A brave spirit paves her own way
Valentina Tereshkova grew up on a farm in the Soviet Union. From a young age, it was clear that her brave spirit was destined for far-flung adventures. While studying correspondence at an Industrial School in her teens, she joined an extracurricular skydiving club. Little did she know that this was her ticket to space. By age 18, she had racked up 150 jumps and was deemed an expert parachuter.
After cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human to orbit the Earth on April 12, 1961, Valentina was determined to pave her own way to the same destiny. Though she had no piloting experience, she was not deterred from writing a letter to the Soviet Space Program, volunteering for the cosmonaut team. Thanks to her expertise in parachuting, she was deemed qualified for the job.
Learning to fly in Star City
Just two months later, in December of 1961, Soviet space officials invited her to Moscow for an interview and medical examination. By March of 1962, she was already training for space travel at the Soviet Space Center in Star City. She spent the rest of the year learning to pilot as a junior lieutenant in the Soviet Air Force, alongside three other women cosmonauts-in-training.
Making history in her daring way
On June 16 1963, Cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman to fly to space. She manually flew the Vostok 6 spacecraft as she orbited the Earth once every 88 minutes. After 71 hours and 48 orbits, Valentina re-entered the atmosphere. Once she reached a height of about 4 miles above the Earth’s surface, she ejected herself from the spacecraft and parachuted safely to a landing in central Asia.
A continuing legacy
After her experience in space, Valentina dedicated much of her life to international affairs and humanitarian work for which she was awarded the Russian National Award.
Since her flight in 1963, 39 other women, out of a total of ~570 humans, have been to space. Now that private spaceflight is a reality, and philanthropic efforts are underway to diversify access to space, we hope to see that number increase exponentially.
At age 83, still driven by her deep desire to discover whether or not life ever existed on Mars, Valentina has volunteered for a one-way ticket to the red planet.
