50 Dollars First Woman in Space

The Marshall Islands began issuing commemorative coinage following the Compact of Free Association with the United States, which took effect in 1986 and granted the islands self-governance while allowing U.S. dollar circulation to continue. This piece honors Valentina Tereshkova, who flew aboard Vostok 6 in June 1963 — a mission the Soviet space program never repeated with a female cosmonaut for another nineteen years.

Tereshkova completed 48 orbits over nearly three days, logging more time in space on that single flight than all American astronauts combined to that point.