On Vostok 6, the last Vostok craft to be launched by the Soviet Union, was the first female in space, Valentina Tereshkova. Initially a textile worker, her interest in skydiving that gave her the edge when hundreds of applicants for the first female in space had to be whittled down to a final five.
Like any other mission there were experiments to be done, chiefly to study the affects of spaceflight on the female body, and for three days in mid June, Valentina would be experiencing them firsthand, getting nauseous and uncomfortable, but nothing detrimental to the flight.
As well as radio contact with the ground, she was also in a position to contact Valery Bykovsky, launched two days earlier aboard Vostok 5, when they got within 5km of each other. He would land a few hours after Valentina on the 19th June, setting the record for the longest solo space mission.
Valentina’s flight lasted nearly 3 days, longer than all the U.S. space flights up until that time.
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