Sheila Paine, age 16, of Grand Forks, N.D., 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, born in 1937, was 26 when she made her flight.

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

The first American woman to go into outer space was an astronaut named Sally K. Ride. Born in 1951, she took part in a flight on June 18 24, 1983 aboard the space shuttle Challenger. She was also on the 13th shuttle mission on Oct. 5 13, 1984.