Eleanor Vaughn, age 11, of Jamestown, N.Y., for her question:

WHO WAS THE FIRST WOMAN IN SPACE?

A Russian woman named Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman to travel in space when she made 45 revolutions around the earth in a 70 hour and 50 minute space flight that lasted from June 16 to June 19, 1963.

Valentina pronounces her last name: ter esh ko va.

Russian cosmonaut Valery Bykovsky was in orbit at the same time. He was launched almost two days before Tereshkova. Russian officials said the two spaceships came within three miles of each other during the flight.

Tereshkova was born in 1937 and was 26 years old when she made her space flight.

Russians say Tereshkova parachuted from her spaceship after re entering the earth's atmosphere. She was the first space traveler with no experience as a test pilot. Her hobby had been parachuting and she had made more than 125 jumps before volunteering for space flight school. She received training as an airplane pilot before taking her space flight.

Five months after her space flight, Tereshkova married a Russian cosmonaut named Andrian Nikolayev. A year later, a baby girl was born to them.