Return and a nation's welcome

After nearly three days the braking engine fired and Vostok 6 headed for Earth. Like all Vostok cosmonauts, Tereshkova ejected from the capsule at a height of several kilometres and landed under her own parachute — on 19 June near Barnaul in southern Siberia.

News of the first woman in space travelled around the world and made Tereshkova a star at home. In November 1963 she married cosmonaut Andriyan Nikolayev; their daughter Yelena became the first child of two parents who had both flown in space.