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Valentina Tereshkova (te-ruhsh-koh`-vuh) was a textile worker and amateur parachutist when she was selected to be in the Soviet Union cosmonaut (Russian word for astronaut) program in 1961. After 18 months of training, Tereshkova's Vostok 6 spacecraft launched. On June 16, 1963 she went into orbit and in about 80 hours completed 48 orbits before returning to Earth. Valentina Tereshkova was the first woman in space. In 1963 Tereshkova married a cosmonaut named Adrian Nikolayev. In 1964 they had a daughter that was of medical interest because Valentina and Adrian were both exposed to space. Later on, the couple divorced. Tereshkova served in the Soviet parliament for a while. |
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