Washington DC - Jan 23, 1998 - NASA has named Russian space official Valeri Ryumin to the last Shuttle-MIR docking flight Thursday. But the Cosmonaut may have just a little problem in squeezing aboard the Discovery next May for blast-off. Sources at Johnson Space Center say the controversial, hard-talking Russian is more than 60 pounds overweight. And putting him on a diet may require more protocol than NASA can muster.Ryumin is the Russian head of the Shuttle-MIR Phase I program in Moscow. Last fall, sources at NASA say, Ryumin in essence ordered himself aboard a shuttle mission, to "better observe" the U.S.-Russian activities he was overseeing. Ryumin has often clashed with U.S. public relations handlers in embarrassing moments for both Russian and NASA officials.
When his wife, Cosmonaut Elena V. Kondakova, was set for launch aboard the STS-84 mission last May, Ryumin told a Kennedy Space Center press conference that his wife's preparation for her space mission had caused his needs to be neglected. He complained that her place -and women's place - was at home making his meals and keeping house, a statement that caused a small uproar in the press corps at the time.
Ryumin has also had harsh words for critics of the MIR station, and has suggested that U.S. cutbacks to the MIR program just might lead Russia to cut its obligations to the International Station, angering some U.S. officials last year.
But sources suggest that NASA had no way to deny the Russian government's request that Ryumin, like his wife before him, get a shuttle flight to MIR. "At least", quipped one space program observer, "the Russians will provide him with a space suit." And his wife's reaction to his complaints last May? "He has been a great wife to our family!", she joked.
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