Most people know about the first man in space, the first man on the moon and even the first satellite to orbit the earth; but not many know the first woman to venture into space: Valentina Tereshkova.
And if you do know this brave pioneering soul, then have a read on as we uncover her fascinating life in an easy-to-read, interesting blog!
You’ll find that Valentina Tereshkova achieved a whole lot more than just reaching space, orbiting the earth and returning unharmed.
Early Life
Born Valentina Vladimirovna Tereshkova on the 6th of March 1937 in the village of Bolshoye Maslennikovo on the mighty Volga River, Valentina’s parents were Belarusian immigrants to the region.
Her father, Vladimir Tereshkova, was a tractor driver until the outbreak of the Second World War when he became a tank commander, achieving the rank of sergeant. Unfortunately, Vladimir would be killed in the Winter War (Finish War) when Valentina was only two years old.
Her mother, Elena Fyodorovna Tereshkova, had the difficult task of raising three children alone; Valentina, her sister Ludmilla and her brother Vladimir.
To make ends meet, Elena relocated the family to the city Yaroslavl northeast of Moscow. Whilst in Yaroslavl, she found work at the Krasny Perekop Cotton Mill.
As times were hard and Valentina was needed to help out at home, she didn’t attend school until she was around ten years old. Once Valentina reached 17, she had to give up her education and began working at the cotton mill.
All Was Not Lost
As was common throughout the Soviet Union and other communist countries, continued education was encouraged alongside employment and Valentina revived her tutelage through correspondence courses.
As well as working to help her family and continuing her study, at the age of 22, Valentina had the opportunity to attend parachute school, which she did without telling her family.
This interest and knowledge would stand her in good stead for her future career amongst the stars.
Race to the Stars
Valentina continued her life unaware of the space race buildup of the 1950s as the two superpowers, the Soviet Union and the United States, fought a war of science.
Strike one went to the Soviet Union as on the 4th of October 1957 the glistening sphere of Sputnik was launched, its rhythmic pings filling one part of the world with joy and the other with dread.
The space race was well and truly on as each country raced to launch animals, men and women.
Next up was Laika, the Soviet space dog, a stray picked from the streets of Moscow. Although Laika’s time in space would be brief with no chance of a return, she would prove to the world life could be sustained past lift-off.
Following Laika, and other creatures, on the 12th of April 1961, Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin would be the first to break earth’s atmosphere and reach for the stars atop a rocket riding Vostok 1.
Whilst all of this was taking place, plans were afoot to find and train the world’s first female cosmonaut. Being the Soviet Union, background and training were not all that important to begin with.
1 in 400
After Gagarin’s epic journey in 1961, the director of cosmonaut training, Nikolai Kamanin, had read in the media that The United States had already begun training female astronauts for space travel. Horrified at the fought off the US beating the Soviet Union, Kamanin decided to find suitable candidates, so the search was on.
It was decided that five women would be selected for cosmonaut training, which would begin in 1963.
The criteria used for selection stated that the preferred candidate should be a parachutist, under 30 years of age, with a height of less than 170 cm (5 ft 7 in), and weigh no more than 70 kg (154 lb).
In January 1962, 400 women were selected, which was whittled down to the five hopefuls, including Valentina Vladimirovna Tereshkova.
The training was fast-tracked to ensure that one of Kamanin’s recruits be sent on an upcoming space flight, and the five hopefuls began their training before the men. The new cadets had no military training, so they would enter as cadets following an arduous training program that involved isolation tests, centrifuge tests, thermo-chamber tests, decompression chamber testing, underwent water recovery training and even pilot training in MiG-15 jet fighters.
Tereshkova would also study at the prestigious Zhukovsky Air Force Engineering Academy, of which she graduated a few years after her famed flight. As the time approached, it was decided that Valentina would be the best of the five.
Into Space & The History Books
The 16th of June 1963 was the date when Valentina Tereshkova had her flight with destiny aboard Vostok 6.
Vostok 5 left the earth’s atmosphere on the 14th of June, carrying Valery Bykovsky; just two days later, Valentina Tereshkova, under the callsign Chaika (Seagull), would blast off from Baikonur in present-day Kazakhstan, breaking free from earth’s hold at 09:29 AM.
As she began to orbit the earth, images were beamed back live from a camera in the capsule. Valentina also chatted with Premier Nikita Khrushchev over the radio.
Not everything was plain sailing however, early on in the flight, Tereshkova picked up an error with the Vostok auto navigation system, which would have made the capsule gradually spiral away from the earth and not towards it. The flaw was reported to Sergey Korolev (the craft’s designer and head of the Soviet space program), and the mistake was rectified with the help of Yuri Gagarin.
Whilst in space, Valentina spent two days, 22 hours, and 50 mins in orbit, circling the earth 48 times.
Upon her return into earth’s atmosphere, Tereshkova ejected from the Vostok capsule around four miles up and parachuted back to earth. She landed 620 km northeast of Karaganda in the Kazakh SSR.
Once back on solid ground, Valentina was greeted by local farmers, who asked if she had seen god. While awaiting the ground crew to pick her up, Valentina shared some of her food rations and accepted a dinner invite.
Once the world caught up with the news of Valentina Tereshkova, she would have a lot more than her two minutes of fame.
Life on Earth
The journey on Vostok 6 would be Valentina’s first and only flight into space as Sergei Korolev would pass away in 1966, meaning an end to the woman’s space program.
Yuri Gagarin would also die, the tragic tragic result of a plane accident, meaning that the Soviet Union wanted to keep its newest star safe and well for further propaganda.
Valentina would not fade out of the limelight after proving to the world that a woman could do anything a man could do and more.
She would make 42 trips overseas in just seven years; she would meet world leaders, officials, kings and queens, including Queen Elizabeth II and Fidel Castro.
Back at home in the motherland, Valentina Tereshkova finally graduated with honours from the Zhukovsky Air Force Engineering Academy as well as heading the Soviet Women’s Committee.
During her 19 years in charge of the Soviet Women’s Committee, Valentina would make an outstanding contribution to the plight of women’s rights.
Although she was never to fly to space again, Tereshkova continued working within the airforce as an instructor and test pilot; in 1997, upon reaching her 60th birthday, she retired and was given the position of research scientist at the same training centre.
Following her air force career, Valentina Tereshkova was elected to the state Duma where she still works as a member of the committee for international affairs.
Personal Life
Upon returning to earth, Valentina married fellow cosmonaut Andriyan Nikolayev on 3rd November 1963. Just one year after her becoming the mother of space exploration, Valentina gave birth and became a mother to Elena Andrianovna Nikolaeva-Tereshkova.
Elena was to be the first child born to two parents who had journeyed to space; upon her birth, she was the source of much speculation and rumour, all of which proved false, she would go on to become a physician.
Although they had the fairy tale start to their married life, with even Nikita Krushov in attendance, the romance wasn’t to last, and in 1982 Tereshkova and Nikolayev’s divorce was finalized.
The same year Valentina married Yuli Shaposhnikov, a former surgeon she had met years prior; this would last until Yuli’s unfortunate death in 1999.
These days Valentina Tereshkova, in her 80s, has shyed away from the public eye, although she still splits her time between her job in government and being a grandmother.
Fun Facts
When Valentina Tereshkova headed to the stars, the flight was so top secret that even her mother didn’t know; she had thought that Valentina was attending a skydiving course until her daughter appeared on television.
A sign of the amount of respect Valentina still holds in present-day Russia is evident when on her 70th birthday, President Putin invited her to celebrate with him.
A lunar crater has been named after Valentina, a rare occurrence as most craters are named once a person passes away. Aside from the crater, there is also a small planet, monuments, schools, streets, museums and a city square named and constructed in her honour. Aside from all of the things named after Valentina, she has been the recipient of numerous awards, honorary citizenships and degrees.
The village of Bolshoye Maslennikovo, where Valentina Tereshkova was born these days, is mostly home to summer cottages with only one resident living there year-round.
The Vostok 6 spacecraft still travels, making its way to various countries museums; Valentina still loving refers to it as “my lovely one” and “my best and most beautiful friend – my best and most beautiful man.” And as for her callsign Chaika (Seagull), she still doesn’t mind people using it and even has a weather vein atop her house in the shape of a seagull.
As for all of the competing and propaganda from the United States and the Soviet Union during the cold war, it would be another 19 years until the second woman, Svetlana Savitskaya (another Soviet!), flew into space.