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50 free Valentina Tereshkova trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
On 16 June 1963 a 26-year-old former textile-mill worker became the first woman in space, and to this day she remains the only woman ever to fly a solo space mission. This Valentina Tereshkova trivia quiz covers the whole story: the amateur skydiver picked from 400 candidates, the three days and 48 orbits aboard Vostok 6, the parachute landing in Kazakhstan, and the 'cosmic wedding' that followed. It also follows her long second act as a Soviet and Russian politician, the lunar crater and asteroid that carry her names, and the honours and controversies of her later years. Questions run from easy to expert, and every answer is verified and cited to its reference page. If you enjoy this quiz, try our other space and history quizzes.
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Q 01Valentina Tereshkova was the first woman to do what?
Fly in space
She flew a solo mission aboard Vostok 6 on 16 June 1963, orbiting the Earth 48 times.
Q 02Which spacecraft carried Tereshkova into orbit?
Vostok 6
It was the final flight of the Vostok programme, and she is its last surviving cosmonaut.
Q 03In what year did Tereshkova fly in space?
1963
Her flight came just over two years after Yuri Gagarin's, and 20 years before Sally Ride became the first American woman in space.
Q 04How many times did Tereshkova orbit the Earth on her flight?
48
She spent 2 days, 22 hours and 50 minutes in space, more than all the American astronauts before her combined.
Q 05How old was Tereshkova at the time of her spaceflight?
26
She remains the youngest woman ever to orbit Earth.
Q 06What was Tereshkova's job before she was selected as a cosmonaut?
Textile factory worker
She worked in a tyre factory and then a textile mill while studying by correspondence, and skydived in secret from her family.
Q 07Which hobby contributed most to Tereshkova's selection as a cosmonaut?
Skydiving
Vostok cosmonauts ejected from the capsule and parachuted to the ground, so the rules required candidates to be parachutists.
Q 08What was Tereshkova's call sign during her flight?
Chaika (Seagull)
An asteroid, 1671 Chaika, was later named in commemoration.
Q 09In which Russian oblast was Tereshkova born?
Yaroslavl
Her village, Bolshoye Maslennikovo, sits on the Volga about 270 km northeast of Moscow; her parents had migrated from Belarus.
Q 10In which conflict was Tereshkova's father killed when she was two?
Finnish Winter War
After her flight she asked the state to find where he fell; a monument was erected at the site in Lemetti, Karelia.
Q 11How old was Tereshkova when she made her first parachute jump?
22
She jumped on 21 May 1959 at the local Aeroclub and went on to train as a competitive parachutist.
Q 12Which US programme prompted Nikolai Kamanin to push for a Soviet woman in space?
Mercury 13
He wrote in his diary that letting the first woman in space be American would insult the patriotic feelings of Soviet women.
Q 13How many candidates did DOSAAF initially select for the female cosmonaut group?
400
Fifty-eight met the requirements, Kamanin cut that to 23, and five were finally chosen on 16 February 1962.
Q 21What did her horizon photographs from orbit later help scientists identify?
Aerosol layers in the atmosphere
She also kept a flight log, and cameras in the capsule beamed live footage to Soviet state television.
Q 22How did Tereshkova return to the ground at the end of her flight?
Ejected and parachuted
All Vostok cosmonauts ejected at about four miles up; she struggled with violent gusts and bruised her nose on landing.
Q 23Near which Kazakh city did Tereshkova land on 19 June 1963?
Karaganda
She came down 620 km north-east of it, then had dinner with villagers who helped her out of her spacesuit.
Q 14What was the maximum age allowed for female cosmonaut candidates?
Under 30
Candidates also had to be parachutists under 170 cm tall and no heavier than 70 kg.
Q 15How many women were selected for the first female cosmonaut corps in 1962?
Five
With no military experience, they began as privates in the Air Force and were all commissioned junior lieutenants in December 1962.
Q 16Which jet did the female cosmonauts train to fly?
MiG-15UTI
Their training also included isolation, centrifuge, thermo-chamber and decompression tests plus water recovery at sea.
Q 17What nickname did Kamanin give Tereshkova when nominating her to fly?
Gagarin in a skirt
Khrushchev liked her propaganda value as the daughter of a collective-farm worker killed in the war and confirmed the choice.
Q 18Who served as Tereshkova's first backup for her 1963 flight?
Irina Solovyova
Both women were dressed in spacesuits and driven to the pad by bus on launch morning.
Q 19Which male cosmonaut was in orbit at the same time as Tereshkova?
Valery Bykovsky
The two ships came within 5 km of each other on her first orbit and could talk by radio.
Q 20How close did the two Soviet capsules approach each other during her first orbit?
About 5 km
Their orbital planes were 30 degrees apart, and neither cosmonaut could be sure of actually seeing the other.
Q 24Which honour did Khrushchev announce for Tereshkova at the Moscow homecoming?
Hero of the Soviet Union
She and Bykovsky spoke from atop Lenin's Tomb on Red Square, and were given the Order of Lenin at a Kremlin reception that evening.
Q 25How many trips abroad did Tereshkova make between 1963 and 1970?
42
She toured more than any other Vostok cosmonaut; each trip needed sign-off from the foreign and defence ministries and the KGB.
Q 26Which leader did Tereshkova meet in Havana in October 1963?
Fidel Castro
Cuba was recovering from Hurricane Flora at the time of her tour.
Q 27Which monarch, also pregnant at the time, did Tereshkova visit in February 1964?
Elizabeth II
Tereshkova's daughter was born that June; the Queen's son Prince Edward arrived in March.
Q 28Which fellow cosmonaut did Tereshkova marry in November 1963?
Andriyan Nikolayev
Khrushchev presided over the wedding party; the space authorities encouraged the match as a 'fairy-tale message to the country'.
Q 29What distinction does Tereshkova's daughter Elena, born in 1964, hold?
First person whose parents had both been to space
Her parents grew apart later, refusing to stand together in photos, and divorced in 1982.
Q 30Where did Tereshkova graduate with honours in 1969?
Zhukovsky Air Force Engineering Academy
A few months later the women's cosmonaut team was disbanded; no woman flew again until Svetlana Savitskaya in 1982.