Vostok 6
Vostok 6 launches Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman in space
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Original prompt & settings (JSON) ↗A textile-factory worker with no pilot training went into orbit. Within hours Soviet television was showing live pictures from inside her capsule.
Baikonur, 16 June 1963
The Soviet Union launched Vostok 6 from Baikonur on 16 June 1963 with Valentina Tereshkova as its sole occupant, making her the first woman to enter space and orbit Earth.
She was twenty-six, a textile worker and experienced amateur parachutist, and the first person placed in orbit without prior pilot training. Her radio call sign was Chaika — "Seagull."
Two Vostoks in orbit at once
Vostok 6 joined Valery Bykovsky's already-orbiting Vostok 5. During the first orbit the two spacecraft came within about five kilometres and the cosmonauts established radio communication.
This was not a rendezvous. Neither spacecraft had the capability to manoeuvre toward the other.
Live from inside the capsule
Within hours, Soviet television was showing live pictures of Tereshkova inside her one-person capsule, and she and Bykovsky transmitted a joint message to Nikita Khrushchev.
The Soviet government had authorized a female-cosmonaut group expressly to ensure that the first woman in space would be Soviet. Nikolai Kamanin, who headed cosmonaut training, favoured Tereshkova partly for her parachuting, her public presence and her political credentials.
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Researched 23 Aug 2026 6 sources 2 audit passes
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