Aboard Vostok 6, Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova (pictured) became the first woman in space.

Vostok 6 was the first human spaceflight to carry a woman, cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova, into space.

Valentina Vladimirovna Tereshkova is a Russian engineer, member of the State Duma, 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, is the only woman to have been on a solo space mission and is the last surviving Vostok programme cosmonaut. Twenty-six years old at the time of her spaceflight, she remains the youngest woman to have flown in space under the international definition of 100 km altitude, and the youngest woman to fly in Earth orbit.