The first woman in space was Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova. She made history on June 16, 1963, when she launched aboard the Vostok 6 spacecraft and orbited the Earth 48 times during a mission lasting almost three days. Tereshkova was 26 years old at the time and remains the only woman to have flown a solo space mission. Before becoming a cosmonaut, she was a textile factory worker and an amateur parachutist, which was a useful skill for the mission since Vostok cosmonauts ejected and parachuted to the ground after re- entry.
