{"id":498,"date":"2026-02-23T13:39:36","date_gmt":"2026-02-23T13:39:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wordpress.sciencepicker.com\/?p=498"},"modified":"2026-02-23T13:39:36","modified_gmt":"2026-02-23T13:39:36","slug":"the-space-woman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.science-pickers.com\/the-space-woman\/","title":{"rendered":"The space woman"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Space\njourney is something that people routinely do today, without consideration of\ntheir gender. However, more than half a century ago, the entrance to space was\nconsidered a “man’s job”. Women weren’t yet there, held back by\nrequirements such as they had to be test pilots with required skills and the\nknowledge. In the U.S. 13 women went through astronaut training in early 1960s.<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Soviet Union<\/strong>, the space agency was actively seeking a woman<\/strong> to fly, provided she could pass the training. As a result of this search, Valentina Tereshkova made her flight in the summer of 1963. She inspired other women to become astronauts<\/strong>, although the first American woman<\/strong> didn’t fly to orbit until the 1980s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Source: Pixabay<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Childhood and flight interests<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The first spacewoman<\/strong>, Valentina<\/strong>\nTereshkova<\/strong> was born to a farmer family in the Yaroslavl<\/strong> region of\nthe former USSR<\/strong> on 6th March 1937. Soon after, she began to work in a\ntextile mill at the age of 18. She joined an amateur parachuting club that\nsparked her interest in flight and at the age of 24, Valentina<\/strong> applied\nto become a cosmonaut. In 1961, the Soviet space program began to consider\nsending women into space. The Soviets were looking for another\n“first” to knock the United States, among many space firsts they\nachieved during the era.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Overseen by Yuri Gagarin “the\nfirst man in space” the selection process for female cosmonauts began in\nmid-1961. Considering there weren’t many female pilots in the Soviet air force,\nwomen parachutists were considered as a possible field of candidates.\nTereshkova, along with three other women parachutists and a female pilot, was\nselected to train as a cosmonaut in 1962. She began an intensive training\nprogram designed to help her face the difficulties of launch and orbit. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Creation of history<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The most memorable\nfirst flight of a female cosmonaut was slated to concur with the second dual\nflight (a mission on which two craft would be in orbit at the same time, and\nground control would maneuver them to within 5 km (3 miles) of each other). It\nwas scheduled for June of the following year, which meant that Tereshkova had\nonly about 15 months to get ready. Basic training for the women was very\nsimilar to that of the male cosmonauts. It included classroom study, parachute\njumps, and time in an aerobatic jet. They were all commissioned as second\nlieutenants in the Soviet Air Force, which had control over the cosmonaut\nprogram at the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Personal life and recognitions <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Tereshkova was married to fellow cosmonaut<\/strong>\nAdrian Nikolayev<\/strong> in November 1963. Rumors abounded at the time that the\nunion was just for propaganda purposes, but those have never been proven. The\ntwo had a daughter, Yelena<\/strong>, who was born the following year, the first\nchild of parents that had both been in space. The couple later divorced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For her historic flight, Valentina<\/strong>\nreceived the Order of Lenin<\/strong> and Hero<\/strong> of the Soviet\nUnion<\/strong> awards. After that, she served as the president of the Soviet Women’s\nCommittee and became a member of the Supreme Soviet, the USSR’s<\/strong> national\nlegislature, and the Presidium, a special panel within the Soviet government.\nCurrently, Valentina<\/strong> is leading a quiet life in Moscow.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Space journey is something that people routinely do today, without consideration of their gender. However, more than half a century ago, the entrance to space was considered a “man’s job”. Women weren’t yet there, held back by requirements such as they had to be test pilots with required skills and the knowledge. In the U.S. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":60,"featured_media":846,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-498","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-space-and-astronomy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.science-pickers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/498","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.science-pickers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.science-pickers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.science-pickers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/60"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.science-pickers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=498"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.science-pickers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/498\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2493,"href":"https:\/\/www.science-pickers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/498\/revisions\/2493"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.science-pickers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/846"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.science-pickers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=498"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.science-pickers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=498"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.science-pickers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=498"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}