The Cold War and the Cosmos: Valentina Tereshkova and the First Woman’s Space Flight

Abstract

On 12 April 1961, Soviet scientists stamped their undisputed supremacy on the race to conquer space with the successful launch of the world’s first manned spacecraft. The single orbit of the Earth by a craft in which Yuri Gagarin never actually took the controls captured world imagination and propelled its hero on a ceaseless tour of international capitals. Two years later adulatory crowds were still turning out to greet the ‘Columbus of Space’, the Russian with the extraordinary smile, when his equally charming compatriot hit the headlines. On 16 June 1963, Valentina Tereshkova, a textile worker from the ancient town of Yaroslavl, became the first ever woman to fly in space.