Lara Roberts, age 17, of Biloxi, Miss., for her question:

WHO WAS THE FIRST WOMAN IN SPACE?

Valentina Tereshkova, a 26 year old Russian cosmonaut, became the first woman to travel in space when she made a 70 hour and 50 minute space flight that lasted from June 16 to June 19, 1963. Her craft made 45 revolutions around the earth.

Russian cosmonaut Valery Bykovsky was in orbit at the same time as Tereshkova. His craft was launched almost two days before. The two spaceships came within three miles of each other during the flight. Russian officials said the dual flight was conducted for simultaneous observations of the reactions of a man and woman flying in space.

Tereshkova, who parachuted from her spaceship after it re entered the earth's atmosphere, was the first space traveler with no experience as as test pilot. She became interested in parachuting as a hobby and had made more than 125 jumps before volunteering for space flight training school.

In November 1963, five months after her flight, Tereshkova married cosmonaut Andrian Nikolayev. A baby girl was born to them the next year.