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In 1959, Tereshkova made her first parachute jump and in 1961, she was a graduate cotton-spinning technologist.
Valentina
Tereshkova became the first woman in space on 16 June 1963. She flew on Vostok 6, a joint flight with Vostok 5. The ground-crew
claimed she was on the edge of psychological instability and she was not permitted to take manual control.
Russia had
two women in space before NASA assigned Sally Ride, some twenty years after Tereshkova.
Shortly after her flight, Tereshkova
married Nikolayev, the third cosmonaut in space. It has been reported that Khrushchev applied pressure for the couple to marry
so as to study the children of parents who have both been in space. Her daughter, Yelena, is the only person to have had both
parents in space.
In 1966, Tereshkova became a member of the World Peace Council, and then elected to the council of
the Union of the Supreme Soviet. She was later elected to the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet and was Vice-President of the
Women's International Democratic Federation.
Tereshkova is the only woman to fly solo in a single seat space-craft.
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