What is Valentina Tereshkova most famous for?

Born on March 6, 1937, in Bolshoye Maslennikovo, a village on the Volga River in western Russia, Tereshkova was the first and youngest woman to have flown into space. She achieved this feat on June 16, 1963, when she made the first solo mission to space aboard the Vostok 6 spacecraft. Tereshkova spent almost three days in space and orbited the Earth 48 times in her 70.8 hour-long flight. Till date, Tereshkova remains the only woman in the world to have flown on a solo mission.

She paved the way for women to become astronauts, with 64 women having flown successfully to space after her.

“Once you’ve been in space, you appreciate how small and fragile the Earth is.”

 

Picture Credit : Google