Females at their finest

Valentina Tereshkova

Valentina Tereshkova is a Russian cosmonaut born on 6 March 1937 in the village of Maslennikovo. She was the first woman who flew in space on 16 June 1963. Before she became a cosmonaut she had been a textile-factory worker and concurrently a skydiver.

Tereshkova's parents migrated from Belarus. Her father was a tractor driver and her mother worked in a textile plant. Valentina went to school at the age of 8 in 1945 but after a while in 1953 she left school in order for her to have correspondence courses. She had been taking classes in the local Aeroclub when she attempted her first flight with a parachute at the age of 22 on 21 May 1959. In 1961 Valentina became a secretary in the local Kosmomol.

Valentina Tereshkova's career began on 16 February 1962 when she was selected in the female cosmonauts corps.She was supposed to control the Vostok 5 but finally the leader pilot was Valery Bykovsky.After the success of the Vostok 5 on 14 June of the next year Valentina started the final preparations for her flight of Vostok 6.The flight was attempted two days after the Vostok 5 was launched, in 16 June 1963. She was 26 at the tume. On the morning of the 16th she was dressed in her spacesuit and after completing her communications and life checks she was sealed in the Vostok.After a two-hour countdown the Vostok was launched successfully and Valentina Tereshkova was ceremoniously the first woman in space.Valentina managed to take photos of the Horizon which facilitated its understanding a lot. She flew in space for 2 days 23 hours and 12 minutes.Her nickname was Chaika which is how an asteroid was named in 1971.After that successful flight she was thanked for her services to the country.

After her flight Valentina decided to move her life forward so she studied in the Zhukovsy Air Force Academy and graduated with a distinction as a cosmonaut engineer. In 1977 she achieved a doctorate in engineering.She was also married to Andriyan Nikolayev on 3 November 1963 in the Moscow Wedding Palace.After a couple of months on 8 Lune 1964 she gave birth to her daughter Elena Andrianovna Nikolaeva,who became a doctor and was the first person whose both parents have travelled in space .She and Nikolayev got divorced in 1982.Her second husband Yuliy Shaposhnikov died in 1999.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valentina_Tereshkova#
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZxDnIrA4wdI
http://www.space.com/21571-valentina-tereshkova.html