Valentina Vladimirovna Tereshkova , born 6 March 1937 , is a retired Russian cosmonaut, engineer, and politician. She is the first woman to have flown in space, having been selected from more than 400 applicants and five finalists to pilot Vostok 6 on 16 June 1963.
In order to join the Cosmonaut Corps, Tereshkova was honorarily inducted into the Soviet Air Force and thus she also became the first civilian to fly in space.[1]
Before her recruitment as a cosmonaut, Tereshkova was a textile-factory assembly worker and an amateur skydiver. After the dissolution of the first group of female cosmonauts in 1969, she became a prominent member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, holding various political offices. She remained politically active following the collapse of the Soviet Union and is regarded as a hero in post-Soviet Russia and much of the world. Having orbited Earth 48 times, Tereshkova remains the only woman ever to have been on a solo space mission.[2][3]
In 2013, she offered to go on a one-way trip to Mars if the opportunity arose.
Tereshkova studied at the Zhukovsky Air Force Academy and graduated with distinction as a cosmonaut engineer. In 1977 she earned a doctorate in engineering.
Some of the awards received my Valentina:
1.Gold Medal, Tsiolkovsky Academy of Sciences of the USSR
2. Gold Medal of the British Society for interplanetary communications “For achievements in space exploration” (February 1964)
3.Gold Medal of the “Cosmos”
4.(FAI) Award Galambera Astronautics Gold Medal of Peace Joliot-Curie (France, 1964) Order
5.”Wind Rose” International Committee of the National Aeronautics and Space Missions
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