Who was the first woman to travel into space?
- A.Svetlana Savitskaya
- B.Sally Ride
- C.Valentina Tereshkova
- D.Kalpana Chawla
Correct answer
Explanation
The correct answer is C, Valentina Tereshkova. The Soviet cosmonaut flew alone aboard Vostok 6 in June 1963 and spent nearly three days in orbit, becoming the first woman in space, two years after Yuri Gagarin's flight.
Option A, Svetlana Savitskaya, was the second woman in space and, in 1984, the first woman to walk in space, so she answers a neighbouring question rather than this one. Option B, Sally Ride, was the first American woman in space, in 1983, and the trap works only if the candidate reads American for world. Option D, Kalpana Chawla, was the first woman of Indian origin to go into space, flying with NASA in 1997 and dying in the Columbia accident of 2003. Fix the pair as Gagarin for the first man and Tereshkova for the first woman, both of the Soviet Union.
Read the full article: First in the World: Space, Exploration and Records
Practice Questions
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