But her gender wasn't the only contribution that Tereshkova made to the cultural history of space exploration — she was also the first person to wear a mission emblem on her spacesuit, although it was hidden from view.

 

Now, half a century later, a Dutch artist is set to bring that patch into the light— and to the public — by producing replicas.

 

Valentina Tereshkova was 25, a textile factory assembly worker and an amateur parachutist when she was chosen with four other women to join the Soviet cosmonaut corps in 1962. Her first and only mission a year later marked the twelfth manned— or rather, crewed — space flight in the world.