Valentina Tereshkova (born 1937) of the USSR became the first woman in space when she was launched into orbit, alone, aboard Vostok 6, on 16 June, 1963. She was 26 years old. It would be another 19 years before another woman, Svetlana Savitskaya, would make the trip into outer space. Prior to entering the space program, she was an assembly worker at a textile factory. In 2014, she carried the Olympic Flag at the opening ceremonies in Sochi, Russia. Please click here to learn more about who women who dared.