Putin congratulates First Woman in Space

On 6 March 2017, Valentina Tereshkova turned 80. In her early 20s, she was a regional skydiving champion in her hometown of Yaroslavl. The entire selection and mission of the female cosmonaut was disguised as a parachuting competition. On the day of the flight, Tereshkova informed her family she was leaving to take part in a parachuting contest. Valentina’s mother only learnt about her daughter’s real whereabouts on the radio, while she was circling the Earth in space. The 26-year-old cosmonaut, who was given the call sign of Chaika (Seagull), spent almost three days – 70 hours 50 minutes – on the spacecraft. Her mission lasted longer than the combined time US astronauts had spent in space up to that moment. Having orbited Earth 49 times, Tereshkova remains the only woman ever to have been on a solo space mission. The translation in the second clip from the space station, is courtesy of Sputnik.