She might never have made it. she wasn't at the top of the candidates shortlist.

but eventually she did blast

off shouting triumphantly. as the flight began she was unable to switch to manual control but after 3 days
the world greeted the 1st woman cosmonaut. 6 years later as her motorcade passed through the kremlin
gates a man opened fire and her car took 9 bullets. she was untouched.

valentina tereshkova's biography read a little like a fairytale, a soviet Cinderella, a girl from a poor family in
a remote province rocketed to such heights that only the stars were above her. the 1st woman cosmonauts
glass slipper was the Vostok 6 spacecraft which she 1st tried on in June 1963. it immediately elevated her to
the soviet elite. her official call sign was seagull. the name was to stay with valentina forever long after her
triumph. it still followed her around the world. even in childhood valentina had dreamed about adventure
and travel. although her earlier ambitions were confined to the Earth.

"it was a railway track not far from our house and my biggest dream was to become a train driver. i wanted
to drive those huge trains. i thought the train driver was the happiest person in the world. he could see all
the bid cities and travel all over the country."

her family was from a small country village where her mother yelena was a milkmaid and vladimir her father
worked as a tractor driver. as war broke out with Finland he was conscripted into the army. the family
heard of his death when valentina was less than 3 years old.

"i belong to a generation of children of the war. we know what war grief is. of course we didn't realize it
then, but we know what it's like for a mother to cry over a telegram saying her husband is dead. our mother
got 50 rubles for each of us. a loaf of bread costs 200 rubles after the war, so you see, she couldn't even
afford bread without allowance, but we never saw her cry"

after the war the family moved to Yaroslavl where valentina went to school until seventh grade. after that
she went to work - first in a tire factory then a weaving mill. at the same time she also attended the local
trade school and later she joined the local parachute club.

"there were notices everywhere you looked they said 'welcome to the parachute Sport Club'. I could see
parachutists as I went to work along the riverbank. they jumped on the other side of the river, lots of them.
I don't think anyone could be unmoved by the sight of people jumping."

valentina Tereshkova's journey into space began with parachuting.

"I made my first jump on May 21st 1959. was I scared? of course! your first jump is very special. you realize
that you're jumping off something solid. you have to overcome your fears. I opened that door and put my
foot on the step and then I push myself forward. in a sport like this once you've made your first jump you
can never stop."

Tereshkova didn't always achieve particularly good grades for her jumps. she averaged just four or even
three out of five.

"I often used to find her at the far end of the field where she'd landed after a jump. she'd be crying. Me? I
never cried. why should i?"
the job of assembling and training the first group of soviet cosmonauts was delegated to Air Force vice
commander Nikolai Kamanin. the idea of sending women into space is also attributed to him.

"we need young strong girls in good shape so we can train them for the flight within five to six months. the
main reason for such rapid training is to leave the Americans behind."

these were the criteria for recruiting women - aged up to 30, height up to 170 centimeters, weight up to
70 kilograms, no less than 200 hours flying time or 50 parachute jumps. when selection began valentina
already had a good score - 90 jumps. she also had one other advantage - she was head of the local
Communist Party youth committee. at that time only the most ideologically minded of people could be
considered for space.

it was here at the Yaroslavl parachute Club that an Air Force officer arrived to select candidates for the
Soviet space program.

"we noticed that he watched us jumping, working together and then he called us in separately for an
interview."

the Cold War was at its peak. both the US and the USSR were always trying to prove that their political
system was best. everything concerning space was highly classified. when valentina was chosen to be one of
the cosmonaut candidates not even her mother was allowed to know.

"I had to make up some story to tell my mother. it was easy with the mill but with mom... I invented this
story “mom you know, I've been invited to become a reserve member of the USSR parachuting team in
Moscow“."

a small team of women was brought together within the all-male cosmonaut department. Star City had yet
to be built: there was just a regular military base with a high fence, 40 kilometers from Moscow.

"she was very mature when she joined the unit. she knew exactly what she wanted from life. Tereshkova
did everything she could to avoid being discharged from the space program."

the women's team was officially formed on the 12th of March 1962. out of 5,000 candidates just five were
shortlisted: an engineer Irina Solov’eva, mathematician valentina Ponomareva, weaver valentina
Tereshkova, teacher Jana Yokana and typist Tatiana Kuznetsova. all of them had to undergo extensive
preparation including physical training which was exactly the same as for the men. doctors watched every
training session very closely. they couldn't agree amongst themselves as to whether a woman's body could
withstand the intense forces of blast off, the weightlessness or the stress of returning from orbit. one of
the most demanding tests was the centrifuge with its extreme g-forces not all of them would pass.

"after the test you get red spots on your skin and they're caused by bleeding under the skin when small
vessels burst."

by this time Yuriy Gagarin had already been in space. along with German Titov, Pavel Popovich and Andrian
Nikolaev these were four nationally recognized heroes. Gagarin was always smiling and easygoing and
often seen visiting the woman's team. they once asked him about his most frightening experience during his
flight.
"he said that the worst thing was when he was walking along a red carpet in Vnukovo with his lace undone.
he was afraid that he was gonna trip and fall over it in front of everyone."

the newsreel caught this very moment as Gagarin with his shoelaces undone walks towards the Soviet
leaders to report on the first successful space flight.

the one person with absolute authority over the cosmonauts was Sergey Korolyov - the chief engineer. it
was thanks to him that the Soviet Union became the pioneers of space.

"probably only Sergey Korolyov could have criticized and loved us so much at the same time. we were both
afraid of him and we adored him. we simply loved him. you can't choose your parents and we were so
unbelievably lucky to have been mentored by Korolev."

korolyov's contemporaries say that he didn't support the idea of women in space at first. initially he thought
that only male Air Force pilots should become cosmonauts. but later he agreed to send a woman, and it
was him who supported valentina Tereshkova's candidacy. although the final decision would be made not
by chief engineer korolyov but by the Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev.

"thanks to Nikita Khrushchev's intervention and with the tacit approval of Sergey Korolyov despite an
unfavorable medical Commission report valentina Tereshkova was appointed the number one cosmonaut
among the women. Valentina's social origins played a major part in the decision. on the whole, she wasn't
the best choice."

"I said they choose Ponomareva. do you know why? she was a pilot. she graduated from Moscow State
University and she passed courses in higher mathematics. I thought it would be Ponovareva but it turned
out to be Tereshkowa."

from the highest orbit she represented her country as head of the Soviet Women's Committee and traveled
the world as leader of the Friendship Society. there was though one moment that could have brought it all
to an end.

the frosty morning of January the 22nd 1969. this was to be a happy day. a government delegation including
tereshkova was to welcome cosmonauts returning home from a routine flight. they immediately headed for
the kremlin.

"i was sitting in the middle of the car. valentina and andrean nikolaev were behind me. i saw an officer in a
blue uniform step out of the crowd and he started shooting at the car. valentina was behind me and
andrean covered her body with his own. that's the truth."

"i was sitting on the side he shot at. they found nine bullets under my seat. i probably survived because i
had a sick mother that needed my help and also a small daughter. god probably knew that and let me live."

this was to have been an attack on the ussr's leader leonid brezhnev. victor illin a soviet army officer
approached the motorcade wearing a police uniform. his intention was to kill brezhnev, but he fired at the
wrong car, the one carrying the cosmonauts. he was immediately arrested and later declared insane.
arguments over who was best prepared to be the 1st woman in space continued up until mid-may 1963.
sergey korolyov led the group supporting tereshkova and was later joined by yuriy gagarin. on may the 21st
1963 the training center welcomed the state committee.

"there we were sitting at a long table that was covered with red fabric in one of the rooms in the training
center. we had already been given the rank of junior lieutenant so we were sitting there by the wall in our
new uniforms shivering with anticipation."

chief engineer sergei korolyov could see that everyone had already guessed the final decision and he
adressed ponomaryova.

"he asked, comrade ponomaryova, would you be offended? i said, yes i would, i'd be very upset and he said,
that's right, i would be too. but he said, you'll all go into space"

sadly, that did not come true. of the 1st women's team only tereshkova made it into space. all the others
spent several years in training until finally they heard the verdict in 1969.

"they express gratitude for our willingness to serve our country but said our services were no longer
required, so we were disbanded."

Andrian Nikolayev and Pavel Popovich had made the first joint space flights into orbit in Vostok 3 and
Vostok 4. now there was a new goal: for the first time in history a woman would fly into space. the mission
would begin with Bukowski aboard Vostok 5 and then Tereshkova would blast off with Vostok 6. On June
the 14th 1963 at 5:00 p.m. local time Valery bykovsky flew into space. the 15th of June 24 hours before
Tereshkova's planned flight.

"doctors assure us that Tereshkova has a good appetite and has even gained some weight. but I still think
that she has thinned down a lot, she looks pale and seems a little agitated."

the 16th of June 1963. these pictures went all around the world. Tereshkova's spacecraft launched with
nothing untoward.

"so when the ship took off and I heard the command "start" I shouted 'hey sky, take off your hat I'm on my
way'."

Tereshkova's relatives only heard of her flight from the radio.

"i had finished my first year at the trade college and there were six or seven girls in the room where I was
living in the dormitory. on the radio they said that valentina Tereshkova had flown into space. I was
shocked. that was my cousin! I say "girls, it's my cousin" and they didn't believe me at first. it was hard to
convince them."

that very day Tereshkova spoke to Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev.

"all systems are working perfectly. I feel excellent."

"I can hear you very well. your call signal is seagull but let me call you simply Valentina. Valentina, I'm very
happy and proud that our girl, a girl from the Soviet Union is the first woman to fly to space and to
operate such cutting-edge equipment."
but not everything was quite so perfect with that cutting edge equipment.

"I spoke several times with Tereshkova. I heard she was tired but she wouldn't admit it. twice she tried to
orient the spacecraft and she honestly said she'd failed to do that."

Korolev was nervous. Even though it was only a test procedure Tereshkova couldn't do it. She couldn't
operate the spacecraft manually. Today the former cosmonaut claimed it was because of an engineering
fault.

"you see there was an error in the program. when it was supposed to land instead of descending from orbit
the ship was programmed to ascend. i entered the data sent from earth into the program and was able to
land safely."

the doctors had a different opinion. because the seagull didn't feel well under weightless conditions, she
wasn't accurately executing her commands from earth.

"the 1st 24 hours were really bad for her. she felt nauseous but nobody flies up there feels great."

that time the 1st soviet woman in space could not afford mistakes. nor to reveal any weakness. she was to
be a legend even before leaving the ground. it was much later that there would be speculation about the
problems with that flight. and the fact that she fell asleep at an inappropriate time. there was also talk of 2
broken pencils that had allegedly prevented Tereshkova from keeping proper records in the ship's log book.

"there was only 1 pencil. no, it didn't break, no. you know sometimes they asked me to deny these stories
but i don't think there is any need to. an honest person would never believe them. you must understand
that those were the 1st space flights. we had to prove that a human could function even aboard a
spacecraft in those conditions."

"there are certain professional issues that shouldn't be discussed in public. these things often happen at
work and during every space flight even today."

the 1st female cosmonaut landing was far from smooth.

"it was very clearly stated that she must not raise her head. you're strapped in the capsule and you must lie
still. well, a women's curiosity got the better of her. when the hatch opened she looked out and at that
moment she was ejected that her helmet hit the bridge of her nose"

“So we bailed out and our ships had their own parachutes. There were supposed to open at height of 4 km,
while ours were 7 km. When I looked down, what did I see, My God, there was a lake. I thought there’s no
way I’m going to fold there, but what could I do? The wind was extreme up to 17 meters a second. Well, I
even had to stand on my head and unfasten the parachute locking clips.”

The moment she landed she was immediately surrounded by locals.

"People brought her some foods, like boiled potatoes and milk. She ate that and handed out her own food
as souvenirs to them. She shouldn’t have done that, because we had to keep metabolic records of the flight.
How much she consumed, her excretions, what quantities and so on. But she gave everything away, so we
couldn’t analyze it."
Her spur-of-the-moment behavior was a minor detail. above all, she had returned, alive.

A woman blasted into space for the first time in 63, Russia sent Valentina Tereshkova on a 48 of the drive (?).
“I have been alone in space for quite some time, so it was especially rewarding to be joined in orbit by such
a charming comrade as Valentina Tereshkova.”

“I hope your wife didn’t hear that.”

“I'm so happy to have been granted the honor of being the first woman in the world to go into space”.

“the bourgeoisie always emphasize that women are the weaker sex. Now here you can see a typical Soviet
woman, who in the eyes of the bourgeoisie is weak. Look at what she has shown to America's cosmonauts,
she showed them who's who.”

There on the podium in Red Square Tereshkova stood shoulder to shoulder with Andrean Nicholaev. It's
said that Gagarin hinted to Khrushchev that perhaps there should also be a first space couple. The wedding
was organized under Khrushchev 's personal supervision. The couple had a baby girl who Tereshkova
named Yelena after her mother.

These are rare pictures of the first woman in space bringing her daughter to a video connection with
Andrean Nikolaev who was once again in orbit.

“daddy we went to the Bee garden and uncle Lyosha he got stung by a bee.”

After 19 years of marriage Tereshkova and Nikolaev eventually divorced. Valentina doesn't like to speak
either of her first marriage or her second - to the Soviet defense ministry's chief surgeon. The first woman
cosmonaut now has two grandsons Alexei and Andrei. The eldest finished school this year and wants to be
an economist.

“At first my eldest son wanted to be a pilot, but in time he ended up changing his mind. The youngest
claims he wants to be a cosmonaut. We'll see. he's like that if he says he'll do something maybe he will
and maybe he won't”.

“my grandmother and my grandfather were cosmonauts. They did the trampoline. I wanted to try it too.
Jumping on the trampoline is my favorite hobby now”.

Just like 50 years ago valentina Tereshkova has no time to spare in her regular working day. She's a
member of the State Duma. She went into space just once but she will always be the first woman in space.
The fact confirmed by every encyclopedia and internet search engine. Tereshkova still dreams today. Now
she’s ready to join an expedition to Mars her favorite planet. Even though it would be a one-way trip.

“This is my profession. It has been since the end of 1961, when I was invited to Moscow to go to the
selection commission and training. And from 1962 until today I've been closely involved with this
profession and this training center. This has been my life and I can't imagine living any other.