FIRST WOMAN INTO SPACE

VALENTINA Tereshkova (below) was the first woman to go into space when she flew aboard Vostok 6 in 1963. The Russian cosmonaut who volunteered for the Soviet space program after Yuri Gagarin became the first man in space in 1961 spent almost three days in space and orbited Earth 48 times. Her flight into space, at age 26, is still the record for youngest female astronaut/cosmonaut.