May 14, 2020 3 min read

Boom! The spacecraft takes off and the crowd goes wild! At this moment in time, 12:30 p.m. on June 16, 1963, Valentina Tereshkova traveled into space. Valentina, her siblings, and her widowed mother resided in Central Russia with scarce wealth. Valentina Tereshkova had an impact on history through her achievements.

Although Valentina had a poor, sad background, she achieved accomplishments.

Valentina’s father was a tractor driver. Serving in the Russian Army, he died in World War II when Valentina was just two years old. On the other hand, her mother worked at a cotton mill. She raised Valentina; her brother, Vladmir; and her sister, Ludmilla. Tereshkova had to help her mother at the house, so she was unable to start school until she turned ten. She moved to her grandmother’s house in Yaroslavl.

In 1954, she worked as an apprentice at a tire factory. She joined her mother and her sister at a cotton mill as a loom operator in 1955. She graduated from the Light Industry Technical School. The death of Tereshkova’s father and the lack of money didn’t keep Tereshkova from graduating from the Light Industry Technical School.

Next, Tereshkova went into difficult space training. Valentina became an amateur parachutist in 1959 after she joined the Yaroslavl Air Sports Club. She was inspired to volunteer for the Soviet Space Program by the first man in space, Yuri Gagarin. Her 126 parachute jumps gained her a position as a cosmonaut. She was the perfect candidate since trainers needed people with parachuting experience. Five women were chosen. Tereshkova earned a military rank in the Russian Air Force. After 18 months, she became chief pilot.

She underwent training: tests to determine if she could handle being alone for long periods of time, tasks with extreme and zero gravity conditions, and parachute jumps. Difficult training and parachute jumps tested Tereshkova to see if she could make it to space.

Lastly, even though Tereshkova’s mission had a few malfunctions, it was still a success. Tereshkova went into space on June 16, 1963, at 12:30 p.m. Her ship, Vastok VI, made 48 orbits around the Earth in 70 hours, 50 minutes. Her flight showed that women have the same physical and psychological stresses in space. Valentina was a good cosmonaut, although she experienced nausea and vomited on her flight. In addition, on the first day on her flight, there was an autopilot mistake and she had to reprogram the path when she landed in an unexpected place as a result of the radio not working properly. Tereshkova was brave for taking on the mission and solving many problems.

Through Tereshkova’s victories, she played a role in women’s history. From her tragic, poor background to tough space training and the challenge-filled mission, Valentina overcame it all. It only takes one person to change history forever.

Ella Pado is in seventh grade at Canonsburg Middle School.