Valentina Tereshkova: First woman in space

Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova is seen during a training session aboard a Vostok spacecraft simulator, Jan. 17, 1964.

This year marks the 50th anniversary of Tereshkova becoming the first woman in space.

Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova was the first woman in space.

Soviet cosmonauts Yuri Gagarin and Valentina Tereshkova wave to well-wishers in the Soviet Union, 1963.

Soviet cosmonaut, and first woman in space, Valentina Tereshkova is seen with Soviet Communist Party First Secretary Nikita Khrushchev (R), cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin - the first man to travel into space - and Soviet cosmonaut Valery Bykovsky during a rally dedicated to the successful completion of the flight of the Vostok-5 and Vostok-6 spacecrafts, June 22, 1963.

Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova is seen in a still from a documentary film as she writes down the place and time of landing in the logbook, Aug. 2, 1967.

Valentina Tereshkova accompanies South Korea's first astronaut, a biosystems engineering student, Yi So-Yeon, 29, April 8, 2008.

Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova, smiles during a press conference in Star City outside Moscow, June 7, 2013.

Valentina Tereshkova shakes hands with Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi as she pays a courtesy call at the prime minister's official residence in Tokyo, Oct. 14, 2003.

Tereshkova, the first woman to orbit the earth in June 1963, was in Tokyo to attend the astronauts meeting in Japan.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova pose after an awards ceremony in Moscow's Kremlin, May 22,2007.

Putin awarded Tereshkova with the Order for Service for the Fatherland.

Cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova is congratulated as she leaves the Kremlin in Moscow after receiving a state award for humanitarian merits, June 12, 2009.

President Dmitry Medvedev pins an award onto Valentina Tereshkova during Russia's State Awards ceremony at the Kremlin in Moscow, June 12, 2009.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev jokes with Soviet former cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova, 74, after awarding her with the medal for "Merits in Space Exploration" in the Moscow Kremlin, April 12, 2011.

A man kisses the hand of Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova, as she walks in Star City outside Moscow, June 7, 2013.