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Kondakova
Credit - www.spacefacts.de
Yelena Vladimirovna Kondakova Russian Engineer Cosmonaut. Born 30 March 1957. Engineer, first Russian woman to fly in space for other than propaganda reasons. Was married to astronaut Valeriy Ryumin.

Personal: Female, Married, One child. Born in Komsomolskna-Amure, Kharbarovsk, Russia. Korolev Design Bureau Civilian Engineer, Energia NPO

Astronaut Career

Astronaut Group: Energia Engineer Group 10 - 1989. Inactive Entered space service: 25 January 1989. Left space service: 30 December 1999. Number of Flights: 2.00. Total Time: 178.45 days.

Official NASA Biography - 1997

PERSONAL DATA:
Born March 30, 1957, in Mitischi, Moscow Region. Married to Valerii V. Ryumin, born 1939 in Komsomolskna-Amure, Kharbarovsk Region, Russia. They have one child. Kondakova enjoys the theater, river fishing, reading, traveling. Her father, Vladimir A. Kondakov and her mother, Klavdiya S. Kondakova (Morozova), reside in Kaliningrad, Moscow Region. His parents, Viktor N. Ryumin and Alexandra F. Ryumina (Podporina), are deceased.

EDUCATION:
Graduated from Moscow Bauman High Technical College in 1980.

SPECIAL HONORS:
Hero of Russia.

EXPERIENCE:
Upon graduation, in 1980, Kondakova started to work in RSC-Energia completing science projects, experiments and research work. Then in 1989 she was selected as a cosmonaut candidate by RSC-Energia Main Design Bureau and sent to Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center to start the course of general space training. After finishing the course in March, 1990, Kondakova was qualified as "test cosmonaut". From January through June of 1994, she was under training for the 17th main mission and "Euromir-94" flight as a flight engineer of the prime crew. October 4, 1994 through March 22, 1995, she fulfilled her first flight on board the spacecraft "Soyuz TM-17" and the orbital complex "Mir" as a flight engineer of the 17th main mission. She spent 169 days in space, including 5 days with NASA Astronaut Norman Thagard. The program included a month long joint flight with German Astronaut Ulf Merbold. Most recently, she was a mission specialist on STS-84 (May 15-24, 1997), NASA's sixth Shuttle mission to rendezvous and dock with the Russian Space Station Mir. Mission duration was 9 days, 5 hours and 20 minutes. In completing her second flight, Kondakova has logged over 178 days in space.

JULY 1997

Kondakova Spaceflight Log

  • 3 October 1994 Flight: Mir EO-17. Flight Up: Soyuz TM-20. Flight Back: Soyuz TM-20. Flight Time: 169.22 days.
  • 15 May 1997 Flight: STS-84. Flight Up: STS-84. Flight Back: STS-84. Flight Time: 9.22 days.
Kondakova Chronology

25 January 1989 - Energia Engineer Cosmonaut Training Group 10 selected..

3 October 1994 - Soyuz TM-20. Mir Expedition EO-17. Docked at the Mir forward port at 00:28 on 1994 October 6. The Mir crew of Viktorenko, Kondakova and Polyakov boarded Soyuz TM-20 on January 11, and undocked from Mir's front port at 09:00 GMT. The spacecraft withdrew to about two hundred metres from Mir and then redocked in a test of the automatic Kurs system, which had failed in Progress M-24's attempted docking. Redocking came at 09:25 GMT.
22 March 1995 - Landing of Soyuz TM-20. Soyuz TM-20 landed 22 km northeast of Arkalyk in Kazakhstan at 04:04 GMT with crew of Viktorenko, Kondakova and Polyakov aboard.
15 May 1997 - STS-84. Atlantis blasted off on a night launch to Mir, docking with the station on May 17 at 02:33 GMT. Jerry Linenger, who had begun his stay on Mir in mid-January aboard STS-81, would return aboard STS-84. Michael Foale would be left at the station for his stint as the American crew member of Mir. The crew transfered to Mir 466 kg of water, 383 kg of U.S. science equipment, 1,251 kg of Russian equipment and supplies, and 178 kg of miscellaneous material. Returned to Earth aboard Atlantis were 406 kg of U.S. science material, 531 kg of Russian logistics material, 14 kg of ESA material and 171 kg of miscellaneous material. Atlantis undocked from Mir at 01:04 GMT on May 22. After passing up its first landing opportunity due to clouds over the landing site, the Shuttle fired its OMS engines on the deorbit burn at 12:33 GMT on May 24. Atlantis landed at 13:27 GMT at Kennedy Space Center's runway 33.
24 May 1997 - Landing of STS-84. STS-84 landed at 13:27 GMT with the crew of Precourt, Collins Eileen, Clervoy, Lu, Noriega, Kondakova and Linenger aboard.
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© Mark Wade, 1997 - 2008 except where otherwise noted.