1963 : FIRST WOMAN IN SPACE:
On June 16, 1963, aboard Vostok 6, Soviet Cosmonaut Valentina
Tereshkova becomes the first woman to travel into space. After 48
orbits and 71 hours, she returned to earth, having spent more time in
space than all U.S. astronauts combined to that date.
Valentina Vladimirovna Tereshkova was born to a peasant family in
Maslennikovo, Russia, in 1937. She began work at a textile factory
when she was 18, and at age 22 she made her first parachute jump under
the auspices of a local aviation club. Her enthusiasm for skydiving
brought her to the attention of the Soviet space program, which sought
to put a woman in space in the early 1960s as a means of achieving
another "space first" before the United States. As an accomplished
parachutist, Tereshkova was well equipped to handle one of the most
challenging procedures of a Vostok space flight: the mandatory
ejection from the capsule at about 20,000 feet during reentry. In
February 1962, she was selected along with three other woman
parachutists and a female pilot to begin intensive training to become
a cosmonaut.
In 1963, Tereshkova was chosen to take part in the second dual flight
in the Vostok program, involving spacecrafts Vostok 5 and Vostok 6. On
June 14, 1963, Vostok 5 was launched into space with cosmonaut Valeri
Bykovsky aboard. With Bykovsky still orbiting the earth, Tereshkova
was launched into space on June 16 aboard Vostok 6. The two
spacecrafts had different orbits but at one point came within three
miles of each other, allowing the two cosmonauts to exchange brief
communications. Tereshkova's spacecraft was guided by an automatic
control system, and she never took manual control. On June 19, after
just under three days in space, Vostok 6 reentered the atmosphere, and
Tereshkova successfully parachuted to earth after ejecting at 20,000
feet. Bykovsky and Vostok 5 landed safely a few hours later.
After her historic space flight, Valentina Tereshkova received the
Order of Lenin and Hero of the Soviet Union awards. In November 1963,
she married fellow cosmonaut Andrian Nikolayev, reportedly under
pressure from Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev, who saw a propaganda
advantage in the pairing of the two single cosmonauts. The couple made
several goodwill trips abroad, had a daughter, and later separated. In
1966, Tereshkova became a member of the Supreme Soviet, the USSR's
national parliament, and she served as the Soviet representative to
numerous international women's organizations and events. She never
entered space again, and hers was the last space flight by a female
cosmonaut until the 1980s.
The United States screened a group of female pilots in 1959 and 1960
for possible astronaut training but later decided to restrict
astronaut qualification to men. The first American woman in space was
astronaut and physicist Sally Ride, who served as mission specialist
on a flight of the space shuttle Challenger in 1983.
history.com/tdih.do
1958 : Leader of Hungarian uprising executed
history.com/tdih.do?action=tdihArticleCategory&id=5096
1977 : Brezhnev is Soviet president
history.com/tdih.do?action=tdihArticleCategory&id=5097
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On June 16, 1963, aboard Vostok 6, Soviet Cosmonaut Valentina
Tereshkova becomes the first woman to travel into space. After 48
orbits and 71 hours, she returned to earth, having spent more time in
space than all U.S. astronauts combined to that date.
Valentina Vladimirovna Tereshkova was born to a peasant family in
Maslennikovo, Russia, in 1937. She began work at a textile factory
when she was 18, and at age 22 she made her first parachute jump under
the auspices of a local aviation club. Her enthusiasm for skydiving
brought her to the attention of the Soviet space program, which sought
to put a woman in space in the early 1960s as a means of achieving
another "space first" before the United States. As an accomplished
parachutist, Tereshkova was well equipped to handle one of the most
challenging procedures of a Vostok space flight: the mandatory
ejection from the capsule at about 20,000 feet during reentry. In
February 1962, she was selected along with three other woman
parachutists and a female pilot to begin intensive training to become
a cosmonaut.
In 1963, Tereshkova was chosen to take part in the second dual flight
in the Vostok program, involving spacecrafts Vostok 5 and Vostok 6. On
June 14, 1963, Vostok 5 was launched into space with cosmonaut Valeri
Bykovsky aboard. With Bykovsky still orbiting the earth, Tereshkova
was launched into space on June 16 aboard Vostok 6. The two
spacecrafts had different orbits but at one point came within three
miles of each other, allowing the two cosmonauts to exchange brief
communications. Tereshkova's spacecraft was guided by an automatic
control system, and she never took manual control. On June 19, after
just under three days in space, Vostok 6 reentered the atmosphere, and
Tereshkova successfully parachuted to earth after ejecting at 20,000
feet. Bykovsky and Vostok 5 landed safely a few hours later.
After her historic space flight, Valentina Tereshkova received the
Order of Lenin and Hero of the Soviet Union awards. In November 1963,
she married fellow cosmonaut Andrian Nikolayev, reportedly under
pressure from Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev, who saw a propaganda
advantage in the pairing of the two single cosmonauts. The couple made
several goodwill trips abroad, had a daughter, and later separated. In
1966, Tereshkova became a member of the Supreme Soviet, the USSR's
national parliament, and she served as the Soviet representative to
numerous international women's organizations and events. She never
entered space again, and hers was the last space flight by a female
cosmonaut until the 1980s.
The United States screened a group of female pilots in 1959 and 1960
for possible astronaut training but later decided to restrict
astronaut qualification to men. The first American woman in space was
astronaut and physicist Sally Ride, who served as mission specialist
on a flight of the space shuttle Challenger in 1983.
history.com/tdih.do
1958 : Leader of Hungarian uprising executed
history.com/tdih.do?action=tdihArticleCategory&id=5096
1977 : Brezhnev is Soviet president
history.com/tdih.do?action=tdihArticleCategory&id=5097
##########################################
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