The 41st pilot-cosmonaut of the USSR Valery Ryumin saw the globe from the window four times. Twice the hero of the Soviet Union in orbit visited as a flight engineer three times on domestic ships of the Soyuz series and once on the American Discovery was a flight specialist.
Summing up the results of Valery Viktorovich's space epic was his final flight at 58 years old. And the Ryumin spouses themselves rightfully bear the title of a space family: the cosmonaut's wife, Elena Kondakova, twice visited the extraterrestrial orbit.
Way to orbit
The biography of the future hero began in 1939. The boy was born in the Far Eastern Komsomolsk-on-Amur on August 16. The child's parents were also associated with the sky. They worked at an aircraft factory. Since childhood, Valery dreamed of flying. However, he began to implement it only from 27.
Before the war, the family moved to the Moscow region Zagoryanka, where Ryumin graduated from high school in 1954. The graduate continued his further education at a mechanical technical school in Kaliningrad. He chose cold metalworking as his specialty. As a trainee turner, Valeriy worked in practice for three months in the summer on the basis of OKB-1.
Then in 1958 he served in the army. It lasted until 1960. After demobilization, the young man went to the capital's university. He graduated from training in 1966.
The young specialist was sent to work at Korolev, in the already familiar Central Space Bureau. However, Valery returned not as a student, but as a specialist. After three years, he became a senior engineer. His responsibilities included the development of mechanisms for spacecraft intended for flights to the moon.
In the early seventies, Ryumin became the head of the flight management and became the deputy chief designer of the Salyut orbital stations. The applicant was enrolled in the cosmonaut corps in 1973. The pilots were trained for flights on the Soyuz series.
Space
For the first time, Valery Viktorovich went into orbit in 1977. Since October 9, he has been in space for 3 days. The stay time was determined by a malfunction that prevented the Soyuz-25 from docking with the station. Due to a change in the situation, the flight was terminated.
The new 175-day flight of the forty-year-old pilot took place in February 1979. The ship was commanded by Vladimir Lyakhov. The unscheduled spacewalk took place in mid-August. The teammates were fixing a snagged antenna. On August 19, the pilots of Soyuz-32 were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. Ryumin received the Gold Star medal and the Order of Lenin.
A year passed before the pilot took off on a new flight. He spent 185 days in orbit as part of the Soyuz-35 crew. Together with the Salyut-6 complex, 4 expeditions took place, 3 of them were international. After Ryumin's return, a new high award awaited.
The pilot, who has been in space three times, took the post of deputy, and then head of the test complex. Ryumin also worked at the Central Mission Directorate as a deputy and then a head of tests.
In August 1980 Ryumin received from Yuri Vizbor and Sergey Nikitin a cycle of songs "Ruminiada".
New responsibilities
From 1982, for seven years, Valery Viktorovich was in charge of the development of ships and stations in the royal NPO Energia near Moscow. The team specialized in the Mir and Salyut orbital stations, the Buran reusable manned spacecraft, and Progress cargo carriers for space.
The cosmonaut left the detachment in the fall of 1987. Ryumin sent all his forces to development. In 1994 he took over as head of the Mir-Shuttle and Mir-NASA programs as a representative of Russia. He held this responsible position for four years.
In 1997, shortly before his sixtieth birthday, Ryumin joined the Discovery crew. The preparations for the flight were carried out at the US Space Center. The flight took place on June 2, 1998 and lasted a decade. The American shuttle successfully docked with the domestic station.
In total, the cosmonaut spent more than a year in orbit during his career, 371 days. Ryumin arranged his personal life twice. His first chosen one was an employee of RSC Energia. In his alliance with Natalia in 1965, the first child, daughter Victoria, appeared. Son Vadim was born in 1972.
Elena Kondakova became the second wife of the cosmonaut in 1985. Acquaintance with her happened during the leadership of Valery Viktorovich MCC. The area of responsibility of the young specialist Kondakova included emergency situations. It took the astronaut only a couple of days to understand his feelings. The chosen one did not expect this at all. Ryumin had to seek her consent within a year. He and his wife have a daughter, Eugene. She was born in the mid eighties.
Family and vocation
The husband categorically opposed his wife's desire to go into space. However, Elena managed to insist on her own. Having been in orbit twice, she became a Hero of the Soviet Union.
During the first flight of the mother, the baby turned 3. After 5 years, a new flight took place. It lasted 6 months. The husband was very worried when he met Elena at the site of the proposed planting with a huge bouquet of roses.
None of Ryumin's children chose their father's profession. Their occupation is very far from the space industry.
Valery Viktorovich spends his free time on fishing, is fond of collecting forest gifts, loves walks in the forest. He is a fan of Russian sports teams.
The astronaut likes to read the memoirs of celebrities, he is fond of history. Valery Viktorovich wrote the books “A Year Beyond the Earth” and “RSC Energia” im. SP Korolev . In the creation of the latter, he took part as a co-author.
