I am so proud of you, our Soviet girl

A letter to the first woman in space, from her namesake

Valentina Tereshkova. Photo: NASA

In June of 1963, two years after Yuri Gagarin became the first man to journey into space, 26-year-old Valentina Vladimirovna Tereshkova became the first woman to do the same, orbiting Earth 48 times aboard the Vostok 6 spacecraft over the course of three days. Prior to becoming a spacefarer, Tereshkova had worked as a te…