Born: 6 March 1937, Russia
Died: NA
Country most active: Russia
Also known as: Valentina Nikolayeva-Tereshkova
The following is republished from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. This piece falls under under public domain, as copyright does not apply to “any work of the U.S. Government” where “a work prepared by an officer or employee of the U.S. Government as part of that person’s official duties” (See, 17 U.S.C. §§ 101, 105).
Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova was born in the Yaroslavl Region of Russia on March 6, 1937. She was the second born of three children. Her father was a tractor driver and her mother worked in a textile plant. Valentina began school in 1945 at the age of eight. In 1953, she left school and began working. She continued her education by correspondence courses.
Valentina became interested in parachute jumping at an early age. It was her expertise in parachute jumping that led to her selection as a cosmonaut. Tereshkova was a textile-factory assembly worker and an amateur parachutist when she was recruited into the cosmonaut program. Under the direction of Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev, four women were selected to be trained for a special woman-in-space program. Of the four women selected, only Valentina Tereshkova completed a space mission.
Tereshkova was launched aboard Vostok 6 on June 16, 1963 and became the first woman to fly in space. During the 70.8 hour flight, Vostok 6 made 48 orbits of Earth. Upon completion of her mission, Tereshkova was honored with the title Hero of the Soviet Union. She never flew again, but she did become a spokesperson for the Soviet Union. While fulfilling this role, she received the United Nations Gold Medal of Peace.
On November 3, 1963, Tereshkova married astronaut Andrian Nikolayev. Their first child, a daughter named Elena, was a subject of medical interest because she was the first child born to parents who had both been exposed to space. Elena later went on to become a medical doctor. Tereshkova and Nikolayev divorced in 1980.
The following was written by AR for iFeminist and is republished with permission.
A hero of the Soviet Union, member of the World Peace Council, advocate for gender equality, and the first woman to ever go to space, Valentina Tereshkova’s achievements never seem to end. Valentina Tereshkova is a brave and fearless woman who deserves recognition for her timeless achievements.
Valentina Tereshkova was born on March 6th, 1937, in Bolshoye Maslennikovo, a village located in the federal subject of Yaroslavl Oblast, Russia. Tereshkova was one of three children to Belarus immigrants Vladimir Tereshkov and Elena Fyodorovna Tereshkova. Her father, Vladimir Tereshkov, died when she was two years old during the Finnish Winter War in World War II.
Valentina Tereshkova grew up with a single mother, and as such, didn’t have the means to start school until she was ten years old. She graduated when she was seventeen and soon after, began to work at a tire factory and a textile mill. She continued her education concurrent to these jobs at the Light Industry Technical School, where she graduated in 1960. Though she was employed as a textile worker, Tereshkova had a passion for skydiving. A love that was secret from her family, Tereshkova made her first jump at age 22 at the local Aeroclub in 1959.
Tereshkova’s talent, skill, and background as a parachutist made her the perfect candidate for the Soviet Union’s mission to find their first female cosmonaut. Tereshkova was selected by the All-Union Voluntary Society for Assistance to the Army, Air Force and Navy along with 400 other females as potential cosmonauts. Out of the 400 women, only 58 made the requirements of the initial screening. That number was later reduced to 23. On February 16, 1962, Valentina Tereshkova was one of five females chosen to fly to space.
Without any formal military training, Tereshkova and the four other women needed to become privates in the Soviet Air Force. They received training to deal with isolation and centrifugal forces and tested themselves in thermo and depression chambers. They also learned how to fly MiG-15UTI fighter planes and underwent water recovery training in the ocean. After several months of rigorous training, Tereshkova and the other female cosmonauts were offered the choice to become regular Air Force Officers. With the urging of male cosmonauts, all the women accepted. Tereshkova and her fellow female cosmonauts all became junior lieutenants in December 1962.
Valentina Tereshkova was chosen to fly the Vostok 6, and on June 16th, 1963, became the first woman to travel to space. Along with being the first woman in space, she is thus far the youngest woman to have been in space (26 years old) and the only woman to do a solo flight. Her flight was longer than all the combined hours of American astronauts before that time as well (2 days, 22 hours, 50 minutes in space). Upon reentering Earth’s atmosphere, she crash-landed in the Altai Krai federal subject and had dinner with the villagers.
Unfortunately, her first space flight would also be her last. Though she still desired to return to space and pursue engineering, the Soviet space program couldn’t afford to lose another hero after the loss of the first man in space, Yuri Gagarin. Consequently, she was forced into a career in politics. After her historic flight, the Soviet Union made Valentina Tereshkova somewhat of a representative for their country. She received mail, telegrams, and letters from people around the world. She made 42 trips abroad in just 7 years after the launch. She met Fidel Castro, the Queen of England, and only took a two-month break to give birth and tend to her daughter, Elena. Valentina Tereshkova was awarded the Order of Lenin and Hero of the Soviet Union (outstanding service to the State), she became a member of the World Peace Council, Yaroslavl Soviet, and became the Soviet representative and leader of many Soviet delegations of many women’s conferences. She graduated from the Zhukovsky Air Force Engineering Academy with a doctorate in aeronautical engineering in 1977.
Valentina Tereshkova got married only a couple of months after her flight to fellow cosmonaut Andriyan Nikolayev in 1963. Nikita Krushchev, the Premier of the Soviet Union during that time, presided over the wedding, which was attended by top government officials and fellow cosmonauts and members of the space program. A year later, she gave birth to her daughter Elena, the first person to have both parents be astronauts. Tereshkova had a falling out with Nikolayev later in their marriage and they separated officially in 1982, even though she claimed the marriage ended in 1977. The separation wasn’t amicable; the two refused to stand next to each other for photos and avoided each other at all cost. Tereshkova remarried to Yuli Shaposhnikov soon after the divorce was made official and remained married to him until he died in 1999.
Currently, Valentina Tereshkova serves on the Russian State Duma, the lower house of the Russian legislature. She is an honorary general in the Russian Air Force and an unofficial representative even now for Russia. A feminist, a mother, and an inspiration, Valentina Tereshkova continues to achieve incredible things.