How a Parachutist Named Seagull Became the First Woman in Space
On 16 June 1963, a 26-year-old former textile worker named Valentina Tereshkova launched aboard Vostok 6 and spent nearly three days alone in orbit. She flew 48 times around the Earth, longer than every American astronaut combined, and spotted a dangerous flaw in her descent program that ground controllers had missed.