Daily LIFT #1657

Vostok 5 & Vostok 6 stamp, People's Republic of Bulgaria 1963 -- Daily LIFT #1657

On June 14, 1963, the USSR launched Vostok 5 with cosmonaut Valery Bykovsky aboard. Two days later, on June 16, 1963, Vostok 6 was launched, carrying the first woman in space, Valentina Tereshkova. These launches were part of a joint mission where the two spacecraft approached each other in orbit. They cam with 3 miles of each other allowing the two cosmonauts to briefly communicate with each other.