Valentina Tereshkova

Valentina Vladimirovna Tereshkova (born 6 March 1937) is a Russian engineer, politician, and former Soviet cosmonaut. She was the first woman in space, having flown a solo mission on Vostok 6 on 16 June 1963. She orbited the Earth 48 times, spent almost three days in space, and is the only woman to have been on a solo space mission. She is the last surviving Vostok programme cosmonaut. At just twenty-six years old at the time of her spaceflight, she remains the youngest and first woman to orbit Earth. During her cosmonaut career, Tereshkova entered the political arena, serving in the Supreme Soviet from 1966 to 1989. Since 2011, she serves as a Member of the State Duma.

Before her selection for the Soviet space programme, Tereshkova was a textile factory worker and an amateur skydiver. She joined the Air Force as part of the Cosmonaut Corps and was commissioned as an officer after completing her training. After the dissolution of the first group of female cosmonauts in 1969, Tereshkova remained in the space programme as a cosmonaut instructor. She later graduated from the Zhukovsky Air Force Engineering Academy and re-qualified for spaceflight, but never went to space again. She retired from the Air Force in 1997, attaining the rank of major general.

Tereshkova was a prominent member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, holding various political offices. This includes, in addition to the Supreme Soviet, serving as Member of its Presidium from 1974 to 1989. She remained politically active following the collapse of the Soviet Union, but twice lost elections to the national State Duma, in 1995 and 2003. In 2008, she was to her regional parliament, the Yaroslavl Oblast Duma, before running again for the State Duma in 2011, this time successfully as a member of the ruling United Russia party. She was re-elected in 2016, 2021 and 2026. Tereshkova has the federal state civilian service rank of 1st class Active State Councillor of the Russian Federation. In 2020, she successfully proposed lifting the term limit for President Vladimir Putin. In 2022, she voted to recognise the breaking away of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions from Ukraine, for which she was placed on the international sanctions list of various countries.