Who was the First Civilian in Space
For years countries have worked hard to construct and launch spaceships into space. Many of these space ships were unmanned and of those that were manned, professional astronauts and military personnel guided their flights. Many people are interested to know who was the first civilian in space. A civilian in this case is a person who is neither an astronaut nor a military or government official.
The First Civilian in Space
The first civilian in space was a Russian woman named Valentina Vladimirovna Tereshkova. She was chosen out of 400 applicants to pilot a 3 day mission into space. She launched on 16th of June 1963. Along with being the first civilian in space she was also the first woman in space. Valentina Vladimirovna Tereshkova orbited the earth 48 times and spent almost three days in space. Tereshkova also maintained a flight log and took photographs of the horizon, which were later used to identify aerosol layers within the atmosphere.
The next civilians to go into space were Konstantin Feoktistov, also the first scientist, and Boris Yegorov, also the first physician, aboard Voshkod 1 which reached orbit on October 12 1964. Konstantin Feoktistov was part of the team of scientists that designed the sputnik satellites and the Vostok capsules. The Feoktistov crater on the Far Side of the Moon is named in his honor. Yegorov was selected as a member of the multi-disciplinary team that flew on Voskhod 1. As a result of this space flight, Yegorov was awarded the title of the Hero of the Soviet Union on October 19, 1964. The asteroid 8450 Yegorov is named in his honor.
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