Valentina Tereshkova 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 at 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 16 February 1962, Proletaria Valentina Tereshkova was selected for this project from among more than four hundred applicants. Tereshkova had to undergo a series of training that included weightless fights, Isolation tests, centrifuge tests, rocket theory. Since the successful launch of the spacecraft Vostok-5 on 14 June 1963, Tereshkova began cosmonaut Solovyova were dressed in spacesuits and taken to the space shuttle launch pad by a bus. After completing her communication launched port checks, she was sealed inside Vostok-6.Finishing a two-hour count down Vostok-6 launched faultlessly.