1950s-70s Space Race to The Moon: 1963-06-16 USSR Vostok 6

Vostok 6 cover with Donetsk postmark June 16, 1963.

Vostok 6 was the first human spaceflight to carry a woman, cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova, into space on June 16, 1963. While Vostok 5 had been delayed by technical problems, Vostok 6's launch proceeded with no difficulties. Data collected during the mission provided better understanding of the female body's reaction to spaceflight. Like other cosmonauts on Vostok missions, Tereshkova maintained a flight log, took photographs, and manually oriented the spacecraft. Her photographs of the horizon from space were later used to identify aerosol layers within the atmosphere. The mission, a joint flight with Vostok 5, was originally conceived as being a joint mission with two Vostoks each carrying a female cosmonaut, but this changed as the Vostok program experienced cutbacks as a precursor to the retooling of the program into the Voskhod program. Vostok 6 was the last flight of a Vostok 3KA spacecraft.

Photo: Valery Bykovsky and Valentina Tereshkova.

Vostok 6 cover with red Kiev postmark June 18, 1963.

Photo: Valery Bykovsky and Valentina Tereshkova orbital paths.

Vostok 6 cover with red Kiev postmark June 19, 1963. Signed by Valery Bykovsky and Valentina Tereshkova.

Vostok 5 and 6 imperforated and perforated stamps on Kniga cover, postmarked June 20 and 22, 1963 respectively, Moscow, signed by Valery Bykovsky and Valentina Tereshkova.