The first female astronaut to fly into space and the suffocating journey almost never returned to Earth

Valentina Tereshkova (born 1937) is the world's first female astronaut to fly into space in 1963, just 2 years after Yuri Gagarin - her colleague flew into space in 1961. The only journey This work of Tereshkova has entered the history of world space science.

The first female astronaut to fly into space was selected from 400 people

Valentina Tereshkova was born in a small village in the Yaroslavl province. When she finished school at the age of 17, she worked as a worker at a rubber factory, a textile factory, and then went to study engineering. From an early age, Tereshkova had a strange love for skydiving. She practiced this challenge at her local aviation club and made her first jump at the age of 22. Tereshkova also worked as a secretary for the local Youth Union and later became a member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.

Valentina Tereshkova is prepared at the training center.

After the world's first cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin successfully flew into space in 1961, the Soviet Union then planned to send women into space. Up to 400 candidates were selected through multiple rounds. After the training and screening period, only 5 people were selected.

The conditions to become the first woman to fly into space are very strict, including: under 30 years old, shorter than 1.7 meters, weighing less than 70kg and of course having enough health, skills and expertise. .

Although she did not have the same level of education or experience as her competitors, in the end Valentina Tereshkova was still the chosen one. On June 16, 1963, she made a solo flight named Chayka (meaning seagull) aboard Vostok 6, becoming the world's first woman to fly into space at the age of 26.

Valentina Tereshkova's assignment was to record flight logs and photograph the horizon for the purpose of distinguishing layers of gases in the atmosphere. To gain momentum, she flew the spacecraft 48 times around the Earth and spent nearly 3 days in space.

The hidden corner of the journey of a lifetime

After safely returning to the ground, Valentina Tereshkova became the heroine of the Soviets. Her trip was considered a great success, and it was not until more than a decade later that Valentina Tereshkova opened up about the difficulties she encountered.

The 26-year-old woman flew into space alone

When having to manage alone in a special space, every normal life chore makes it difficult for astronauts. For Tereshkova, eating on board the spacecraft is a huge challenge. Wearing a bulky, heavy spacesuit is also very uncomfortable, even making Tereshkova cry in pain. To relieve pain and fear, she sometimes had to sing to distract herself.

When the Ground Control Center tried to contact Tereshkova one last time before Vostok 6 landed, the female astronaut did not receive the call because she was already asleep due to fatigue. Even recording the journey was not complete, as both of the pencils Tereshkova had on board broke in other environments.

After decades, the female astronaut revealed the difficulties she encountered.

At the time of nearly completing the mission, the female astronaut was also faced with a life-and-death situation. Tereshkova said she would have never been able to return to Earth if the last minute miracle had not happened.

The program to control the spacecraft remotely made a mistake that caused her spacecraft to go up, instead of having to go down to return to Earth. When the error was discovered, although she was extremely worried, Tereshkova quickly reported it to the center. To save herself, she had to find a way to manually re-enter the standard data into the control program in a very short time. Luckily for the female astronaut, she did it correctly, and the ship diverged as it prepared to enter a lost orbit, or worse, could explode.

The photo was taken the day Tereshkova landed.

Even Valentina Tereshkova's landing on the ground was difficult and had an accident. Vostok 6 landed on Earth on January 19, 1963 in Altai, southern Siberia in the Soviet Union. Because the wind was blowing too hard, her parachute landing was not favorable. For a long time, Tereshkova's head was blown back by the wind. As a result, as soon as she landed on the ground, she had to be taken to the emergency room immediately. Either way, Tereshkova is happy and grateful that she came back alive.

Valentina Tereshkova at the present time.

This was the only space trip in Valentina Tereshkova's life, although she later studied at the Zhukovsky Aviation Institute, became an engineer and made many contributions to the aerospace industry. It was not until 19 years after this difficult journey that the second woman in the world flew into space.

For her historic contribution, Valentina Tereshkova was awarded the title of heroine of Russia. In her honor, her name has also been given to a volcano on the Moon.