Valentina Vladimirovna Nikolayeva Tereshkova

 Valentina Vladimirovna Nikolayeva Tereshkova was born in 1937 in Russia. Her major accomplishment to the field of Earth and Space Science is that she is the first woman to ever travel through space. This space travel took place on the Russian spacecraft Volstok VI. She had no official pilot training, but was accepted into the cosmonaut program because of her excellent amateur parachuting abilities.

She left the Russian space program shortly after her historic flight. She then went on to serve as director of the Soviet Women's Committee in 1968. From 1974 to 1991, she served as a member of the Supreme Soviet Presidium.

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