ON THIS DAY: 16 June 1963 – Valentina Vladimirovna Tereshkova became the first woman in space when she launched aboard the spacecraft Vostok 6.
Born in 1937 in the village of Maslennikovo, in what is now Russia, Tereshkova came from a working-class family. Her father, a tractor driver, was killed during the Soviet-Finnish War. She left school at a young age and worked in a textile factory.
What made her stand out was her passion for parachuting. By her early twenties, she had completed dozens of jumps. This proved crucial, as Soviet Vostok cosmonauts had to eject from their spacecraft before landing and descend separately by parachute.
In the early 1960s, following Yuri Gagarin’s historic flight on 12 April 1961, the Soviet Union sought another dramatic “space first”. Determined to send a woman into space before the United States, officials considered more than 400 candidates.
Tereshkova was chosen not because she was a pilot—she wasn’t—but because of her extensive parachuting experience, physical fitness, working-class background, and strong performance in training. She underwent the same rigorous preparation as male cosmonauts, including centrifuge tests, isolation chambers, weightlessness flights, and spacecraft training.
During her mission she spent nearly three days in orbit and completed 48 circuits of Earth.
Years later, she revealed that a programming error in the spacecraft’s guidance system would have caused it to move away from Earth rather than return. After she reported the problem, engineers provided corrective data. She also suffered from nausea and discomfort during the flight, as many early astronauts and cosmonauts did, yet she completed the mission successfully.
The flight made Tereshkova an international celebrity and a powerful symbol of Soviet achievement. She travelled the world representing the Soviet Union at diplomatic events, conferences, and celebrations, although she never flew in space again.
Tereshkova married fellow cosmonaut Andriyan Nikolayev in 1963; the couple later divorced. She remained active in the cosmonaut corps for many years and eventually became a Major General, cementing her place as one of the pioneers of human spaceflight. Tereshkova lives in Russia and in 2026 is 89 years old.