First woman in space opens personal exhibition at London's Science Museum

On March 15, London's Science Museum opens the exhibition, Valentina Tereshkova: First Woman in Space. Tereshkova will personally open the exhibition that features her biography, starting from work in a factory and parachute jumping as a hobby, to her current political career.

Tereshkova's flight to outer space on June 16, 1963, came two years after Gagarin's first flight. She spent almost three days orbiting Earth. Only 20 years later did the first American woman, Sally Ride, make her space flight.

The opening will see a screening of the documentary film, Legend of Valentina, with archival material shown for the first time. The film will be accompanied by a performance of the Moscow City Symphony Russian Philharmonic and master violinist Dmitry Kogan.

"Long live women workers of the world" poster, 1964, featuring Valentina Tereshkova (C) / E. Artsrynyan

The exhibition is part of the UK-Russia Year of Science and Education, and continues the great tradition of learning about the Soviet space program. The first such exhibition,Cosmonauts: Birth of the Space Age, was held in 2015 at the Science Museum.

The exhibition will be open to the public for free from March 16 to Sept. 17. It was organized in collaboration with Russian State Museum Exhibition Center (ROSIZO).

For more information about the exhibition visit Science Museum website

Read an interview with Valentina Tereshkova: ‘I very much wanted to go to Mars’

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