Valery Viktorovich Ryumin

Valery Ryumin
Country:	Soviet Union / Russia
Organization:	Energija
selected on	March 27, 1973
Calls:	4 space flights
Start of the first space flight:	October 9, 1977
Landing of the last space flight:	June 12, 1998
Time in space:	371d 17h 24 min
retired on	June 12, 1998
Space flights
Soyuz 25 (1977) Soyuz 32 / Soyuz 34 (1979) Salyut 6 EO-3 Soyuz 35 / Soyuz 37 (1980) Salyut 6 EO-4 STS-91 (1998)

Valery Viktorovich Ryumin ( Russian Валерий Викторович Рюмин ; born August 16, 1939 in Komsomolsk am Amur , Russian SFSR ) is a former Soviet or Russian cosmonaut .

Engineering activity

Ryumin studied mechanical engineering in Kaliningrad until 1958 , after which he served as a tank commander in the Soviet army until 1961. He then studied computer science at the Moscow Forest Technology Institute, where he was already engaged in spacecraft systems. After graduating in 1966, he joined the Central Design Office for Experimental Mechanical Engineering (ZKBEM) . In this traditional company, the spaceships for manned Soviet space travel were designed and manufactured under the former name OKB-1 . After the death of long-time director Korolev , the company was in a state of upheaval. Ryumin worked on the development of the spacecraft 7K-L1 for the orbit around the moon. After the USA successfully landed on the moon with Apollo 11 in 1969 , the Soviet Union concentrated on space stations in near-Earth orbits. From January 1970 Ryumin was the deputy chief designer of the civil DOS stations, which were started in 1971 under the name Salyut 1 and in 1974 under the name Salyut 4 .

Selection as a cosmonaut

The head of the ZKBEM, Vasily Mishin , had ensured that not only military pilots were trained to be cosmonauts, but also engineers from his design office. Together with Vladimir Aksjonow , Alexander Ivanchenkov and Gennady Strekalov , Ryumin formed the fourth engineering group when he was admitted to cosmonaut training on March 27, 1973. The five candidates took the final examination of basic training on August 1, 1975, after which they were trained for long-term stays on board space stations.

Unsuccessful coupling with Soyuz 25

Although Ryumin had not previously been assigned to a replacement or support team, he was selected for the Soyuz 25 mission , which was to form the first long-term crew of the new Salyut 6 space station .

Together with his commander Vladimir Kovaljonok , Ryumin took off on October 9, 1977 on his first space flight.

However, the coupling to the space station failed. Despite several attempts, it was not possible to connect Soyuz 25 and Salyut 6. The batteries of the Soyuz spaceship only allowed a relatively short autonomous flight, and so the two cosmonauts had to return to Earth after just two days.

waiting period

Ryumin was immediately assigned to the next mission Salyut 6 EO-1 ( Soyuz 26 ) as the support team. The two cosmonauts Juri Romanenko and Georgi Grechko succeeded in pairing them, after which they were able to spend an extremely successful stay on Salyut 6 from December 1977 to March 1978.

The next long-term mission was called Salyut 6 EO-2 and Ryumin moved up to the replacement team together with his commander Vladimir Lyachow . The main team started with Soyuz 29 in June 1978 and returned in November with Soyuz 31 .

First stay on Salyut 6

On the third long-term mission Salyut 6 EO-3 , Ryumin was part of the main team together with Lyachow. On February 25, 1979, they started aboard the Soyuz 32 spacecraft . As with the previous mission, the coupling with the space station worked without any problems.

Among other things, Ryumin and Lyachow repaired the line system of the Salyut drive, which had leaked during the previous mission.

The planned replacement of the Soyuz spaceship failed. Although launched Soyuz 33 as planned, but could not dock with the space station and had to return to earth, similar to Rjumins Soyuz 25 just two years earlier.

Lyachow and Ryumin now only had the Soyuz 32 spacecraft available for their return, and its planned duration of use expired at the end of May. In addition, there were concerns that a similar engine failure as in Soyuz 33 could also exist in Soyuz 32. If it was not possible to send the two cosmonauts a fresh spaceship, their mission would have to be terminated prematurely.

This situation led to a first achievement in space travel: the Soyuz 34 spacecraft was launched unmanned and coupled to Salyut 6, whereupon Soyuz 32 returned to Earth unmanned.

On August 15, 1979 Ryumin came to a spacewalk because the antenna of the radio telescope KRT-10 did not leave as planned repel from the space station. He managed to cut loose the antenna, and he also inspected the exterior of the space station, which had been in space for almost two years.

The Salyut 6 EO-3 mission lasted 175 days, a new record in manned spaceflight. Due to his flight with Soyuz 25, Ryumin also held the record for the longest total time in space with 177 days.

Second stay on Salyut 6

After a short time, Ryumin was appointed as a replacement in the replacement team for the next long-term stay Salyut 6 EO-4 on board the Salyut 6. Originally, Valentin Lebedew was planned as a flight engineer. When he was injured during the preparation and had to retire, Ryumin stepped in and formed the substitute team together with Leonid Popov . Shortly before the start it was decided that Popov and Ryumin should start instead of the previously planned team Sudow / Andreyev .

Thus, on April 9, 1980, Ryumin made his third space flight. Only five other cosmonauts had reached this mark before him, and only two of them, the coupling specialists Schatalow and Jelissejew , in a similarly short time.

Ryumin spent 184 days with Popov on board the Salyut 6, which was a new long-term record. His total time after the three flights was 361 days, a record that was only broken by Leonid Kisim six years later .

Functionary activity

From 1981 to 1989 Ryumin was the flight director of the Salyut 7 and Mir space stations . On October 28, 1987, he resigned from the Soviet cosmonaut corps.

From 1992 he was head of the Russian part of the Shuttle Mir program , the first long-term cooperation between the US and Russian space programs. US space shuttles docked with the Russian space station, and seven NASA astronauts spent long-term stays in the Mir. In return, Russian cosmonauts flew on board the space shuttle.

With the shuttle to me

In 1997 it became apparent that the Mir space station would not be in service for much longer. She had been in space for 12 years. The Russian space agency agreed with NASA that a Russian engineer should be on board the STS-91 shuttle flight to Mir to closely examine the condition of the space station. The choice fell on Ryumin, who had a great deal of experience with space stations. This decision was announced in January 1998.

The flight of STS-91 with Ryumin as a mission specialist took place from June 2 to June 12, 1998 with the space shuttle Discovery . It was the 9th and final coupling of an American shuttle to the Mir space station. Ryumin was 58 years old at the time, making him the oldest Russian in space until 2013 ( Pawel Vinogradow with Soyuz TMA-08M ). As a result of this flight, his total time in space increased to over a year, which is now only enough for 34th place on the best list.

Russian head of the ISS program

The Mir was used by Russian cosmonauts until June 2000 and was deliberately crashed in March 2001. The successor was the International Space Station ISS, the first element of which was transported into orbit in November 1998. Ryumin was the head of the ISS program on the Russian side.

Summary of space flights

No.	mission	function	Flight date	Flight duration
1	Soyuz 25	Flight engineer	09.10. - 11.10.1977	2d 00h 44min
2	Salyut 6 EO-3	Flight engineer	25.02. - August 19, 1979	175d 00h 35min
3	Salyut 6 EO-4	Flight engineer	04/09 - 11.10.1980	184d 20h 11min
4th	STS-91	Mission specialist	02.06. - 06/12/1998	9d 19h 54min

Honors

Ryumin is a two-time Hero of the Soviet Union and three-time recipient of the Order of Lenin .

Private

Valery Ryumin has been married to the cosmonaut Jelena Kondakowa for the second time since 1985 . She spent almost half a year on board the Mir in 1994/95 and visited the space station again in 1997 with the space shuttle. Ryumin has a daughter with her. From his first marriage he has a daughter and a son.

Web links

Commons : Valery Ryumin  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• NASA: Transcript of an interview (English, 11 pages, PDF; 33 kB)
• spacefacts.de: Short biography