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Valentina Vladimirovna Tereshkova
(lang-ru|Валент
;и́на
Влади́м&#
1080;ровна
Терешко&
#769;ва; born March 6, 1937), is a
retired Soviet Union|Soviet astronaut|cosmonaut
and was the first woman to fly in outer
space|space, aboard Vostok 6 in 1963.

She was born in Maslennikovo, a small village in
the Yaroslavl Oblast. After school she worked in a
tire factory, and then studied engineering. She
also trained in parachuting at the local Aeroclub.
In 1962 she was selected to join the female
cosmonaut corps. Out of more than four hundred
applicants, five were selected: Tatiana
Kuznetsova, Irina Solov'yova, Zhanna Yerkina,
Valentina Ponomareva, and Tereshkova. Tereshkova
was considered a particularly worthy candidate,
thanks in part to her "proletarian" background,
and also because her father had died as a war hero
fighting the Nazis.

On June 16, 1963 she flew on Vostok 6, and became
the first woman and first civilian to fly into
space. Her call sign in this flight was Chayka
(English language|English: Seagull;
lang-ru|Ча́йка
). Even though there were plans for further female
flights it took 19 years until the second woman,
Svetlana Savitskaya flew into space. None of the
other four in Tereshkova's cosmonaut group ever
flew. 

After her flight she studied at the Zhukovski Air
Force Academy, and graduated as cosmonaut engineer
in 1969. The same year, the female cosmonaut group
was dissolved. In 1977 she received a doctorate of
engineering. Due to her prominence she was chosen
for several political positions: From 1966 to 1974
she was a member of the Supreme Soviet, from 1974
to 1989 in the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet,
from 1969 to 1991 she was in the Central Committee
of the CPSU|Central Committee of the Communist
Party. In 1997 she was retired from the VVS|air
force and the cosmonaut corps by presidential
order.

On November 3 1963 she married fellow cosmonaut
Andrian Nikolayev (1929–2004) and gave birth
to their daughter Elena in 1964, who is now a
doctor. They divorced in 1982, though their
marriage collapsed long before. Her second
husband, Dr. Shaposhnikov died in 1999.

Commons|Valentina Tereshkova