Valentina Tereshkova celebrates birthday

The first ever woman in space and Hero of the Soviet Union, Valentina Tereshkova, celebrates her birthday today. Russian President Vladimir Putin sent his congratulations to her.

Valentina Tereshkova was born March 6th 1937 in the village of Maslennikovo, Yaroslavl Oblast. In Yaroslavl she attended a local flying club, where she jumped with a parachute. On 16 February 1962 Valentina Tereshkova was selected to join the female cosmonaut corps and on March 12 she was enrolled in the cosmonaut corps of the Airforce Cosmonaut Training Center as a trainee cosmonaut.

She made her first space mission on June 16 through 19 as a commander of Vostok-6. The mission took place simultaneously with the mission of Vostok-5 piloted by Valery Bykovsky. The duration of her mission was 2 days 22 hours 50 minutes. Her call sign was 'Chaika'.