The first woman in space was a textile worker, not a pilot

Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman in space on June 16, 1963, when the 26-year-old Soviet cosmonaut launched aboard Vostok 6; she was a textile-factory worker and amateur parachutist, not a pilot, and flew 48 orbits in about 71 hours before landing on June 19.

The Soviet government approved recruiting women after Yuri Gagarin’s 1961 flight, aiming to make sure the first woman in space was Soviet. In February 1962, five were chosen from more than 400 applicants. Their training included centrifuge runs, weightless flights, isolation tests and parachute jumps, and they were commissioned as air-force lieutenants. Because those ranks were honorary, ESA also counts Tereshkova as the first civilian to fly in space.

The plan changed on the way. The original idea was two women on solo Vostoks on consecutive days; in March 1963 it became a joint flight with a man, Valery Bykovsky, in Vostok 5. Launched two days after him, Tereshkova, call sign “Chaika” (seagull), was soon in radio contact with him. At the end she parachuted from the capsule after reentry, landing in Kazakhstan about 380 miles northeast of Karaganda.

45 or 48 orbits?

Sources disagree. The Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum says she made 45 revolutions in 70 hours 50 minutes, while NASA gives 48 orbits in 70.8 hours and ESA puts the flight at 2 days, 23 hours and 12 minutes. The durations match; 48 is the figure used by NASA and most references.

Either way, her one flight logged more time in space than all the American Mercury astronauts who had flown by then, combined. Bykovsky, meanwhile, set a record that still stands: the longest time anyone has spent in space alone, nearly five days. No other woman flew until Svetlana Savitskaya in 1982, and Tereshkova remains the only woman to have flown a solo mission.