Valentina Vladimirovna Tereshkova (Russian: Валенти́на Влади́мировна Терешко́ва; born 6 March 1937), is a retired Soviet cosmonaut and was the first woman to fly in space, aboard Vostok 6 on 16 June 1963.
She was born in Bolshoye Maslennikovo, a small village in the Yaroslavl Oblast. After school she worked in a coat factory, and then studied engineering. She also trained in parachuting at the local Aeroclub, making her first jump at age 22 on 21 May 1959. In 1961 she became secretary of the local Komsomol (Young Communist League) and later joined the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.