The first woman to fly in space, Tereshkova orbited the earth 48 times in the Soviet craft, Vostok 6. For three days, she maintained a flight log, took photographs and manually oriented the spacecraft.

Women of Space

On June 18, 1983 Sally Ride became the first American woman to reach orbit. In the 25 years that came after, 40 other women followed her

Enter

share

Get the Latest Photos from Time.com
Get TIME photos and pictures of the week delivered directly to your inbox.