The Real Valentina
06 March 1937
Valentina Tereshkova Born
01 June 1953
Textile Factory
At the age of 16 she had to go to work in a factory, as she had to help her mother and her two younger brothers. Very soon she became interested in skydiving and requested her registration at the local Aeroclub.
21 May 1959
First jump!
Valentina loved skydiving and made her first jump at age 22, on May 21, 1959; accumulated about 90 jumps.
01 January 1960
Star City
More than 400 candidates applied to be the first women in space. Valentina and 4 other women were selected for the training programme.
Training Programme
The training included weightlessness flights, insulation tests, centrifuge tests, rocket theory, engineering spacecraft, 120 parachute jumps and pilot training in Mig fighter jets.
01 November 1962
Training Ends
16 June 1963
Into Space
Valentina was 26 when she went into space on June 16th 1963 in Vostok 6
Valentina is the only woman to date to ever complete a solo mission
Yelena Tereshkova
Valentina’s mother Yelena didn’t know her daughter was a astronaut until a few days after her launch mission.
19 June 1963
Valentina spent 2 days, 22 hours and 50 minutes in space and orbited the Earth 48 times.
Recovery of Valentina Tereshkova and Vostok-6 after landing in a field
Valentina made history & changed the course of space travel. Many female astronauts followed in her footsteps.
Valentina has a crater on the moon named after her - crater Tereshkova
Yuri Gagarin was the first human to go into outer space and was Valentina’s hero. They soon became friends.
03 November 1963
Valentina married fellow astronaut Andrian Nikolayev
08 June 1964
Elena Andrianovna Nikolaeva-Tereshkova Born
They had a daughter Elena, who was the first child in the world whose mother and father were both astronauts
06 March 2021
Valentina Tereshkova turned 84 years old.
Valentina is still a powerful public speaker
Valentina has been an indefatigable fighter of the Russian women’s movement, advocating for Soviet women to have the same opportunities as men.
