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Valentina Tereshkova, legendary Soviet cosmonaut and the first woman in space

The first ever woman in space, Valentina Tereshkova, celebrates her birthday on March 6

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In 1962 Valentina Tereshkova joined a training course for operating Vostok-type spacecrafts

© Fotokhronika TASS/Vera Zhikharenko

© Reproduction/Fotokhronika TASS

Valentina Tereshkova was selected from over 400 applicants to pilot Vostok 6 on Jun. 16 1963

© Fotokhronika TASS/S. Baranov

© Fotokhronika TASS/S. Baranov

A search group finds landing section after Tereshkova's mission

© Reproduction/Fotokhronika TASS

Valentina Tereshkova (center) after landing

© Reproduction/Fotokhronika TASS

Cosmonauts Yuri Gagarin and Valentina Tereshkova

© Valentina Cheredintseva/Fotokhronika TASS

Nikita Khrushchev congralulates Tereshkova

© Fotokhronika TASS

Valentina Tereshkova and Vladimir Putin

© ITAR-TASS/Mikhail Klimentyev

Valentina Tereshkova with the Olympic torch

© ITAR-TASS/Vladimir Smirnov

Valentina Tereshkova in 1963

© Vera Zhikharenko/Fotokhronika TASS

The first ever woman in space, Valentina Tereshkova, was born on March 6, 1937. In 1969 she graduated from Zhukovsky Aerospace and Engineering Academy (as a spaceflight engineer). She was one of the first 58 young women who had applied for participation in the Soviet space program to have been enlisted on March 12, 1962. Her space flight lasted nearly three days - 70 hours and 50 minutes, during which time she orbited the globe 48 times. Valentina Tereshkova still remains the sole woman cosmonaut to have accomplished a space mission solo, not as a crew member. The brightest moments of this outstanding person's life in this photo gallery by TASS.

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