Vostok 6 - 1st, youngest, and only solo woman in space
06/16/1963 AD launched
Tereshkova becomes the first woman in space, she remains the only woman to fly to space solo, and the youngest at 26 years of age.
Her call sign was Chaika ('Seagull'), later commemorated as the name of an asteroid, 1671 Chaika. After launch, she radioed down:
It is I, Seagull! Everything is fine. I see the horizon; it's a sky blue with a dark strip. How beautiful the Earth is ... everything is going well.
Launch
After the successful launch of Vostok 5 on 14 June, Tereshkova began final preparations for her own flight. On the morning of 16 June, Tereshkova and her backup Solovyova were both dressed in spacesuits and taken to the launch pad by bus. Following the tradition set by Gagarin, Tereshkova also urinated on the bus tire, becoming the first woman to do so.
After completing her communication and life support checks, she was sealed inside the Vostok for a two-hour countdown, and Vostok 6 launched faultlessly.
Cameras placed inside both the spacecraft transmitted live footage that was broadcast on Soviet state television.
Landing
Tereshkova also maintained a flight log and took photographs of the horizon, which were later used to identify aerosol layers within the atmosphere. Like all the previous Vostok flights, Tereshkova had to eject. She landed safely by parachute.
It was revealed in 2004 that an error in the control program made the spaceship ascend from orbit instead of descending. Tereshkova noticed the fault on the first day of the flight and reported it to spacecraft designer Sergey Korolev. Flight controllers then provided Tereshkova with data to enter into the descent program.
By request of Korolev, Tereshkova kept the problem secret. "I kept silent, but Evgeny Vasilievich decided to make it public. So, I can easily talk about it now."
Lattitude: 45.965° N
Longitude: 63.305° E
Region: Russia and Eastern Bloc
Modern Day Kazakhstan
Subjects Who or What launched?
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Soviet Union (USSR) The Union of Soviet ...
Objects To Whom or What was launched?
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Valentina Tereshkova Soviet cosmonaut, engin... -
Vostok (Восток) The Vostok programme...
Timelines (that include this event)
Attachments
Vostok 6 capsule (flown 1964) Photographed at the Science Museum, London, March 2016
Events in 1963 MORE
