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In the United States, when we think of the first woman in space, the name Sally Ride probably leaps to mind. But—no disrespect to Ride—the Soviets beat America to gender parity in space by 20 years.
The first woman to slip the surly bonds of Earth was cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova, who blasted off in the spherical, 7.5-foot-wide cabin of the Vostok 6 spacecraft in June 1963. Tereshkova spent about three days in space, during which she orbited the Earth 48 times. She was also in close radio contact with another cosmonaut, Valery Bykovsky, in Vostok 5, which had launched two days previously. (Originally Vostok 5 was also supposed to be piloted by a female cosmonaut, but that changed due to budgetary concerns, according to Space.com).
The Vostok 6 mission ran into a hitch at the end, however. At the point at which Tereshkova was supposed to start descending back to Earth, Tereshkova noticed that the craft was actually ascending. Thankfully, Russian scientists were able to pinpoint the error in the spacecraft’s navigation software and send new data for Tereshkova to enter into the craft’s computer. After passing through the atmosphere, Tereshkova ejected from the Vostok capsule and drifted down on a personal parachute.
It was Tereshkova’s parachuting prowess that had earned her a ticket to space. She had volunteered for cosmonaut training after seeing Yuri Gagarin’s historic flight in 1961. The daughter of proletarian stock, Tereshkova had already completed more than 100 parachute jumps at her local air sports club before she was accepted into the space program. To her, the idea of female cosmonauts was hardly controversial, and she’s pushed for more women to be included in her country’s space program to this day.
“I believe more women must be admitted to cosmonauts’ training in Russia,” Tereshkova said, according to Agence France-Presse. “Women are an important driving force behind human civilization’s development. If women can be railroad workers in Russia, why can’t they fly in space?”
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