Untitled Document
 I'm
sure everyone knows that Korea's first astronaut will be a woman
named Yi So-yeon. She is the 49th woman in the world to go into space. So, who was the first
woman to travel into space? Her name is Valentina Tereshkova. She
was a national hero of the Soviet Union. Please follow
me to meet the amazing woman!
Valentina Tereshkova was born on March 6, 1937 in the Soviet Union.
She was raised by her mother. Her father died in World War II when
she was 3 years old. Valentina's mother had to work very hard to make money. She worked in
a textile mill.
Valentina started school when she was 8 years old. But she left school
at the age of 17 to work with her mother in the textile mill. On her
first payday, Valentina bought
a pretty scarf and some sweets for her mother. When
her mother saw these gifts, she burst into tears.
On April 12, 1961, the Soviet Union sent Yuri Gagarin into space.
He was the world's first man in space! On that day, Valentina's mother
said, "Now that a man has gone into space, next time it'll be
a woman's turn." And this changed
Valentina's life forever. She volunteered for the space
program and was chosen for the program!
 The
program was very hard. Valentina had to study very hard, including rocket science.
Each day was a battle for her. But she believed
that "When you have a dream and put all your strength to it, you can achieve it without fail."
On June 16 in 1963, she finally became the first
woman to go into space! She was 26 years old. Valentina circled the
Earth 48 times in 3 days. "It was so beautiful. There is no way
to describe the joy of seeing
the Earth," she said. "It is blue, and more beautiful than
any other planet. Every continent and every ocean had its own beauty."
As she circled the Earth, she thought of her mother. And then, she
thought of all the mothers of the world. She saw the Earth was filled
with life thanks to the mothers. And
she felt that the Earth was filled with the sounds of these mothers'
prayers. "It's every
mother's wish that their children have good lives. I want to make
sure that there are no more war widows like my mother,
and no more children like me who don't even know their own fathers,"
Valentina said.
 In 1963,
Valentina married Andrian Nikolayev. He was also a cosmonaut. In 1964, their
daughter Elena was born. Elena was the first child born to a mother
and a father who had both traveled in space!
In 1966, Valentina Tereshkova was made a Hero of the Soviet Union.
However, she never made a second trip into space. She became an important
member of the Communist Party and a representative of the Soviet
government. |
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