Notes from the launch
Valentina Tereshkova was twenty-six, a textile factory worker and amateur parachutist. Her call sign aboard Vostok 6 was Chayka — seagull.
On 16 June 1963, she launched from Pad 1/5 at Baikonur. Vostok 6 completed forty-eight orbits over 2 days, 22 hours, and 50 minutes. On the first day, a navigation error caused the spacecraft to orient incorrectly for descent; Tereshkova identified the fault and relayed corrective data to the ground.
Vostok 6 was the sixth and final crewed Vostok flight, closing a programme that had run for just over two years. No woman would fly in space again for nineteen years — until Svetlana Savitskaya aboard Soyuz T-7 in 1982.
Tereshkova landed near Barnaul on 19 June 1963. The capsule is now in the RKK Energiya museum outside Moscow.
Payload
Vostok 6
Crew member
- 01Valentina TereshkovafromRussia