Rocketing into the record books, Valentina Tereshkova - a former textile worker from the Soviet Union - became the first female to leave our planet. Aboard Vostok 6 in June 1963, Tereshkova - code name Seagull - was given the mission of performing the first docking manoeuvre with another spaceship.

Tereshkova had dreamed of going into space as soon as she first discovered that it was possible. By 2000 she had completed 23 circuits of the globe - one more than the longest-flying US spaceman, Gordon Cooper.