Tereshkova (1937) was born in the village Maslennikovo, Tutayevsky District, in central Russia.Tereshkova’s father was a tractor driver and her mother worked in a textile plant. Tereshkova began school in - 1945 at the age of eight but left school in 1953 and &continued her education through distance learning. She became interested in parachuting from a young age, and ‘trained in skydiving at the local Aeroclub, making her first jump at age 22 on 21 May 1959. At that time she &  was employed as a textile worker in a local factory. It, was her expertise in skydiving that led to her selection as a cosmonaut. After the flight of Yuri Gagarin (the first human being to travel to outer space in 1961), the Soviet  Union decided to send a woman in space. On 168 February 1962, Tereshkova was selected for this project from among more than four hundred applicants.Tereshkova underwent a series of training that included  weightlessness flights, rocket theory, space craft engineering, parachute jumps and pilot training in MIG- ISUTI fighters. Since the successful launch of the space craft ~Vostok-5 on 14 June 1963, Tereshkova began preparing for her own flight. On the morning of 16 June 1963, Tereshkova and her back-up cosmonaut Solovyova were dressed in space suits and taken to the Space shuttle launch pad by a bus. After completing her & communication and life support checks, she was. sealed inside Vostok-6. Finishing a two-hour countdown, & Vostok-6 launched faultlessly.