Vostok 6

19 June 1963, Altai Krai

After nearly three days in orbit, the automatic landing sequence brought Vostok 6 back through the atmosphere on 19 June 1963.

Following the standard Vostok procedure, Tereshkova ejected at roughly seven kilometres altitude and descended under her own parachute while the capsule landed separately.

She came down near Baevo, in the Baevsky district of Altai Krai in the Russian SFSR — roughly 620 kilometres northeast of Karaganda, the reference point early reports used, which is why the landing is often misplaced in Kazakhstan.

The reception committee

Local residents reached Tereshkova before the recovery team. In her later recollection, some initially ran toward the capsule, thinking Bykovsky might be inside, before returning to her.

Valery Bykovsky landed in Vostok 5 about three hours later, completing the paired mission and the final flights of the Vostok programme.

Forty-eight orbits, then the decree

The completed mission had run 70 hours 50 minutes across 48 Earth orbits.

A decree of 22 June conferred on her the title Hero of the Soviet Union together with the Gold Star medal and the Order of Lenin. The female cosmonaut group was later dissolved, and the next woman in space, Svetlana Savitskaya, did not fly until 1982.