50 Years ago, the First Woman Went to Space

Yesterday morning, when my radio alarm went off, the first words I heard were "today is the 50th anniversary of the first woman ever being in space". I was still quite sleepy and impressed at the same time, when I realized that they were referring to the soviet cosmonaut I'm having a presentation about next week in Russian class. Her name is Valentina Vladimirovna Tereshkova and -- you might have guessed it already -- she was the first (official) woman ever being in space.

It was the period of the space race in which America and the Soviet Union competed about the most developed space program, which resulted in the most ridiculous and dangerous experiments. Almost everybody knows about, for example, the Russian dog Laika that was sent to space but never came back. There were a huge amount of failed experiments on both sides which would be made public only several years later. After all, neither America nor Russia would have admitted mistakes or failure.

Interestingly, Tereshkova was not a "real" cosmonaut. She was working in a textile factory and parachuted for in her free time. When main space engineer Sergej Koroljov formed plans on sending a woman into space -- after the soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin successfully became the first man being and returning from space -- Tereshkova was chosen over 500 female candidates for her knowledge about parachuting and for deriving from a proletarian heritage. She underwent intensive cosmonaut training, including weightless flights, rocket theory, spacecraft engineering and many more.

On 13th June 1963, Vostok 6 launched into space. She orbited the earth 48 times and stayed in space for almost 3 days, which was the longest stay in outer space at that time. Unfortunately, she experienced nausea for most of the flight, which main engineer Koroljov was not pleased about. It is said that this was the reason why her flight was not made public immediately. Furthermore, it took further 19 years until the next woman would be send to space.

Today, Tereshkova is 76 years old. When she was invited by Vladimir Putin for her 70th birthday, she stated that she would love to go to Mars, even if it would mean to never come back to earth. This among several other reasons is why I think she must be an incredible person. Her life story is very impressive and she seems to be a strong woman which we never can have too few of.