17:03 19.11.2012

Ukraine's space industry marks 15th anniversary of space flight of first Ukrainian cosmonaut in modern history

2 min read

Ukraine's space industry marked on Monday the 15th anniversary of the start of a 16-day flight into space aboard the U.S. Space Shuttle Columbia of Leonid Kadeniuk, the first Ukrainian cosmonaut in Ukraine's modern history, the press service of the State Space Agency of Ukraine (SSAU) has reported.

The participation of the Ukrainian cosmonaut in the missions of U.S. shuttles was first announced in a joint statement by Ukrainian and U.S. Presidents Leonid Kuchma and Bill Clinton on May 13, 1994, while in 1995, the space agencies of the two countries launched joint preparations for a space flight and scientific experiments.

The preparations lasted three years, during which the sides agreed on concrete objectives of the experiment, equipment and devices were perfected, and the joint actions of Ukrainian and U.S. scientists were worked out.

In February 1996, Kadeniuk was included in a group of Ukrainian cosmonauts to prepare for flights aboard the Space Shuttle. From November 1996 to November 1997, along with backup cosmonaut Yaroslav Pustovy, was trained for the flight at the Johnson Space Center (the United States).

Kadeniuk's space flight as part of the international crew was performed November 19 through December 5, 1997 and lasted 15 days, 16 hours and 35 minutes.

According to the State Space Agency of Ukraine, the second Ukrainian astronaut may fly to the International Space Station (ISS) no earlier than 2014.

Ukraine and Russia earlier agreed that they might send a Ukrainian cosmonaut on a Russian spacecraft to participate in long-term operations on the Russian segment of the ISS.

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