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| A Vostok 6 launch cover featuring a Donetsk postmark dated June 16, 1963. |
Vostok 6 marked the first human spaceflight to carry a woman, cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova, into space on June 16, 1963. While Vostok 5 faced delays due to technical issues, Vostok 6 launched without any problems. The data gathered during this mission enhanced understanding of how the female body responds to spaceflight. Like other Vostok cosmonauts, Tereshkova kept a flight log, took photographs, and manually oriented the spacecraft. Her images of the horizon from space were later utilized to identify aerosol layers in the atmosphere. Initially, Vostok 6 was intended to be a joint mission with another Vostok carrying a female cosmonaut, but changes in the Vostok program led to cutbacks, paving the way for the transition to the Voskhod program. Vostok 6 ultimately became the final flight of a Vostok 3KA spacecraft.
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| Photo: Valery Bykovsky and Valentina Tereshkova. |
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| A Vostok 6 cover with a red Kiev postmark dated June 18, 1963. |
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| Photo: Valery Bykovsky and Valentina Tereshkova orbital paths. |
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| A Vostok 6 cover featuring a red Kiev postmark dated June 19, 1963, signed by Valery Bykovsky and Valentina Tereshkova. |
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| Two KNIGA covers for Vostok 5 and 6: the top cover features imperforated stamps, while the bottom cover has perforated stamps. Both are postmarked in Moscow on June 20 and June 22, 1963, respectively, and are signed by Valery Bykovsky and Valentina Tereshkova. |
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| Photo: Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev (center) with Valentina Tereshkova and Valery Bykovsky, June 22, 1963. |
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| A Vostok 6 cover featuring a stamp of Valentina Tereshkova, with a special postmark from Moscow. |
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| Photo: Yuri Gagarin and Valentina Tereshkova arrived at New York for a day visit, October 15, 1963. |
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| A postcard featuring a portrait of Valentina Tereshkova, canceled with a Vostok 6 stamp depicting her, and signed by Tereshkova herself. |
(Reference from
Vostok 6)
