June 16, 1963: Valentina Tereshkova becomes the first woman in space.
Two years after Yuri Gagarin became the first human in space, fellow cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova, launched on the Vostok 6 spaceflight, became the first woman to do so. Prior to her recruitment as a cosmonaut, Tereshkova was an amateur parachutist, the daughter of a tractor driver and a textile worker (if anything, her humble background made her an even more qualified candidate to represent the women of the Soviet space program).
Tereshkova was relatively young when she ventured into space; at twenty-six, she was exactly ten years younger than the Mercury Seven’s youngest astronaut, Gordon Cooper. After several months of intensive and secretive training, she was nominated and confirmed by Nikita Khrushchev himself to become the first woman in space, and she did so flawlessly on June 16, 1963. She remained in orbit for nearly three days, performing the same tasks as her male counterparts (collecting photographic information, manning her craft), before returning to Earth on June 19. Tereshkova made no further spaceflights after her milestone first, and nearly two decades passed before the Soviet Union ever launched another woman into space. Despite the brevity of her space career, she was not forgotten in her country and received several awards and decorations for her accomplishments - almost immediately after her successful return from space, Tereshkova received the title of “Hero of the Soviet Union”, which was awarded for “heroic feats in service to the Soviet state and society”.
Other links: How Valentina Tereshkova’s spaceflight worked
(via scienceetfiction)
The crew of Shenzhou 10 have performed their setting out cermony, right before they board their rocket. See a video of the event here.
images: news.cn/xinhuanet
Wang Yaping
This is the face of the soon to be second Chinese woman in space. Wang Yaping was born on 27 January 1980 in Yantai (Shandong, China). Yantai is a coastal city on the Bohai Strait. She grew up on a cherry farm together with her younger sister. After she graduated from middle school she insisted on college, air force college (Changchun Flight Academy) to be precise. In 1998 she was qualified for solo flying and she graduated in 2001. Since she has flown several missions on transport aircraft, helping among others during the May 2008 Wenchuan earthquake. At the moment she is a major in the Chinese air force.
She was selected for astronaut training in may 2010. She was a second for the Shenzhou 9 flight of last year. This hear she is honoured with her own spaceflight. Not only that, China portraits her as the first Chinese teacher in space, since she will teach several lessons from orbit.
In her space time major Wang enjoys photography, music and basketball. She has also done long distance running in the past. In the news articles about her she is described as being eager to excel and hard working.
Gagarin
(via fuckyeahsciencefiction)
1962 … broke it! by x-ray delta one on Flickr.
(via fuckyeahsciencefiction)
