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Manned Missions > Vostok 6 |
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The Russian Vostok 6 was to continue experiments for joint spaceflights and also observe the effect of space travel on the female body. The first woman in space, Valentina Tereshkova, traveled on this flight.
Analysis
On June 16, 1963, the Russian Vostok 6 took the first woman to space: 26-year-old Valentina Tereshkova. The mission objective was to continue experiments for joint flight and to observe the effect of space travel on the female body and compare it to the effect on males. Having a female on this mission and observing her responses may have been largely for publicity and to beat the Americans in another "first."
Vostok 6 was launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome, a Russian spaceport in Kazakstan. Tereshkova orbited the Earth for approximately 2 days and 22 hours. As she began her first orbit, she came within 5 kilometers of Vostok 5 and established radio contact. This faded by the second day. Tereshkova returned to Earth on June 19, 1963, and parachuted to the ground as Gagarin had from Vostok 1. Tereshkova later received the Order of Lenin and Hero of the Soviet Union awards for her historic flight.
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