Valentina Vladimirovna Tereshkova (b.1937), Soviet cosmonaut and engineer, and the first woman to have flown in space, having been selected from more than four hundred applicants and five finalists to pilot Vostok 6 on 16 June 1963. In order to join the Cosmonaut Corps, Tereshkova was only honorarily inducted into the Soviet Air Force and thus she also became the first civilian to fly in space. 1963 Supplied By: Society for Co-operation in Russian & Soviet Studies