The ceremony took place ith the 41-year-old groom orbiting the Earth at a height of some 240 miles (400 kilometres), while his bride, 26, was firmly earthbound in an auditorium in her home city of Houston, Texas.

Malenchenko, who was hurtling through space at some 17,500 mileskilometres) an hour as he tied the knot, proceeded with the wedding despite the initial opposition of his Russian Space Agency (RSA) superiors, who saw the union as a potential breach of security.

His American colleague aboard the International Space Station (ISS), Ed Lu, was best man, while a family friend stood in for the groom during the ceremony in Texas.

RSA spokesman Sergei Gorbunov said before the wedding that he had no objection to the marriage.

"Marriage is a cosmonaut's own business," he told the ITAR-TASS news agency. "Actions by cosmonauts in orbit are regulated by the inter-governmental Code of Cosmonauts' Conduct on Board the ISS which contains no direct ban on marriages."

However Moscow gave its assent through clenched teeth, officials having opposed the marriage for as long as they could on the grounds that Malenchenko, as an active-duty officer in Russia's armed forces, was party to confidential information.

Gorbunov stressed that in future "space marriages will be forbidden" and said that henceforth this would be made explicit in cosmonauts' contracts.

Malenchenko, who is divorced, proposed to Dmitriyeva in December before blasting off for the ISS in April. Dmitriyeva is a US citizen who emigrated from the Soviet Union with her parents when she was four.

They plan to marry in a church in Russia when Malenchenko returns to Earth in October, then spend their honeymoon in Australia.

SPACE.WIRE