First woman in space

摘要

In June 1963 the Soviet Union sent a young female parachutist into space on a solo Vostok space flight. The launch of Lt Valentina Tereshkova was the culmination of a brief training programme, begun in early 1962, with the objective of getting a woman into space before the Americans had a chance to do so. This article - the first of two parts - tells the full story of the selection, training and flight planning which Tereshkova and her colleagues underwent, and includes her own dramatic 1964 account of her launch, published here in English for the first time.