Valentina Tereshkova Biography

Valentina Tereshkova was the first woman to ever be in space.

In 1957 the Cold War moved from the ground into the stars when the Soviet Union sent the first-ever satellite into space. Americans grew fearful at the prospect of the USSR having control of space thus the Space Race began.

The USSR has been winning so far by sending the first man into space but instead of just taking the win they go one step further, they send the first-ever woman into space. Her name is Valentina Tereshkova. She was born on March 6th, 1937 in Maslenikovo, USSR. Her family was middle to lower class with her father being a tractor driver and her mother a textile factory worker. Her father, Vladimir Tereshkova, died when Valentina was only 2 years old. Her mother, Elena Fyodorovna Tereschkova, had to take care of all three children by herself forcing her to work even more hours in the factory. Money was tight and even though Valentina didn’t start school until she was 8, he was made to leave school at 16 because she had to work in the textile plant for more money. She did continue the necessary coursework through correspondence courses. Around this time Valentina grew interested in parachuting and joined the Yaroslavl Air Sports Club. Valentina was never a pilot, but because of her ability to parachute jump, she completed 126 jumps and was accepted into the Soviet Space program.

The Soviet Space Program was the name of the space program for all of the USSR. The mission Valentina was picked for was Vostok 6. Along with 4 other women Valentina was put through 18 months of training. This included tests to see how she would react to high levels of stress, isolation, and extreme gravity conditions such as zero gravity. Of those 5 women, only Valentina was chosen to pilot Vostok and fly into space. This was a dual mission, Valentina would be alone in her spacecraft and would launch two days after Vostok 5, they would have different paths but would meet within 3miles of each other and share communications. At age 26, Valentina spent a total of 70.8 hours in space, 3 days. The first spaceman, Yuri Gargarin, had only orbited the earth once but Valentina orbited it a total of 48 times. This mission could have easily wound up in tragedy. There was an error in the spacecraft’s automatic navigation software which leads to it moving away from Earth, opposite of what was meant to occur. Thankfully Valentina noticed this and notified the Soviet scientists quickly allowing them to develop a new landing algorithm. Her landing was safe, only ending with her getting a bruise. She landed in the Altay region near today’s Kazakhstan-Mongolian-China border. The villagers helped her out of the spacecraft and suit and then invited her for dinner. She accepted but was later reprimanded for not undergoing medical testing first.

After this mission, she never flew in space again. She graduated from Zhukoshy Military Air Academy in 1969 with a doctorate in technical sciences and became a test pilot and instructor. She became a major representative of the USSR in numerous events and an important member of the communist party. Vladimir Putin even invited her to celebrate her 70th birthday with him. Other than her experiences with space, Valentina has been married twice. The first was rumored to be pressured by Nikita Krushchev because he saw a propaganda advantage for pairing two single cosmonauts together. This led to Valentina getting married in 1963 to Adrian Nikolayvev, a fellow cosmonaut, and having a daughter named Elena. She was subjected to medical examinations and became a point of interest to scientists as she was the first to be born to two parents who were exposed to space. This marriage didn’t last though and she remarried to a man named Yully Shaposhnikov who was a surgeon. Sadly he died in 1999, but despite that their marriage was a happy one.

Valentina was the first woman in space and helped close the divide between the expectations of women and men. She received many honors for her role in this; pictured on postage stamps, an Order of Lenin, multiple Certificates of Appreciation from the government of the Russian Federation, a Gold Space Medal, a Hero of the Soviet Union, and so many more. Both for her space exploration and her humanitarian actions. Valentina deserves them all because Valentina Tereshkova was the first woman in space and made history.