№ 1717. 50th Anniversary of the First Woman in Space

 After the first successful space flights of Soviet cosmonauts, it was decided to send a woman to space. Two women’s crews were to have flown simultaneously but later that idea was abandoned, with the task of selecting one of five candidates substituting the former plan. Valentina Tereshkova was selected a favorite among other contenders.

June 16, 1963 spaceship “Vostok-6” was launched from the “Baikonur” space-vehicle launching site, carrying the world’s first woman-cosmonaut to space. In spite of the physical discomfort, Tereshkova endured 48 orbits around the Earth and spent almost 3 days in space. During the flight, she was keeping a logbook and was making photographs of the Earth’s horizon, which were later used for detection of aerosol layers in the atmosphere.