Valentina Tereshkova, Legendary Soviet Cosmonaut and the First Woman in Space Turns 80

A Journal of People report

Valentina Tereshkova. Source: Internet

Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman to conquer space, celebrated her 80th birthday on March 6, 2017. She is the only woman in the world to go on a space flight alone. Her flight into space, at age 26, is still the record for youngest female astronaut/cosmonaut.

In June 1963 Tereshkova spent two days, 22 hours and 50 minutes in space, orbiting the Earth 48 times piloting the Vostok 6 spacecraft.
Her flight occurred two years after Yuri Gagarin, the Soviet cosmonaut, became the first human in space.
Valentina Tereshkova is the first female astronaut in history and the first woman in Russia with the rank of a Major-General. Currently she is serving as a Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Committee on the federal and local level.