Ryumin

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Ryumin

Valeri Viktorovich Ryumin Status: Inactive. Trained as: Cosmonaut. Profession: Engineer. Sex: Male. Marital Status: Married. Children: Three. Birth Date: 16 August 1939. Birth City: Komsomolsk-na-Amure. Birth State: Khabarovsk. Birth Country: Russia. Nationality: Russian. Affiliation: Civilian Engineer, Korolev OKB. Group: 1973 Civilian Engineer Group. Detachment: TsKBEM- 3. Date Selected: 27 March 1973. Date Departed: 28 October 1987. Number of Flights: 4. Total Time: 371.73 days. Number of EVAs: 1. Total EVA Time: 1.38 hours.

NASA Official Biography

NAME: Valery Victorovitch Ryumin

Russian Cosmonaut

PERSONAL DATA:

Born August 16, 1939 in the city of Komsomolsk-on-Amur in the Russian Far East. Married. Has two daughters and a son. His hobbies include tennis, angling, hunting, walking through forests, and travel.

EDUCATION:

In 1958, he was graduated from the Kaliningrad Mechanical Engineering Technical College with the specialty "Cold Working of Metal." In 1966, he was graduated from the Department of Electronics and Computing Technology of the Moscow Forestry Engineering Institute with the specialty "Spacecraft Control Systems."

SPECIAL HONORS:

Ryumin has been decorated twice as Hero of the Soviet Union, and has been awarded other Russian and foreign decorations.

EXPERIENCE:

From 1958 to 1961, Ryumin served in the army as a tank commander.

From 1966 to the present, he has been employed at the Rocket Space Corporation Energia, holding the positions of: Ground Electrical Test Engineer, Deputy Lead Designer for Orbital Stations, Department Head, and Deputy General Designer for Testing. He helped develop and prepare all orbital stations, beginning with Salyut-1.

In 1973, he joined the RSC Energia cosmonaut corps. A veteran of three space flights, Ryumin has logged a total of 362 days in space. In 1977, he spent 2 days aboard Soyuz-25, in 1979, he spent 175 days aboard Soyuz vehicles and the Salyut-6 space station, and in 1980, he spent 185 days aboard Soyuz vehicles and the Salyut-6 space station.

From 1981 to 1989, Ryumin was flight director for the Salyut-7 space station and the Mir space station. Since 1992, he has been the Director of the Russian portion of the Shuttle-Mir and NASA-Mir program.

In January 1998, NASA announced Ryumin's selection to the crew of STS-91, the final scheduled Shuttle-Mir docking mission, concluding the joint U.S./Russian Phase I Program. STS-91 is scheduled for a May 1998 launch.

FEBRUARY 1998

Flight Log

Soyuz 25 - - 1977 Oct 9 - Assignment: Prime Crew. Flight Time: 2.03 days. Flight details: Soyuz 25.
Manned two crew. Unsuccessful mission. Failed to dock with Salyut 6. Recovered October 11, 1977 3:25 GMT.
Soyuz 29 - - 1978 Jun 15 - Assignment: Backup Crew. Flight details: Soyuz 29.
Manned two crew. Docked with Salyut 6. Placed on board the Salyut-6 station a crew consisting of V.V. Kovalenko and A.S. Ivanchenkov to conduct scientific and technological investigations and experiments. Recovered September 3, 1978 11:40 GMT.
Soyuz 32 - - 1979 Feb 25 - Assignment: Prime Crew. Flight Time: 175.02 days. Flight details: Soyuz 32.
Manned two crew. Docked with Salyut 6. Transported a team consisting of V A Lyakhov and V V Ryumin to the Salyut-6 space station to conduct scientific investigations and experiments and repair work. Recovered June 15, 1979 16:18 GMT. Returned unmanned.
EVA Soyuz 32-1 - - 1979 Aug 15 - Assignment: EVA Crew. EVA Duration: 1.38 hours.
Jettisoned KRT-10 antenna from rear docking port.
Soyuz 35 - - 1980 Apr 9 - Assignment: Prime Crew. Flight Time: 184.84 days. Flight details: Soyuz 35.
Manned two crew. Docked with Salyut 6. Carried crew comprising L I Popov and V V Ryumin to the Salyut-6 station to carry out scientific and technical research and experiments. Returned crew of Soyuz 36 to Earth. Recovered June 3, 1980 15:07 GMT. Landed 140 km SE Dzehezkazgan.
STS-91 - - 1998 Jun 2 - Assignment: Prime Crew. Flight Time: 9.83 days. Flight details: STS-91.
The final shuttle-Mir mission, STS-91 recovered NASA astronaut Andy Thomas from the Mir station and took Russian space chief and ex-cosmonaut Valeri Ryumin to Mir for an inspection tour of the ageing station. This was the first test of the super lightweight Aluminium-Lithium alloy external tank, designed to increase shuttle payload to the Mir / International Space Station orbit by 4,000 kg. At 22:15 GMT Discovery entered an initial 74 x 324 km x 51.6 deg orbit, with the OMS-2 burn three quarters of an hour later circulising the chase orbit. Discovery docked with the SO module on Mir at 17:00 GMT on June 4. NASA equipment was retrieved from the station, and Discovery undocked at 16:01 GMT on June 8, and landed on Runway 15 at Kennedy Space Center at 18:00 GMT on June 12.

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Last update 3 May 2001.
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