Who was the first woman in space?

Valentina Vladimirovna Tereshkova is a Russian State Duma member and former Soviet astronaut. She was the first and youngest woman in space, flying a solo mission aboard the Vostok 6 on June 16, 1963. She orbited the Earth 48 times and spent over three days in space, making her the first woman to have completed a solo space trip.

Tereshkova was a textile mill worker and an amateur skydiver before being chosen for the Soviet space program. After finishing her training, she joined the Air Force as a member of the Cosmonaut Corps and was commissioned as an officer. Tereshkova stayed in the space program as a cosmonaut teacher until the first group of female cosmonauts was disbanded in 1969. She went on to graduate from the Zhukovsky Air Force Engineering Academy and re-qualify for spaceflight, but she never flew again. She left the Air Force in 1997, having risen to the rank of major general.

Tereshkova was a senior member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, serving in several political positions, notably as a member of the Supreme Soviet's Presidium from 1974 until 1989. She remained politically engaged after the Soviet Union's demise, but lost elections to the national State Duma in 1995 and 2003. Tereshkova was later elected to the Yaroslavl Oblast Duma, her provincial parliament, in 2008. She was first elected to the national State Duma in 2011 as a member of the United Russia party, and she was re-elected in 2016 and 2021.