Valentina Vladimirovna Tereshkova (born 6 March 1937 in Maslennikovo, Yaroslavl Oblast) is a Soviet cosmonaut and the first woman to fly in space. A textile worker in Yaroslavl, she took up parachuting in 1959 and logged more than 125 jumps before her selection into the cosmonaut detachment in March 1962. Her flight aboard Vostok 6 (16–19 June 1963) lasted 2 days and 22 hours, during which she completed 48 orbits of the Earth. She wrote Bonjour Cosmos! shortly after her flight. After her cosmonaut career, she pursued a political career in the USSR and later in Russia.