Valentina Tareshkova was born on 6 March 1937 in Maslennikovo, a small town in the Yaroslavl region of the former USSR. Her father, a tractor driver, was killed in action during World War II. Her mother, Elena Fedorovna, worked in a textile factory.
Valentina began school in 1945 in Yaroslavl at the age of eight. In 1953, she left school and began working, but continued her education by following a correspondence course. By 1961, she had gained a certificate in textile technology.
From an early age, Valentina was interested in parachute jumping and it was the interest that led to her career as a cosmonaut. She made her first parachute jump under the guidance of the local Aviation Club in Yaroslavl at the age of 22, on 21 May 1959.
Soon after she set up the Textile Mill Workers’ Parachute Club and became its first committee leader. She was one of five women selected as cosmonaut candidates on 16 February 1962. All five underwent the complete course of training, including weightless flights, parachute jumps, isolation tests and centrifuge tests, While Valentina excelled in the physical training, she had more difficulty with rocket theory and spacecraft engineering. The training included 120 parachute jumps and pilot training with jet fighters.
On 14 June 1963, the rocket Vostok 5 was launched with cosmonauts Valeri Bykovsky aboard, and, two days later, Valentina Tareshkova became the first woman in space aboard Vostok 6. The Russian space federation was unhappy with Tereshkova’s performance and she was not permitted to take manual control of the spacecraft as had been planned. However, she completed three days in space, more than the flight time of all the American astronauts put together.
Tareshkova married Andrian Nikolayev, the only bachelor cosmonaut to have flown in space, on 3 November 1963, and, on 8 June 1964, Valentina gave birth to a daughter, Elena Andrianovna, who later went on to become a doctor. But the marriage did not last long and the space family fell apart.
(Taken from English as a Second Language Course Book, Cambridge)
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