Valentina Tereshkova — First Woman in Space

On June 16, 1963, Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova launched aboard Vostok 6, becoming the first woman to travel to space. A textile factory worker and amateur parachutist, Tereshkova was selected from over 400 applicants. During her nearly three-day mission, she orbited the Earth 48 times, spending more time in space than all American astronauts combined up to that point. Her call sign was "Chaika" (Seagull), and she manually logged data on her body's response to spaceflight. It would be 19 years before another woman — Svetlana Savitskaya — reached space, and 20 years before the first American woman, Sally Ride, made the journey. Tereshkova's flight demonstrated that women were equally capable of spaceflight, though the world would be slow to act on that truth.