Question 1

True or false: Tereshkova's mission was kept secret from the Soviet public until after landing.

Accepted Answer

False. The Soviet Union widely publicized her flight while she was in orbit to claim the achievement. Announcements were made during the mission, so it was not secret until landing.

Question 2

True or false: Tereshkova was a textile factory worker before becoming a cosmonaut.

Accepted Answer

True. She worked in a textile mill and was an amateur skydiver, which helped her get selected for the space program.

Question 3

True or false: Valentina Tereshkova is the only woman to have flown a solo space mission.

Accepted Answer

True. She piloted Vostok 6 alone in 1963. No other female astronaut has ever flown a solo mission; all subsequent spaceflights by women were as part of multi-crew crews.

Question 4

True or false: Valentina Tereshkova was the first woman to walk in space.

Accepted Answer

False. She never did a spacewalk. Svetlana Savitskaya was the first woman to walk in space in 1984.

Question 5

True or false: Tereshkova's spaceflight lasted nearly three days, orbiting Earth 48 times.

Accepted Answer

True. She launched on June 16, 1963, and spent 2 days, 22 hours, and 50 minutes in space, completing 48 orbits.

Question 6

True or false: Valentina Tereshkova was married to fellow cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin for several years.

Accepted Answer

False. She married cosmonaut Andriyan Nikolayev in 1963, not Gagarin. They had a daughter and later divorced.

Question 7

True or false: Valentina Tereshkova piloted Vostok 6 entirely manually, with no ground control help.

Accepted Answer

False. The flight was largely automated. A programming error meant she actually corrected the orientation manually, but it wasn't entirely manual.

Question 8

True or false: Tereshkova was awarded the United Nations Peace Medal in 1963.

Accepted Answer

False. The UN Peace Medal did not exist in 1963; it was first awarded in 1971. Tereshkova received it in 1975, not 1963.

Valentina Tereshkova Trivia Questions