Breaking Ground

RADIO MOSCOW: This is Radio Moscow. Here is a special announcement. For the first time in history, a woman has gone up into outer space. A Soviet citizen, Tereshkova.

Valentina Tereshkova was a 22-year-old textile worker when she decided to take up a hobby — skydiving. She became so good at it that a couple of years later she earned the attention of the Soviet Union’s space program. She was one of five women selected to train for a trip to orbit. And 50 years ago today, she became the only one of them to fly — the first woman in space.

At the time, space travel was a powerful symbol of national prowess, and Soviet Premier Nikita Khruschev was a master of space propaganda. He wanted a woman to fly in space to show the superiority of Soviet people and technology

Tereshkova, who picked the call sign “Seagull,” spent three days in space — more than all six American men who’d flown in space combined. Her flight was part of a Soviet doubleheader — another cosmonaut was already orbiting ab