At 12.30 pm on the 16th of June 1963, Valentina Tereshkova 
was launched into space. She became the first woman to conquer space. She piloted the space craft Vostok VI, and orbited the Earth forty eight times.
Valentina Tereshkova was born in the Volga River village of Masslennikovo. In 1959, she joined the Yaroslavl Air Sports Club, and became a skilled parachutist. Inspired by the flight of Yuri Gagarin, the first man in space, Valentina volunteered for the Soviet space programme. The Russian space programme needed people with parachuting experience. She underwent eighteen months of hard training before becoming chief pilot of Vostok VI. Valentina’s flight proved that women could withstand the stresses of space. Valentina was decorated with the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star Medal, and toured the world as a goodwill ambassador. She married Colonel Andrian Nikolayev, who had orbited the Earth sixty four times in Vostok III.