Tereshkova, Valentina

Valentina Tereshkova, in full Valentina Vladimirovna Tereshkova, (born March 6, 1937, Maslennikovo, Russia, U.S.S.R.), Soviet cosmonaut, the first woman to travel into space. On June 16, 1963, she was launched in the spacecraft Vostok 6, which completed 48 orbits in 71 hours. In space at the same time was Valery F. Bykovsky, who had been launched two days earlier in Vostok 5; both landed on June 19.

Valentina Tereshkova

Although she had no pilot training, Tereshkova was an accomplished amateur parachutist and on this basis was accepted for the cosmonaut program when she volunteered in 1961. She left the program just after her flight, and on November 3, 1963, she married Andriyan G. Nikolayev, another cosmonaut. From 1966 until 1991 she was an active member in the U.S.S.R. Supreme Soviet. She directed the Soviet Women’s Committee in 1968, and from 1974 to 1991 she served as a member of the Supreme Soviet Presidium. In 2008 Tereshkova became the deputy chair of the parliament of Yaroslavl province as a member of the United Russia party. Three years later she was elected to the Duma. Tereshkova was named a Hero of the Soviet Union and was twice awarded the Order of Lenin.

As part of the Artemis space program, launched in 2017, NASA aims not only to return humans to the Moon by 2025, with the goal of establishing a sustainable presence there and on other planets, but to land the first woman and first person of colour on the Moon, and that woman may be Jessica Meir. Tereshkova’  pioneering career, along with the feats of Sally Ride (the first American woman to travel into outer space) and Mae Jemison (the first African American woman to become an astronaut) helped pave the way for these future ventures in exploration.