Soviet cosmonaut and the first woman to travel into space.

Tereshkova left school aged 16 to begin work in a textile plant. She was able to continue her education through correspondence courses. During this time, she parachuted as a hobby and her parachuting skills were a major factor in her selection as a cosmonaut.

On 16 June 1963, Tereshkova was launched into space aboard Vostok 6. The spacecraft completed 48 orbits of Earth in 71 hours. Later that year Tereshkova married another cosmonaut, Andrian Nikolayev. Their daughter, born a year later, was the subject of considerable medical interest because she was the first child born to parents who had both been exposed to space travel.

Tereshkova did not make a second spaceflight. She left the Soviet space programme and served in various governmental positions until the early 1990s. She was named a Hero of the Soviet Union and twice awarded the Order of Lenin.