myfavoritebitches:

Valentina Tereshkova. A proletariat that worked in a textile factory and parachuted for funsies, this lady was one of the five chosen by the Soviet space program. She joined up with the USSR Air Force and then became a cosmonaut in the 1960s. In 1963, the Soviets decided to send her to space on the Vostok 6. She put the American space program to shame, logging more space hours than any American astronaut had at that time having spent three days (48 orbits) out of the atmosphere. At 26 she became the first and only fucking lady in space for nineteen years. Still alive and kickin’ at 74 in Russia, she has won pretty much all of the honors and has been elected to a bunch of committees.