Valentina Tereshkova was born in Bolshoye Maslennikovo. She became interested in parachuting at a young age and trained at the local Aeroclub, making her first jump at age 22. It was her expertise in parachute jumping that led to her selection as a cosmonaut.
After Yuri Gagarin’s flight into space in 1961, Sergey Korolyov, the head Soviet rocket engineer, came up with the idea of putting a woman in space. On February 16, 1962, Tereshkova was selected to join the female cosmonaut corps. Out of more than 400 applicants, five were selected. Tereshkova was considered a particularly worthy candidate, partly due to her “proletarian” background, and because her father had died as a war hero during World War II.
Training included weightless flights, isolation tests, centrifuge tests, rocket theory, spacecraft engineering and so on. After several months of intensive training concluding with examinations, four candidates were commissioned in the Soviet Air Force. Tereshkova was nominated to pilot the Vostok 6 which launched on June 16, 1963. Although she was in a state of nausea and physical discomfort for much of the flight, she orbited the Earth 48 times and spent almost three days in space.
