 22 at the Kremlin she was named a Hero of the Soviet Union. Presidium Chairman Leonid Brezhnev (1906–1982) decorated her with the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star Medal. A symbol of the liberated Soviet woman, Tereshkova toured the world as a goodwill ambassador, promoting the equality of the sexes in the Soviet Union. She received a standing ovation at the United Nations. With Gagarin, she traveled to Cuba in October as a guest of the Cuban Women's Federation and then went to the International Aeronautical Federation Conference in Mexico.

Unfortunately, Tereshkova and the other female Russian cosmonauts were not taken as seriously inside the Soviet Union as they were outside. The Russians used the female cosmonauts for publicity purposes to show how women were treated equally in their country. In truth, however, they were never thought of as the equals of the "regular," that is, male, cosmonauts, and they never received the same quality of flight assignments. After Tereshkova's flight On November 3, 1963, Tereshkova married Soviet cosmonaut Colonel Andrian Nikolayev, who had orbited the earth sixty-four times in 1962 in the Vostok III. Their daughter, Yelena Adrianovna Nikolayeva, was born on June 8, 1964. Doctors, who were fearful of her parents' space exposure, carefully studied the girl, but no ill effects were found. Tereshkova, after her flight, continued as an aerospace engineer in the space program. She also worked in Soviet politics, feminism, and culture.

She was a deputy to the Supreme Soviet between 1966 and 1989, and a people's deputy from 1989 to 1991. Meanwhile, she was a member of the Supreme Soviet Presidium from 1974 to 1989. During the years from 1968 to 1987, she also served on the Soviet Women's Committee, becoming its head in 1977. Tereshkova headed the USSR's International Cultural and Friendship Union from 1987 to 1991, and later chaired the Russian Association of International Cooperation. Tereshkova summarized her views on women and science in an article titled "Women in Space," which she wrote in 1970 for the American journal Impact of Science on Society. In that article she said, "I believe a woman should always remain a woman and nothing feminine should be alien to her.

At the same time I strongly feel that no work done by a woman in the field of science or culture or whatever, however vigorous or demanding, can enter into conflict with her ancient 'wonderful mission'—to love, to be loved—and with her craving for the bliss of motherhood. On the contrary, these two aspects of her life can complement each other perfectly." Valentina Tereshkova still serves as a model not only for the women of her native country, but for women throughout the world who wish to strive for new goals. For More Information Lothian, A. Valentina: First Woman in Space. Edinburgh: Pentland Press, 1993. O'Neill, Lois Decker. "Farthest Out of All: The First Woman in Space," in Women's Book of World Records and Achievements. Garden City, NY: Doubleday/Anchor Press, 1979, pp. 739–740. Sharpe, Mitchell R. "It Is I, Sea Gull": Valentina Tereshkova, First Woman in Space. New York: Crowell, 1975.

User Contributions: Tereshkova, a member of the Young Communist League, was the perfect role model for Soviet girls [EPA] By @astVintageSpace Amy Shira Teitel has an academic background in the history of science and now works as a freelance science writer specialising in spaceflight history. She maintains her own blog, Vintage Space, and contributes regularly to Discovery News, Scientific American, Motherboard, DVICE. Story highlights Valentina Tereshkova: Launching the first woman On June 16, 1963, Valentina Tereshkova, sealed inside her Vostok 6 capsule, rode a modified SS-6 Sapwood rocket into orbit and into history. Early that Sunday afternoon [Moscow time], Tereshkova became the first woman to fly in space. Fifty years later, we look at Tereshkova as the woman who opened the skies for others to follow, who made it possible for little girls to dream of becoming astronauts. But we tend to ignore the more unsavoury side of her historic flight, namely that Tereshkova was launched in a brilliant move by the Soviet propaganda machine.

Yuri Gagarin, the first man in space, wasn't particularly excited about Sputnik when the Soviet Union launched history's first satellite on October 4, 1957. But when the Luna 3 probe launched towards the Moon two years later (to the day), Gagarin took note. He was seized by the idea of flying in space, so much so that the 25-year-old third class military pilot wrote a report to his commanding officer expressing his desire to be part of the Soviet Union's move into space. It's fairly unlikely this unknown pilot's plea was taken seriously or even heard, but he did make it through the demanding cosmonaut selection process. Gagarin was one of the 20 cosmonaut candidates - cosmonauts remained "candidates" until they flew in space - selected in 1959. Canada's 'singing astronaut' retires But he didn't stand out.

He and the other 19 candidates were plucked from the ranks of the Soviet Air Force, a young enough military branch that all pilots were cut from a very similar mould - they had all recently passed the same demanding physical exams and had logged roughly the same number of hours in similar types of jet aircraft. A year after his selection, in 1960, it was Gagarin's height that took him a step closer to securing a spaceflight. At 5 foot 2 inches, he was among the six candidates able to fit most comfortably in the cramped Vostok spacecraft. These six candidates were put in an accelerated training group. And while Gagarin was among the top three vying for the first flight, he still wasn't the standout candidate. Going by test scores and demonstrated abilities, Gagarin was ranked second. Then officials in charge started looking at the less tangible qualities that make up a man - his adaptability under pressure, his rapport with fellow cosmonauts, his speaking skills, his political beliefs, and his personal background. It was here that Gagarin took the lead.

Launching the first woman After Gagarin's single orbit around the Earth, cosmonaut Gherman Titov followed in August and spent a full day in space. It was rapid progress, which suited Sergei Korolev just fine. Korolev was the Soviet space programme's chief designer, the powerhouse behind the nation's triumphs beginning with Sputnik. Korolev didn't like repeating missions; he believed that every flight had to advance the state of the art of spaceflight or it was a waste of time. So not long after Gagarin's flight, Korolev started planning his next move. One idea was a dual flight: launch two manned Vostok capsules in rapid succession so that they would meet in orbit. The other idea was to launch a woman. Both missions would score firsts for the Soviet Union in what was then the rapidly escalating space race. But the latter mission would score an additional coup for the nation. Sending a woman into space would convey a message to the world that the Soviet Union valued its women just as much as its men. A female cosmonaut would stand out not only against her male cosmonaut peers but against NASA's all-male astronaut corps.

At the time, the US space programme was choosing astronauts from the ranks of military test pilots, which excluded women. The Central Committee of the Communist Party saw the value of a female cosmonaut as well and approved Korolev's idea. On February 16, 1962, five experienced parachutists were selected from 400 applicants as cosmonaut candidates for the first all-female training group: Tatiana Kuznetsova, Valentina Ponomaryova, Irina Solovyeva, Valentina Tereshkova, and Zhana Yerkina. Like Gagarin before her, Tereshkova wasn't the standout in her class. Based on academic and physical performance, she was ranked second. But also like Gagarin, it was her background and demeanour that put her in line to fly. From seamstress to cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova was born in Maslennikovo near Yaroslav, Russia, on March 6, 1937. Her father, a tractor driver and soldier with the Russian army, was killed in the Finnish War when Tereshkova was just two years old.

Her widowed mother was left to raise the family's three children alone on the meagre wages she earned working in a cotton mill. Manned spaceflight, for both women and men, is historically firmly rooted in the political need to best an adversary. Tereshkova took on the burden of helping her mother support the family when she was just 10. At the same time that she entered school, Tereshkova began working. She worked as a seamstress, an apprentice in a tire factory, and finally a loom operator, all while pursuing her education. In spite of the demanding responsibility she shouldered, Tereshkova successfully graduated from the Light Industry Technical School. She also learned to parachute jump as a member of the Yaroslavl Air Sports Club, making her first jump when she was 22. Having overcome a trying family situation to become one of the nation's first cosmonauts, Tereshkova was a perfect model for success under Communist rule. She was an ordinary girl who achieved greatness by working her way through the Soviet system. She was also nationalistic, outspoken in her desire to support the Communist party, and a member of the Young Communist League.

She was the female counterpart to Gagarin's poster-boy image and the perfect role model for young Soviet girls. When she launched in her Vostok 6 capsule that day in June, Tereshkova was proof that girls throughout the Soviet Union could reach the stars, something that seemed impossible for American girls at the time. A 19-year gap But neither Tereshkova's flight nor the selection of an all-female cosmonaut class ushered in an era of gender equality in spaceflight. Tereshkova's three-day joint orbital mission with male cosmonaut Valery Bykovsky , which turned out to be the last of the Vostok programme, was a propaganda move. For Korolev and the government officials controlling the Soviet space programme, putting a woman in space was merely a way for the nation to score another "first" over the United States. And while there were plans to launch more female cosmonauts during the 1960s, none ever came to fruition. The Voskhod and early Soyuz flight were all piloted by male cosmonauts. None of the other women from Tereshkova's all-female cosmonaut class ever flew in space.

The group was quietly dissolved in 1969. As though emphasising Tereshkova's flight as a propaganda move, it was 19 years before another woman would follow in her footsteps. And, interestingly, the second woman in space was another Soviet. On August 19, 1982, cosmonaut Svetlana Savitskaya launched as part of the Soyuz T-7 crew. She was followed less than a year later by Sally Ride who, on June 18, 1983, became the first American woman to fly in space, as part of the STS-7 crew. The situation surrounding her flight, of course, says nothing about Tereshkova as a parachutist, cosmonaut, or as a woman. Since flying in space she's worked as both a pilot and a research scientist, and she's also been an outspoken champion for women's rights. But she began her career and gained notoriety in a politically motivated flight. Which actually puts her firmly in the same category as her male counterparts, both Soviet cosmonauts and US astronauts.

Piloted spaceflight - for both women and men - is historically firmly rooted in the political need to best an adversary. Amy Shira Teitel has an academic background in the history of science and now works as a freelance science writer specialising in spaceflight history. She maintains her own blog, Vintage Space, and contributes regularly to Discovery News, Scientific American, Motherboard, DVICE. Source: Al Jazeera Cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova; 1st Woman in Space 50 Years Ago! Ready for Mars - Universe Today Universe Today Cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova; 1st Woman in Space 50 Years Ago! Ready for Mars Article Updated: 23 Dec , 2015 by Ken Kremer 50 Years ago today, Soviet Cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova made history and became the first woman ever fly in space, when she launched aboard the Vostok-6 capsule on June 16, 1963.

The then 26 year old Tereshkova blasted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome – following in the historic footsteps of Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin , the first human to fly in space for a single orbit in 1961. Her mission was far longer, lasting nearly 3 days (70 hours 50 minutes) for a total of 48 orbits of Earth at altitudes ranging from 180 to 230 kilometers (110 x 144 mi). She conducted biomedical & science experiments to learn about the effects of space on the human body, took photographs that helped identify aerosols in the atmosphere and manually piloted the ship. “Hey, sky! Take off your hat, I’m coming!” she said in the seconds prior to liftoff. Vostok-6 was her only space mission. First woman in space Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova is seen during a training session aboard a Vostok spacecraft simulator on January 17, 1964.

Credit: AFP Photo / RIA Novosti But today at age 76, Tereshkova is ready to forget retirement and sign up for a truly grand space adventure – a trip to Mars . “I am ready [to go to Mars ],” she said in remarks on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of her June 16, 1963 blastoff, according to Roscosmos, the Russian Federal Space Agency. Apparently Mars is her favorite planet ! “Of course, it’s a dream to go to Mars and find out whether there was life there or not,” Tereshkova said. “If there was, then why did it die out? What sort of catastrophe happened?” Valentina Tereshkova today at age 76 – ready for a Mission to Mars. Credit: RIA Novosti Tereshkova’s landmark flight on Vostok-6 was made ever more historic in that it was actually a joint space mission with Vostok-5; which blasted off barely two days earlier on June 14 with fellow Soviet cosmonaut Valery Bykovsky. Vostok-5 and Vostok-6 flew within 5 kilometers (3 miles) of one other at one point.

They spoke to each other by radio as well as with the legendary Soviet Premier Nikita Krushchev. Her call sign was “Seagull”. Bykovsky’s call sign was “Hawk”. Sergei Korolyov, the father of the Soviet space program, called her “my little seagull.” Korolev wanted to launch a woman to space to score another spectacular first for the Soviet Union at the height of the Cold War with the United States. So she had been selected as a member of the cosmonaut corps just a year earlier in March 1962 along with four other female candidates. Teseshkova was the only member of that female group ever to achieve orbit. Sergei Korolev, founder of the Soviet Space program, and Valentina Tereshkova. Credit: Roscosmos Tereshkova, a textile factory worker, was chosen in part because she was an expert parachute jumper – a key requirement at that time since the Vostok capsule itself could not land safely. So the cosmonauts had to eject in the last moments of the descent from orbit at about 7,000 m (23,000 ft) and descend separately via parachute.

It would take nearly two decades before another woman – also Soviet- would fly to space; Svetlana Savitskaya in 1982. The first American female space flyer – Sally Ride – finally reached orbit a year later in 1983 aboard the Space Shuttle. To date, woman comprise about 10% of the people who have flown to space -57 out of 534. Today, June 16, there are two women orbiting Earth out of 9 humans total – NASA Astronaut Karen Nyberg aboard the International Space Station and Chinese astronaut Wang Yaping aboard Shenzhou 10. Vostok-6 was the last of the Vostok spacecraft series. Bykovsky flew a total of 5 days and 82 orbits. He landed 3 hours after Tereshkova on June 19.

Tereshkova became an instant heroine upon landing, a ‘Hero of the Soviet Union’ and will forever be known as the ‘First Lady of Space.’ On June 14, Russian Television aired a special 50th anniversary program celebrating the flights of Vostok-5 and Vostok-6 – “Valentina Tereshkova – Seagull and the Hawk” And don’t forget to “Send Your Name to Mars” aboard NASA’s MAVEN orbiter- details here . Deadline: July 1, 2013 ……………. Learn more about Mars, Curiosity, Opportunity, MAVEN, LADEE and NASA missions at Ken’s upcoming lecture presentations June 23: “Send your Name to Mars on MAVEN” and “CIBER Astro Sat, LADEE Lunar & Antares Rocket Launches from Virginia”; Rodeway Inn, Chincoteague, VA, 8 PM Share this: By Ken Kremer - Dr.

Ken Kremer is a speaker, research scientist, freelance science journalist (Princeton, NJ) and photographer whose articles, space exploration images and Mars mosaics have appeared in magazines, books, websites and calendars including Astronomy Picture of the Day, NBC, FOX, BBC, SPACE.com, Spaceflight Now, Science and the covers of Aviation Week & Space Technology, Spaceflight and the Explorers Club magazines. Ken has presented at numerous educational institutions, civic & religious organizations, museums and astronomy clubs. Ken has reported first hand from the Kennedy Space Center, Cape Canaveral, NASA Wallops, NASA Michoud/Stennis/Langley and on over 70 launches including 8 shuttle launches. He lectures on both Human and Robotic spaceflight - Follow Ken on Facebook and Twitter World's First Woman To... - ODDEE World's First Woman To... 1 First Woman on Death Row to Die by Lethal Injection (1998) On February 3, 1998, Karla Faye Tucker became the first woman to be executed by lethal injection in the United States. She was convicted of murder in Texas in 1984 and put to death fourteen years later.

Because of her gender and her marriage to her prison minister, the Reverend Dana Lane Brown, she inspired an unusually large national and international movement advocating the commutation of her sentence to life imprisonment, a movement which included a few foreign government officials. According to the media, on Monday June 14, 1983, Tucker and her boyfriend Garrett entered Jerry Dean's home intending to steal a motorcycle. During the burglary, Tucker and Garrett entered Dean's bedroom. After both men fought, the blows from Garret caused the death of the house owner. Garrett left the bedroom again to continue loading Dean's motorcycle parts into his truck. Tucker was left in the room and noticed a woman who had hidden under the bed covers against the wall. The woman was Deborah Thornton. Upon discovering Thornton, Tucker grazed her shoulder with the pickaxe as Thornton and Tucker began to struggle. Tucker proceeded to hit Thornton repeatedly with the pickaxe and then embedded the axe in her heart. Tucker would later and testify that she experienced intense multiple orgasms with each blow of the pickaxe. The next morning, a co-worker of Dean's who had been waiting for a ride entered the apartment and discovered the victims' bodies.

An investigation led to the arrests of Tucker and Garrett. Although the death penalty was hardly ever sought for female defendants, Tucker, along with Garrett, was sentenced to death in late 1984. However, Garrett died in prison of liver disease in 1993. Tucker was executed by lethal injection on February 3, 1998. ( Source ) 2 First Woman to Scale Mount Everest with Prosthetic Legs (2013) On May 21, 2013, 26-year-old Arunima Sinha became the first woman in the world to conquer Mount Everest with prosthetic legs after she successfully climbed the world's highest peak. The achievement coincides with the 60th anniversary of the first conquest of the Mt. Everest by Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay on May 29, 1953. Arunima, an ex-volleyball player at the national level, was born in Uttar Pradesh, India, where she lost a leg in a railway accident in 2011 after she was shoved from a moving train by thieves. She reportedly attempted to fight them off as they tried stealing her purse.

However, Police disputed her version of the story; they said that she was either attempting suicide or had jumped out to evade arrest for travelling without a valid ticket. The fate of the case is unknown, but what is certainly true is that a passing train crushed her leg, forcing doctors to amputate below the knee to save her life. After a few months she was provided with a prosthetic leg. According to Arunima's words, she is now busy with plans to open a sports academy for poor and physically challenged children. For this purpose, she has already achieved a piece of land in the Unnao district in Uttar Pradesh. 3 First Woman to Become Pregnant After a Womb Transplant (2011) On August 9, 2011, a 21-year-old Turkish woman named Derya Sert, who was born without a uterus, became the first woman in history to have successful uterus transplant surgery. Mrs. Sert was born without a womb, a rare condition which affects around one in 5,000 women. However, her ovaries were healthy and she produced eggs, which doctors harvested before the womb transplant to create embryos that would be fertilized with sperm from her husband, Mustafa.

Doctors waited for 18 months before implanting an embryo into the transplanted womb to give the pregnancy the greatest possible chance of survival. On April 12, 2013, Akdeniz University announced that Derya Sert was pregnant. Unfortunately, on May 14, 2013, it was announced that Sert had terminated her pregnancy in its 8th week following a routine examination where doctors failed to detect a fetal heartbeat. Since then, other women have also been given a womb transplant, but Mrs. Sert was the first to become pregnant. ( Source ) 4 First Woman on the FBI's Most Wanted Terrorist List (2005) On May 2, 1973, 26-year-old Joanne Chesimard and a pair of accomplices were stopped by two troopers for a motor vehicle violation on the New Jersey Turnpike. At the time, Chesimard, a member of the violent revolutionary activist organization known as the Black Liberation Army, was wanted for her involvement in several felonies, including bank robbery.

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the Black Liberation Army was a radical left wing terror group that felt justified killing law enforcement officers. Throughout the ‘70s, this group conducted assaults on police stations and murdered police officers. Chesimard and her accomplices opened fire on the troopers. One officer was wounded, and his partner, Trooper Foerster, was shot and killed at point-blank range. One of Chesimard's accomplices was killed in the shoot-out and the other was arrested and remains in jail. Chesimard fled but was apprehended. In 1977, she was found guilty of first-degree murder, armed robbery, and other crimes and was sentenced to life in prison. Less than two years later, she escaped from prison and lived underground before surfacing in Cuba in 1984. She was granted asylum by Fidel Castro and she remains there to this day. Chesimard's escape from prison was well planned. Armed domestic terrorists gained entry into the facility, neutralized the guards, broke her out, and turned her over to a nearby getaway team.

Since May 2, 2005, the FBI has classified her as a domestic terrorist and is offering a $1 million reward for assistance in her capture. On May 2, 2013, the FBI added her to the Most Wanted Terrorist list and increased the reward for her capture to $2 million. Attempts to extradite her have resulted in letters to the Pope and a Congressional resolution. ( Source 1 | Source 2 ) 5 First Woman in Space (1963) On June 16, 1963, Valentina Vladimirovna Tereshkova, now a retired Soviet cosmonaut and engineer, became the first woman and civilian to fly in space after being selected from more than four hundred applicants and five finalists to pilot Vostok 6. Tereshkova was born on March 6, 1937 in the village of Maslennikovo in central Russia. She began school in 1945 at the age of eight, but left school in 1953 and continued her education by correspondence courses.

She became interested in parachuting at a young age, and trained in skydiving at the local Aeroclub, making her first jump at age 22 on May 21, 1959. At the time, she was employed as a textile worker in a local factory. On February 16, 1962, Valentina Tereshkova was selected to join the female cosmonaut corps. Training included weightless flights, isolation tests, centrifuge tests, rocket theory, spacecraft engineering, 120 parachute jumps, and pilot training in MiG-15UTI jet fighters. Tereshkova spent several months in intensive training, concluding with examinations in November 1962. Originally, it was intended that Tereshkova would launch first in Vostok 5, but this flight plan was altered in March 1963. Vostok 5 would now carry a male cosmonaut Valery Bykovsky, flying the joint mission with a woman aboard Vostok 6. On the morning of June 16, 1963, Tereshkova was dressed in a spacesuit and taken to the launch pad.

After a two-hour countdown, Vostok 6 launched faultlessly, and Tereshkova became the first woman in space. During her mission, she performed various tests on herself to collect data on the female body's reaction to spaceflight. Tereshkova experienced nausea and physical discomfort for much of the flight; she orbited the Earth 48 times and spent 2 days, 23 hours, and 12 minutes in space. In a single flight, she logged more flight time than the combined times of all American astronauts who had flown before that date. Tereshkova also maintained a flight log and took photographs of the horizon, which were later used to identify aerosol layers within the atmosphere. After her flight, Tereshkova studied at the Zhukovsky Air Force Academy and graduated with distinction as a cosmonaut engineer. In 1977, she earned a doctorate in engineering. After the dissolution of the first group of female cosmonauts in 1969, she became a well-known member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, holding various political offices. She remained politically active following the fall down of the Soviet Union and is still revered as a heroine in post-Soviet Russia.

In 2013, she volunteered to go on a one-way trip to Mars, if such a mission were to occur. ( Source ) 6 First Woman to Row Solo from Japan to Alaska (2013) On September 23, 2013, after 150 days and 3,750 miles at sea, 28-year-old British adventurer Sarah Outen became the first woman to row solo from Japan to Alaska. Outen left Choshi, in Japan, on April 27. It is part of her plan for a global trek by ocean rowing a shell, a kayak, and biking. Outen came within a half mile of the Alaskan shore before winds and currents started pushing her onto the rocks. Her support team decided that it was safer to tow her into Adak's small harbor. On the way, she battled dangerous seas, and her boat, Happy Socks, capsized five times. She also fought the psychological battle of being alone. In the last few days, she almost hit a cargo ship after her radar failed as she battled cold and increasing darkness. Outen also tweeted about whiteout fog and exhaustion-induced hallucinations in the final days.

The highlight was when a shark circled her as she rowed. But for Outen, who has a biology degree from Oxford University, seeing wildlife such as albatrosses and whales made up for all of the uncomfortable moments. Along the way, she also got engaged to her longtime girlfriend during a satellite phone call from the middle of the ocean. She had initially wanted to row from Japan to Canada, but the punishing weather caused a change of course to Alaska. Outen's first attempt at the crossing ended in 2012 when she and another ocean rower had to be rescued near Japan after their boats were badly damaged in a tropical storm. Before that, Outen became the youngest person and the first woman to row alone across the Indian Ocean in 2009, traveling from Australia to Mauritius. ( Source 1 | Source 2 ) 7 First Woman to Receive a University Degree (1678) On June 25, 1678, Elena Lucrezia Cornaro Piscopia, a Venetian philosopher of noble descent, became the first woman to receive a Doctor of Philosophy degree.

Elena Cornaro Piscopia was born in the Palazzo Loredan, in Venice, on June 5, 1646. At the age of seven, she began studying Latin and Greek under distinguished instructors, and soon became proficient in these languages. She also mastered Hebrew, Spanish, French, and Arabic, earning the title of "Oraculum Septilingue." Her later studies included mathematics, philosophy, and theology. In 1665, she earned the habit of a Benedictine Oblate without, however, becoming a nun. In compliance with her father's wishes, she entered the University of Padua, and after a brilliant course of study received the Doctorate in Philosophy. The degree was conferred on June 25, 1678 in the cathedral of Padua in the presence of the University authorities, the professors of all the faculties, the students, and most of the Venetian Senators, together with many invited guests from the Universities of Bologna, Perugia, Rome, and Naples. Elena was a member of various academies and was esteemed throughout Europe for her achievements and virtues. The last seven years of her life were devoted to study and charity.

She died of tuberculosis at Padua in 1684. She was buried in the church of Santa Giustina at Padua, and her statue was placed in the university. Her writings, published at Parma in 1688, include academic discourses, translations, and devotional treatises. In 1685, the University of Padua commissioned a medal to be struck in her honor. ( Source 1 | Source 2 ) 8 First Female Porno Superstar to Become a Vice-Presidential Candidate (2004) Marilyn Chambers was an American pornographic actress, exotic dancer, model, and actress who later become a vice-presidential candidate. She was best known for her 1972 hardcore film debut Behind the Green Door and her 1980 pornographic film Insatiable. Her daring adult film work earned her the title of the "first female porno superstar." Marilyn Ann Briggs was born on April 22, 1952 in Providence, Rhode Island, and from an early age she dreamed of becoming a movie superstar.

After participating in Behind the Green Door, which includes scenes featuring lesbian sex with six women and interracial sex with the African-American boxer Johnny Keyes, she became a star. Chambers wrote an autobiography, "My Story," in 1975, which was published by Warner Communications. She also wrote a sex advice column in the mid-to-late 1970s for Genesis magazine called "Private Chambers," and one for Club magazine throughout the 1980s called "State of the Nation." Although she had tried for several years to shed her image as a porn star, Chambers returned to the adult film industry with 1980's Insatiable. Chambers left the pornography business because of the increasing fear of AIDS. Near the end of her career, Chambers appeared primarily in independent films, including her last role in Solitaire. After the 80s, Chambers did not make much noise in the media, except for an occasional interview. Nonetheless, in the 2004 United States presidential election, Chambers ran for Vice President on the Personal Choice Party ticket, a libertarian political party.

Also, in the 2008 United States presidential election, she was again Charles Jay's running mate, this time as an alternate write-in candidate to his primary national Boston Tea Party. She died on April 12, 2009 from a cerebral hemorrhage and an aneurysm related to heart disease at her home in Santa Clarita, California. ( Source ) 9 First Woman to Bicycle Around the World (1895) On September 24, 1895, Annie “Londonderry” Cohen Kopchovsky became the first woman to bicycle around the world. Londonderry was born into a Jewish family in Riga in modern-day Latvia around 1870, and emigrated to the United States as a child. On June 25, 1894, Annie Cohen Kopchovsky, a young mother of three small children, stood before a crowd of 500 friends, family, suffragists, and curious onlookers at the Massachusetts State House. Then, declaring that she would circle the world, she climbed onto a 42-pound bicycle.

Having travelled from New York, she arrived in Le Havre, France on December 3, 1894. She traveled from Paris to Marseilles in two weeks to public acclaim. She steamed across the Mediterranean to Egypt, making short tours throughout Egypt, Jerusalem, and modern-day Yemen before sailing to Colombo and Singapore. Returning to the United States in San Francisco on March 23, 1895, she cycled to Los Angeles, then El Paso, and north to Denver where she arrived on August 12, 1895. She arrived in Boston on September 24, 15 months after she had left; one New York newspaper called it “the most extraordinary journey ever undertaken by a woman.” Her fame soon passed and she died in obscurity in 1947. Nonetheless, in 2007 a great-nephew of Annie's, Peter Zheutlin, published the book "Around the World on Two Wheels: Annie Londonderry's Extraordinary Ride." A documentary film entitled The New Woman - Annie "Londonderry" Kopchovsky was also produced by Gillian Klempner Willman of Spokeswoman Productions.

It premiered in April 2013. ( Source ) 10 First Woman to Have Plastic Surgery for Breast Augmentation (1962) In the spring of 1962, Timmie Jean Lindsey, a mother-of-six, became the first person in the world to undergo plastic surgery for breast augmentation by means of silicone implants in Houston, Texas. In two hours, she went from a B to a C cup in an operation that made history at Jefferson Davis Hospital in Houston, Texas. Besides claiming that her operation boosted her self-confidence, she also enjoyed the extra attention, thanks to the fact that she had never planned to have a breast augmentation. She had gone to the hospital to get a tattoo removed from her breasts, and it was then that doctors asked if she would consider volunteering for this first-of-its-kind operation. Fifty-one years later, Lindsey still had her original implants and reported general satisfaction with the procedure, despite pains and other concerns over the years. She never joined the groups of women (including several of her own relatives) who filed lawsuits about health problems associated with the implants, although she reported having experienced many of those problems.

( Source 1 | Source 2 ) From the Web Women in Space: An Overview of Female Astronauts and Cosmonauts Women in space - History of Female Astronauts written by: johnsinit•edited by: RC Davison •updated: 9/1/2009 The history of female astronauts starts years before Valentina Tereshkova from the Soviet Union became the first woman in space. Since then, many female astronauts achieved success in different space exploration programs. Just keep reading and find more details about women in space. slide 1 of 5 Meeting the Requirements Many people have a dream of walking in space some time. But becoming an astronaut is a very challenging job, as qualifying for the space program always was a serious and difficult task. The history of female astronauts clearly suggests that the female space program training was started way back in 1950. Many woman pilots, often the best in their class, were selected and trained to meet all the challenges. It was believed that females were smaller and lighter in weight than men, and hence were recommended the most.

slide 2 of 5 First to Be Considered The astronaut fitness test held in the early 1960s opened the gates to a lot of female astronauts and many of them started to believe that their dream of walking in space could really come true. Geraldine Cobb, in 1960, was the first woman who qualified for the astronaut fitness test. It was really unfortunate for her because in 1961 the women’s space program was cancelled by NASA for security reasons. But, this was not the end of female space exploration program as 1963 proved to be a historic year for female astronauts. slide 3 of 5 Start of an Era On June 16, 1963, Valentina Tereshkova, from the Soviet Union was honoured as the first woman in space . For nearly 20 years she remained the only woman "to reach the stars". But later the the process of "space feminization" started and to this date many female astronauts from different parts of world have achieved great success in various space exploration programs. slide 4 of 5 Other Women in Space The list is quite long, but here are few names that created history in the female astronaut world.

It started in 1963 when Valentina Tereshkova was selected as the first woman to go in space. It was approximately 20 years later when another Russian female astronaut, Svetlana Savitskaya, in 1982 was able to explore space quite successfully as the first woman to walk in space . She actually walked in space for almost 4 hours. Later in the same year, Sally Ride became the first American woman in space . Kathryn Sullivan, another American female astronaut was honoured in 1984 as the first American woman to walk in space . Since 1984 many women - such as Helen Sharman from Great Britain, Roberta Bondar from Canada, Chiaki Mukai from Japan - have been to orbit and contributed their part to the process of space exploration. slide 5 of 5 More to come In the next few articles we will present bios of notable women from different countries who have visited space. ◄ ● ● ● ● ● ► Women in Space - The History of Female Astronauts Space exploration is not only about Yuri Gagarin, John Glenn and Neil Armstrong.

Valentina Tereshkova was the first women in space, and since then many women have left the earth to reach orbit. This series is about those notable women, presenting their biographies and other interesting facts. Valentina Vladimirovna Tereshkova facts, information, pictures | Encyclopedia.com articles about Valentina Vladimirovna Tereshkova Maslennikovo, Russia Russian cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova was the first woman in space, orbiting the earth forty-eight times in Vostok VI in 1963. She orbited the Earth for almost three days, showing that women have the same ability in space as men. Later she toured the world promoting Soviet science and feminism. She also served on the Soviet Women's Committee and the Supreme Soviet Presidium (government committee). Early years Valentina Vladimirovna "Valya" Tereshkova was born on March 6, 1937, in the Volga River village of Maslennikovo. Her father, Vladimir Tereshkov, was a tractor driver.

He had been a Russian Army soldier during World War II (1939–45; a war fought mostly in Europe that pitted Great Britain , France , the United States , and the Soviet Union against Italy, Germany , and Japan ). He was killed during the war when Valentina was two. Her mother Elena Fyodorovna Tereshkova was a worker at the Krasny Perekop cotton mill. She single-handedly raised Valentina, her brother Vladimir, and her sister Ludmilla in economically trying conditions. Valentina helped her mother at home and was not able to begin school until she was ten. Tereshkova later moved to her grandmother's home in nearby Yaroslavl, where she worked as an apprentice at a tire factory in 1954. In 1955 she joined her mother and sister as a loom operator at the cotton mill. Meanwhile, she took correspondence courses (courses taught through the mail) and graduated from the Light Industry Technical School. An ardent communist (believer that there should be no private property), she joined the mill's Komsomol (Young Communist League) and soon advanced to the Communist Party.

Joins space program In 1959 Tereshkova joined the Yaroslavl Air Sports Club and became a skilled amateur (nonprofessional) parachutist. Inspired by the flight of Yuri Gagarin (1934–1968), the first man in space, she volunteered for the Soviet space program. Although she had no experience as a pilot, her achievement of 126 parachute jumps gained her a position as a cosmonaut (Russian astronaut) in 1961. At the time the Russian space program was looking for people with parachuting experience, because cosmonauts had to parachute from their capsules after they came back into Earth's atmosphere. Five candidates were chosen for a onetime woman-in-space flight. Tereshkova received a military rank in the Russian air force. She trained for eighteen months before becoming chief pilot of the Vostok VI. All candidates underwent a rigorous (difficult) course of training, which included tests to determine the effects of being alone for long periods, tests with machines made to create extreme gravity conditions, tests made to duplicate the zero gravity weightless conditions in space, and parachute jumps.

Admiring fellow cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin was quoted as saying, "It was hard for her to master rocket techniques, study spaceship designs and equipment, but she tackled the job stubbornly and devoted much of her own time to study, poring over books and notes in the evening." Into space At 12:30 p.m. on June 16, 1963, Junior Lieutenant Tereshkova became the first woman to be launched into space. Using her radio callsign (nickname) Chaika (Seagull), she reported, "I see the horizon. A light blue, a beautiful band. This is the Earth. How beautiful it is! All goes well." Tereshkova was later seen smiling on Soviet and European TV, pencil and logbook floating weightlessly before her face. Vostok VI made forty-eight orbits (1,200,000 miles) in 70 hours, 50 minutes, coming within 3.1 miles of the previously launched Vostok V, which was piloted by cosmonaut Valery Bykovsky. By comparison, the four American astronauts who had been in space before this flight had a combined total of thirty-six orbits.

Tereshkova's flight confirmed Soviet test results that women had the same resistance as men to the physical and psychological stresses of space. In fact, tests showed that women could actually tolerate G-forces (gravitational forces) better than men. Upon her return Tereshkova and Bykovsky were hailed in Moscow 's Red Square, a large plaza in Moscow used for official celebrations. On June 22 at the Kremlin she was named a Hero of the Soviet Union. Presidium Chairman Leonid Brezhnev (1906–1982) decorated her with the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star Medal. A symbol of the liberated Soviet woman, Tereshkova toured the world as a goodwill ambassador, promoting the equality of the sexes in the Soviet Union. She received a standing ovation at the United Nations. With Gagarin, she traveled to Cuba in October as a guest of the Cuban Women's Federation and then went to the International Aeronautical Federation Conference in Mexico. Unfortunately, Tereshkova and the other female Russian cosmonauts were not taken as seriously inside the Soviet Union as they were outside.

The Russians used the female cosmonauts for publicity purposes to show how women were treated equally in their country. In truth, however, they were never thought of as the equals of the "regular," that is, male, cosmonauts, and they never received the same quality of flight assignments. After Tereshkova's flight On November 3, 1963, Tereshkova married Soviet cosmonaut Colonel Andrian Nikolayev, who had orbited the earth sixty-four times in 1962 in the Vostok III. Their daughter, Yelena Adrianovna Nikolayeva, was born on June 8, 1964. Doctors, who were fearful of her parents' space exposure, carefully studied the girl, but no ill effects were found. Tereshkova, after her flight, continued as an aerospace engineer in the space program. She also worked in Soviet politics, feminism, and culture. She was a deputy to the Supreme Soviet between 1966 and 1989, and a people's deputy from 1989 to 1991.

Meanwhile, she was a member of the Supreme Soviet Presidium from 1974 to 1989. During the years from 1968 to 1987, she also served on the Soviet Women's Committee, becoming its head in 1977. Tereshkova headed the USSR 's International Cultural and Friendship Union from 1987 to 1991, and later chaired the Russian Association of International Cooperation. Tereshkova summarized her views on women and science in an article titled "Women in Space," which she wrote in 1970 for the American journal Impact of Science on Society. In that article she said, "I believe a woman should always remain a woman and nothing feminine should be alien to her. At the same time I strongly feel that no work done by a woman in the field of science or culture or whatever, however vigorous or demanding, can enter into conflict with her ancient 'wonderful mission'—to love, to be loved—and with her craving for the bliss of motherhood.

On the contrary, these two aspects of her life can complement each other perfectly." Valentina Tereshkova still serves as a model not only for the women of her native country, but for women throughout the world who wish to strive for new goals. For More Information Lothian, A. Valentina: First Woman in Space. Edinburgh : Pentland Press, 1993. O'Neill, Lois Decker. "Farthest Out of All: The First Woman in Space," in Women's Book of World Records and Achievements. Garden City, NY: Doubleday/Anchor Press, 1979, pp. 739–740. Sharpe, Mitchell R. "It Is I, Sea Gull": Valentina Tereshkova, First Woman in Space. New York : Crowell, 1975. Cite this article Pick a style below, and copy the text for your bibliography. MLA International Space Hall of Fame :: New Mexico Museum of Space History :: Inductee Profile Inducted in 1985 First woman in space.

Valentina Vladimirovna Tereshkova was born on March 6, 1937 in the village of Maslennikovo, near Yaroslavl in western Russia. Her father, a tractor driver before enlisting in the Red Army, was killed fighting the Nazis during World War II, leaving her mother to raise Valentina and two siblings. Tereshkova was not able to attend school until she was eight, and had to withdraw to work in the same textile plant as her mother when she was sixteen. Despite economic hardships, she continued her education through correspondence courses, and in 1959, began to parachute as a hobby. By 1961 Valentina Tereshkova had parachuted out of more than 125 aircraft. When Tereshkova and four other female cosmonauts were selected for the Soviet space program on March 12, 1962, she became the first cosmonaut recruit who lacked experience as a test pilot. Her selection was instead based on her parachuting skills (early Soviet craft had to be exited via parachute prior to landing) and propaganda values such as her proletarian background, and war hero father.

Tereshkova was assigned to be the pilot of the Vostok 6 mission. Her radio call sign was "Chaika," Russian for "seagull." Vostok 6 lifted off from Tyuratam Launch Center (now Baikanor Cosmodrome), Kazakhstan on June 16, 1963. It remained in space for nearly three days and orbited the Earth 48 times, giving Tereshkova more time in space than all of the American Mercury astronauts combined. Vostok 6 reentered the Earth's atmosphere on June 19, and Tereshkova parachuted to the ground, as all early cosmonauts had to do. She became a worldwide celebrity, as the first woman in space, and the first woman in orbit. Soviet Chief Designer Sergei Korolev, was reportedly unhappy with Tereshkova's performance and claimed she was "on the edge of psychological instability" during the flight. She later retorted, "I felt fine after 24 hours and asked the state commission to prolong my stay in space to three days. And I carried out the entire schedule.

Could I have done that if I had been half-dead?" Ultimately, it would be another nineteen years before another woman entered outer space (Svetlana Savitskaya, aboard Soyuz-T 7). In her one flight, Valentina Tereshkova spent a total of 2.95 days in space. Tereshkova and her fellow female cosmonauts were never an integral part of the cosmonaut corps nor were they treated on an equal basis with the male cosmonauts as the Soviet government prized them primarily for propaganda purposes. She was scheduled to command an all-female flight aboard a Voskhod spacecraft in 1965, but this was cancelled after the many problems identified with the Voskhod 2 mission in March 1965. The female cosmonaut program was disbanded in 1969, and it wasn't until the early 1980's that another female cosmonaut group was recruited, and that was in response to the United States training female astronauts for its Space Shuttle program.

After her flight, Valentina Tereshkova became a prominent member of the Communist Party and a representative of the Soviet government to numerous international women's organizations and events. In 1964, Tereshkova enrolled in the Zhukovskiy Military Air Academy, graduating with distinction five years later. She was also a member of the World Peace Council in 1966, a member of the Yaroslavl Supreme Soviet in 1967, and a member of the council of the Union of the Supreme Soviet from 1966 to 1974, when she was elected to the presidium of the Supreme Soviet in 1974. She was the Soviet representative to the UN Conference for the International Women's Year in Mexico City in 1975. Her other honors include the rank of deputy to the Supreme Soviet; membership in 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. With the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Tereshkova lost her political standing.

She left the space service with the rank of colonel-engineer on April 30, 1997, and is thought to have retired in Moscow. She is still revered as a Russian heroine, and to many of her countrymen her importance in Russian space history is second only to that of Yuri Gagarin and Alexei Leonov. Since her retirement from politics, she appears in public only rarely, usually at space-related events. Tereshkova Crater on the Moon and asteroid 1671 Seagull (her radio call sign) are named in her honor. Valentina Tereshkova quotes: "Once you've been in space, you appreciate how small and fragile the Earth is." "Again the pressure pushes me in the chair, shuts my eyes. I notice the dark red tongues of the flame outside the windows. I'm trying to memorize, fix all the feelings, the peculiarities of this descending, to tell those, who will be conquering space after me." "Anyone who has spent any time in space will love it for the rest of their lives. I achieved my childhood dream of the sky." "I would not say that female cosmonauts are not welcomed in the Russian space program.

I must say, however, that all spaceflight hardware, including spacesuits and spacecraft comfort assuring systems, were designed mostly by men and for men." "If women can be railroad workers in Russia, why can't they fly in space?" "They forbade me from flying, despite all my protests and arguments. After being once in space, I was desperately keen to go back there. But it didn't happen." © 2005- 2017 The New Mexico Museum of Space History , a Division of the New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs . Photographs not the property of the New Mexico Museum of Space History appear courtesy of NASA image archives.

New Mexico Museum of Space History | PO Box 5430 | Alamogordo, NM 88311-5430 575-437-2840/877-333-6589 Space Firsts Between 1957 - 1966 | NASA: Challenging the Space Frontier | Scholastic.com The world's first satellite, Sputnik (AP/Wide World) First Satellite to Orbit Earth October 4, 1957 The Soviet Union launches the first artificial satellite. Called Sputnik, a combination of words meaning "fellow-traveler of Earth," it weighs about 184 pounds. Sputnik circles the globe beeping radio signals, demonstrating that the Soviets have rockets that could send warheads anywhere on Earth. This event triggers the space race between the United States and the Soviet Union. Laika, the first animal in space (NASA) First Animal in Space November 3, 1957 The Soviet Union launches a female dog into space on Sputnik II. Her name is Laika, which means "barker" in Russian.

She lives for seven days, proving that animals (and presumably humans) can survive in space. There is no way to bring her back alive, so Laika is put to sleep. Sputnik II falls to Earth in April of the next year. Yuri Gagarin onboard Vostok 1 (UPI/Corbis/Bettmann) First Human in Space April 12, 1961 Riding on the Soviet Vostok 1, Yuri Gagarin becomes the first man in space. In case spaceflight caused Gagarin to behave strangely, the craft's controls were locked. There was a key onboard in a sealed envelope in case of emergency. Vostok 1 shook wildly during entry, but Gagarin did not use the key. Once he was low enough, he ejected and used a parachute. Alan Shepard in his pressure suit for the flight of Freedom 7 (NASA) First American in Space May 5, 1961 The United States sends astronaut Alan Shepard on a 15-minute, 28-second sub-orbital flight onboard Freedom 7. Three weeks later, on May 25, 1961, President John F.

Kennedy vows to send men to the moon and back before the end of the decade. First American to Orbit Earth February 20, 1962 John Glenn circles Earth three times in 4 hours and 56 minutes. In 1998, at age seventy-seven, John Glenn becomes the oldest person to fly in space, as part of the STS-95 space shuttle crew. Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman in space (AP/Wide World) First Woman in Space June 16, 1963 The Soviets launch Valentina Tereshkova on Vostok 6. She spends three days alone in space. Her spacecraft comes within three miles of Valeri Bykovsky in Vostok 5. This is first time two spacecraft pass this close together while in orbit. First Space Walk March 18, 1965 Cosmonaut Alexei Leonov takes the first space walk , a ten-minute tethered excursion outside Voshkod 2. On June 3, 1965, Edward White II is the first American to walk in space on Gemini 4. He stays out 22 minutes.

Question: Who was the first woman in space, a feat she achieved in June 1963?
Answer: (Valentina) TERESHKOVA