Valentina Tereshkova was born to a peasant family in Maslennikovo, Russia, on March 6, 1937. Her father worked as a tractor diver, while her mother Valentia Vladimirovna Tereshkova, worked in a textile factory. During her earlier years as a child, she received little to no formal education. She had worked at the textile factory that her mom worked in at only 18 years old. During World War ll trajectory her father died.
Tereshkova’s life had changed course when she was 22 years old she had made her first parachute jump with a local aviation club. At Yaroslvl Air Sports Club she would go on to make over 150 jumps, her passion for skydiving brought her attention to the Soviet space program. In April, 1961the program was launched. Yuri Gagarin was the first human in space and the Soviet Chief Designer Sergey followed this by flying the first woman into space. In 1962, a Soviet space delegate visited the U.S. and came with the impression that they were in the possess of selecting a female astronaut to go to space.
Up until this point, many astronauts from the U.S. and Soviet Union were all selected from pools of military jet pilots, and from 1950 to 1960 they were exclusively male. On February 1962 five women were selected from 400 applicants to join the cosmonaut corps. They underwent fierce training and only four passed the examinations in November 1962.
The Soviet Union planned to launch two women into space in late 1962, but the missions were delayed. In March 1963, it was decided that a male cosmonaut would fly Vostok 5 a different spacecraft but in the same flight mission as the Vostok 6 capsule, which Tereshkova would crew.
During the flight, Tereshkova would communicate with Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev, by radio, and her image was broadcast across the Soviet Union. Tereshkova kept detailed logs of the mission and collected data regarding her body’s reaction to spaceflight. Also, the first female cosmonaut captured images of Earth.
On June 19, 1963, Vostok 6 reentered Earth and Tereshkova ejected at an altitude of 20,000 feet and parachuted back to Earth. Vostok 5 would safely return to Earth just a few hours later. Later the female cosmonaut group was disbanded and Tereshkova would never return to space ever again.
Valentina Tereshkova was born in Maslennikovo, Russia, on March 6, 1937, to a peasant family. Her father worked as a tractor driver and her mother worked in a textile factory. During her early years, she received little to no education. Even so, she still became one of the most influential women ever to exist. Her life has shown people that with enough passion and hard work, you can accomplish anything.
