Valentina Tereshkova 瓦莲京娜·捷列什科娃
（重定向自Tereshkova, Valentina Vladimirovna）
![](/Images/godic/202502/15/RIAN_archive_612748_Valentina_Tereshkova0858.jpg")
![Cosmonauts Valentina Tereshkova and Valery Bykovsky among children](/Images/godic/202502/15/RIAN_archive_619144_Cosmonauts_Valentina_Tereshkova_and_Valery_Bykovsky_among_children0858.jpg")
![Cosmonauts Andriyan Nikolayev and Valentina Tereshkova on a Hungarian stamp.](/Images/godic/202502/15/1679_Science_1000858.jpg")
![From left to right: Yuri Gagarin, Pavel Popovich, Valentina Tereshkova, and Nikita Khrushchev at the Lenin Mausoleum, during a celebration honoring the Soviet cosmonauts, 1963](/Images/godic/202502/15/RIAN_archive_159271_Nikita_Khrushchev,_Valentina_Tereshkova,_Pavel_Popovich_and_Yury_Gagarin_at_Lenin_Mausoleum0858.jpg")
Valentina Vladimirovna Tereshkova (Russian:Валенти́на Влади́мировна Терешко́ва;IPA: [vɐlʲɪnʲˈtʲinə vlɐˈdʲimʲɪrəvnə tʲɪrʲɪʂˈkovə]; born 6 March 1937) is a retired Russian cosmonaut and politician. She is the first woman to have flown in space, having been selected from more than four hundred applicants and five finalists to pilot Vostok 6 on 16 June 1963. She completed 48 orbits of the Earth in her three days in space.