First Woman in Space

Space exploration has really evolved ever since the launch of the first ever artificial satellite on October 4, 1957. The Soviets launched the first artificial satellite, Sputnik 1, into space. Four years later on April 12, 1961, Russian Lt. Yuri Gagarin became the first human to orbit Earth in Vostok 1. His flight lasted about 108 minutes, and Gagarin reached an altitude of 327 kilometers (about 202 miles).

Impressive right?
Interestingly that was the beginning of manned-ship in space. Ever since then, there has been series of manned space missions, but the very remarkable one was that of Valentina Tereshkova (a woman).

Valentina Tereshkova was the First Woman in Space. She was inspired by Lt. Yuri Gagarin. After Yuri Gagarin became the first man in space in 1961, Tereshkova volunteered for the Soviet space program. Although she did not have any experience as a pilot, she was accepted into the program because of her 126 parachute jumps(wow....Amazing). At the time, cosmonauts had to parachute from their capsules seconds before they hit the ground on returning to Earth. Now you can see how her parachute jumps became an added advantage for her?

It might interest you to know that along with four other women ( including herself,five), Tereshkova received 18 months of training, which included tests to determine how she would react to long periods of time being alone, to extreme gravity conditions and to zero-gravity conditions. Of the five women, only Tereshkova went into space.

 She landed in the Altay region near today's Kazakhstan-Mongolia-China border. She was honored with the title Hero of the Soviet Union. She received the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star Medal. She became a spokesperson for the Soviet Union and while fulfilling this role, she received the United Nations Gold Medal of Peace.

Tereshkova remains active in the space community, and her legacy is widely celebrated in everything from books to museums to stage productions and a whole lot.

In 2017, London's Science Museum opened a temporary exhibit called "Valentina Tereshkova: First Woman in Space," which celebrated her contributions through artifacts as well as photographs.

Read below, some of her quotes;

• "Once you've been in space, you appreciate how small and fragile the Earth is."
• "Anyone who has spent any time in space will love it for the rest of their lives. I achieved my childhood dream of the sky."

Source; https://www.space.com

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