Three days orbiting Earth strapped into a space capsule so primitive that no one could land in it. So how did the cosmonaut get home? That's part of the story of the first woman in space, on a solo flight twenty years before NASA sent Sally Ride into orbit on a Space Shuttle.

Valentina Tereshkova - the First Spacewoman

Here is an excellent infographic about Tereshkova's flight. The drawing gives you a good sense of how tight a fit the space capsule was. I have seen the actual Vostok 6. It was one of the artifacts that the science museum in London was able to borrow for its big exhibition Cosmonauts last year.

I've always liked this photo of Valentina Tereshkova in her spacesuit, emerging from Vostok 6. It's staged, of course, because she and Vostok 6 landed separately - and nobody took her picture when she landed.

The spacesuit was a modfied version of what the men wore, but apparently it wasn't a very good modification. When Tereshkova herself became a space engineer, spacesuits suitable for women was something she worked on. (It was unfortunate that they wouldn't be needed for nearly two decades after her own flight.)

This is a really sweet picture of Yuri Gagarin and Valentina Tereshkova. It seems to be an official portrait-sitting, but it looks to me as though he's tickling her ear and both are quite amused about it. And what a smile! You can see why it was said of Gagarin's smile that it "lit up the Cold War". Here's more about the first man in space.

This picture shows Valentina with daughter Elena speaking at Mission control with husband/father cosmonaut Andrian Nikolaev.

Photo credit and copyright: Vladimir Akimov / Sputnik

Thanks for posting this Mona...golly it does bring back memories. What a woman.

Was a young kid at school when she arrived on the scene, and she was a such a heroine, and Vorbild for all of us. Some even had her poster on Dorm walls

Nevertheless years later, and we are not going back to the stone age here, when I wanted to study the sciences at UNI, they were subjects in which I always came first in all related disciplines for some reason, was told only males could be considered as places were limited, and places in the sciences were a male preserve.

So progress in the Soviet Union was already streets ahead of us all that time ago previously, despite the myth that they were backward...in some things don't think so.

Philosophy, Politics and Economics had to become my route, and economics the master, but nothing has ever fascinated more than science...and of course those first ventures into space.

But Frau Valentina Tereshkova never stopped being not only my heroine but that of thousands of others. So thank you for the mention, as there are no doubt many out there who after so many years have never heard of her, or the role she played in the develoment of space travel.

Francine, I'm glad you liked it, and glad to find another admirer of Valentina Tereshkova. She's still a heroic figure in Russia and at one time was a great encouragement to girls to go aim for science and technology instead of traditional women's roles, though that may be weakening.