Valentina Tereshkova: A look at the world's first woman cosmonaut

A look at Valentina Tereshkova from the US publication "Man in Space" in 1974. We have edited and modernized the text. Tereshkova became the first woman in space on June 16, 1963.

On June 14, 1963, at 3:00 PM Moscow time, the Soviet Union launched cosmonaut Lt. Col. Valery F. Bykovsky into orbit aboard Vostok 5. This flight was not unexpected by western observers, since the Nikolayev Popovich double Vostok flight of ten months previous had shown the Soviets were continuing to expand their space capabilities. What was quite unexpected was the launch two days later, at 12:30 PM Moscow time on June 16, of Vostok 6. piloted by a remarkable woman, 26-year-old Valentina Vladimirovna Tereshkova.

Valentina’s moment of glory was a far cry from her childhood and one that only could have occurred in the USSR. Born on March 6, 1937. in the village of Maslennikovo near Yaroslavl, she and her brother and sister were raised in hardship by their mother after their father died in action early in World War ll. She was not able to start school until she was ten years old, and at seventeen was apprenticed to the Yaroslavl Tire Factor. She left a few months later to join her mother and sister at a textile mill. where she became a loom operator.

Her industrious nature soon asserted itself and she became very active in two fields which greatly affected her future: The Komsomol (the Young Communist League), and the unusual sport of parachuting. She pursued both activities avidly, and in 1960 was elected secretary of her Komsomol branch and received a first-class certificate as a parachutist after making more than 125 jumps.

As was everyone else, Valentina was thrilled by Yuri Gagarin's flight in April of 1961, and she audaciously wrote to the Soviet Academy of Sciences and volunteered to be a cosmonaut, citing her ability in parachuting. To her surprise, she was accepted, and a whole new world opened.

Her training began in March 1962. Gagarin, whom she at first tended to hero-worship a bit, was extremely impressed by her dedication, physical stamina, and long hours of study.

Apprehension shows on the day of her flight, but once in orbit she becomes ecstatic 'I see the horizon,'’ she reports during her first orbit, “a light blue, a blue band. How beautiful it is!'’

Her dual flight with Bykovsky continues for three days, the two Vostoks once approaching within three miles of each other on June 17. Shortly before 11 :00 AM Moscow time on June 19, Valentina begins her re-entry.

When into the lower atmosphere, she ejects from the capsule and parachutes down, landing safely at 11:20 AM. Her landing spot is in Kazakhstan, near a small village 380 miles northeast of Karaganda. Naturally all work stops as the excited villagers gather around their visitor.

Valentina’s 48 orbit flight has lasted 70 hours and 50 minutes, the longest completed space flight. Her record does not last long, however, for less than three hours later Bykovsky also lands safely about 330 miles northwest of Karaganda, having completed 82 orbits.

The two are reunited the following day, and on June 22 a massive celebration is held in Moscow’s Red Square to honor them.

Appearing a little like a rose among thorns, Valentina is the center of attention on this occasion, as she laughingly accepts the tributes of her fellow cosmonauts in the place of honor atop Lenin’s tomb. The pilot of every Vostok is here (from left) Popovich, Nikolayev, Titov, Valentina, Gagarin. and Bykovsky. Valentina is greeted warmly by Premier Khrushchev who takes the opportunity to twit America for its bourgeois notion that woman is the "weaker sex". Indeed, as he points out, her flight was longer than those of all the Project Mercury astronauts combined.

On the same day, she is awarded her nation's highest honor by being proclaimed a Hero of the Soviet Union, and from Leonid Brezhnev. Chairman of the Presidium, she and Bykovsky receive the Gold Star medal and the Order of Lenin, both traditionally awarded to returning cosmonauts.

A few days later she holds her own press conference in the House of Unions’ Hall of Columns in Moscow for delegates of the World Women’s Congress, at which she is joined again by her space partner, Bykovsky. She handles her worldwide acclaim with a delightful modesty. Though she holds the military rank of junior Lieutenant, in public she invariably wears civilian dress rather than a military uniform.

On November 3, 1963, Valentina marries Andriyan Nikolayev, and the two cosmonauts later become the proud parents of a daughter, Alyona, born on June 8 1964. This child of two space travelers ends the speculation that human sterility may result from exposure to radiation in space.