Valentina Tereshkova

Valentina Tereshkova is the first woman to have travelled in space. On 16th June 1963, she flew
the spacecraft Vostok 6 around Earth. In total, she orbited the planet 48 times, which took her
almost three days.
Valentina was selected from more than 400 others
and her mission was to find out how women reacted
to spaceflight. On her journey, she took some
incredible photographs of Earth from space. Some of
the pictures showed how the world was suffering
from the effects of global warming. They were then
used to help improve scientists’ understanding of it.
Valentina was in central Russia in Bolshoye
Maslennikovo on the 6th of March 1937. When the
Second World War broke out Valentina ha to leave
school and started training in skydiving. In 1959,
Valentina made her first jump and it was her skill as a
skydiver that eventually led to her being picked as
the first female cosmonaut.
Valentina was chosen as the Vostok 6 pilot a month
before the flight and, on 16th June 1963, the
spacecraft was ready for launch. After a two-hour
countdown, Valentina was launched skywards,
becoming the first ever woman in space.

Circle the correct answer:

1- Valentina Tereshkova was a) skydiver b) a pilot c) a cosmonaut

2- She orbited the Earth a) 48 times b) 16 times c) 400 times

3- She was born in a) 1963 b) 1937 c) 1959

4- She travelled into space in a) 1951 b) 1961 c) 1963

5- She travelled into space on a) Apollo 6 b) Voyager 1 c) Vostok 6

6- The countdown for take-off took a) 3 days b) 2 hours c) 48 minutes

Margaret Hamilton

Read and match the questions with the paragraphs.

1. What is the SAGE?

2. What is she best known for?
3. What advice does Hamilton give to young women in STEM?
4. What job did she accept in Boston?
5. How may papers and reports has she published over the years?
6. When was Hamilton born?

______ .A. Margaret Hamilton was born in Paoli, Indiana, USA on the 17th of August 1936

_____ .B. She is best known for helping to write the code for the Apollo missions to the Moon

C. She graduated from school in 1954 before becoming a mathematics teacher at high schools. A
short while after, she moved to Boston where she accepted a job at Massachusetts Institute of
_____ .Technology and started programming software to predict the weather

D. Hamilton has also worked at MIT's Lincoln Laboratory and was involved in the Semi-
Automatic Ground Environment (SAGE), an early-warning radar system built to detect incoming
aircraft. She led a team who developed the software for guidance and control systems of the in-
flight command and lunar modules of the Apollo missions. She also worked on software to detect
system errors and recover information when the system crashed, which was crucial in the
_____ .Apollo missions

E. Hamilton’s advice for young women in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) is:
“Don’t let fear get in the way and don’t be afraid to say “I don’t know” or “I don’t understand” –
______ ”!no question is a dumb question. And don’t always listen to the so-called experts

F. Over the years Hamilton has published over 130 papers and reports. She has also won many
______ .awards including the Augusta Ada Lovelace Award in 1986 and The Washington Award