Valentina Tereshkova

Valentina Vladimirovna Tereshkova (Валенти́на Влади́мировна Терешко́ва; 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. 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. In 2013, she offered to go on a one-way trip to Mars if the opportunity arose.