Valentina Tereshkova deserves more recognition than she sometimes gets in the annals of space history. With her single flight orbiting the Earth in 1963, she not only became the first woman in space, but she also logged more flight time in space than all of the US Mercury astronauts combined to that point. Additionally, she is still the only woman to have undertaken a solo space mission, as well as the youngest woman in to have flown in space.
The U.S.S.R. named Tereshkova a “Hero of the Soviet Union” after her successful return, and although she never flew again, she is on record stating that she would be willing to go back to space – this time to Mars. Even knowing that such a mission would be a one-way trip, Tereshkova said she would be ready to end her life in a tiny colony with a few other Mars dwellers. It’s not hard to imagine this brave and pioneering woman taking one final space mission to the red planet.
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