Valery Victorovich Ryumin (russian: Валерий Викторович Рюмин; 16 August 1939 – 6 June 2022) was a

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

cosmonaut An astronaut (from the Ancient Greek (), meaning 'star', and (), meaning 'sailor') is a person trained, equipped, and deployed by a human spaceflight program to serve as a commander or crew member aboard a spacecraft. Although generally r ...

Biography

In 1958, he graduated from the Kaliningrad Mechanical Engineering Technical College with the specialty "Cold Working of Metal." In 1966, he graduated from the Department of Electronics and Computing Technology of the Moscow Forestry Engineering Institute with the specialty "Spacecraft Control Systems." From 1958 to 1961, Ryumin served in the army as a tank commander. From 1966 onwards he was 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 Salyut 1 (DOS-1) (russian: Салют-1) was the world's first space station launched into low Earth orbit by the Soviet Union on April 19, 1971. The Salyut program followed this with five more successful launches of seven more stations. The f ...

. In 1973, he joined the RSC Energia cosmonaut corps. Ultimately he became a veteran of four space flights and logged a total of 371 days in space. In 1977, he spent two days aboard

Soyuz 25 Soyuz 25 (russian: Союз 25, ''Union 25'') was an October, 1977, Soviet crewed space flight, the first to the new Salyut 6 space station, which had been launched 10 days earlier. However, the mission was aborted when cosmonauts Vladimir Koval ...

, in 1979, he spent 175 days aboard Soyuz vehicles 32 and 34 and the

Salyut 6 Salyut 6 (russian: Салют-6; lit. Salute 6), DOS-5, was a Soviet orbital space station, the eighth station of the Salyut programme. It was launched on 29 September 1977 by a Proton rocket. Salyut 6 was the first space station to recei ...

space station, and in 1980, he spent 185 days aboard Soyuz vehicles 35 and 37 and the Salyut 6 space station. USSR Stamp 1981 Salyut6 Cosmonauts

From 1981 to 1989, Ryumin was flight director for the

Salyut 7 Salyut 7 (russian: Салют-7; en, Salute 7) (a.k.a. DOS-6, short for Durable Orbital Station) was a space station in low Earth orbit from April 1982 to February 1991. It was first crewed in May 1982 with two crew via Soyuz T-5, and last ...

space station and the Mir space station. Since 1992, he was 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. Ryumin served aboard STS-91 Discovery (2–12 June 1998) the 9th and final Shuttle-Mir docking mission, concluding the joint U.S./Russian Phase I Program. The STS-91 mission was accomplished in 154 Earth orbits, traveling 3.8 million miles in 235 hours and 54 seconds. Married to fellow cosmonaut

Yelena Kondakova Yelena Vladimirovna Kondakova (russian: link=no, Елена Владимировна Кондакóва; born March 30, 1957) is the third Soviet or Russian female cosmonaut to travel to space and the first woman to make a long-duration spaceflig ...

, he had two daughters and a son. His hobbies included tennis, angling, hunting, walking through forests, and travel.

Awards

*Twice as

Hero of the Soviet Union The title Hero of the Soviet Union (russian: Герой Советского Союза, translit=Geroy Sovietskogo Soyuza) was the highest distinction in the Soviet Union, awarded together with the Order of Lenin personally or collectively for ...

(19 August 1979 and 11 October 1980) *

Pilot-Cosmonaut of the USSR The honorary title Pilot-Cosmonaut of the USSR (russian: Летчик-космонавт СССР) was a state award of the Soviet Union presented to all cosmonauts who flew for the Soviet Space Agency. Usually accompanying the distinction ...

* Order "For Merit to the Fatherland" 4th class *Three

Orders of Lenin The Order of Lenin (russian: Орден Ленина, Orden Lenina, ), named after the leader of the Russian October Revolution, was established by the Central Executive Committee on April 6, 1930. The order was the highest civilian decoration b ...

(USSR) *

Medal "For Merit in Space Exploration" The Medal "For Merit in Space Exploration" (russian: Медаль "За заслуги в освоении космоса") is a state decoration of the Russian Federation aimed at recognising achievements in the space program. It was established ...

Hero of the Republic of Cuba The honorary title Hero of the Republic of Cuba ( es, Héroe de la República de Cuba) is the highest decoration awarded by the Republic of Cuba. It is equivalent to other hero titles common in the Socialist Bloc. The decoration is physically rep ...

*Hero of Socialist Labour (Vietnam) *Order of Ho Chi Minh (Vietnam)

In popular culture

In the 2017 Russian film ''

'', a character Valery Shudin, played by Aleksandr Samoylenko, was based on Ryumin.

Sources

Biographical DataThe official website of the city administration Baikonur - Honorary citizens of Baikonur

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ryumin, Valery 1939 births 2022 deaths People from Komsomolsk-on-Amur Soviet cosmonauts Heroes of the Soviet Union Soviet engineers Soviet Army officers Moscow State Forest University alumni Employees of RSC Energia Recipients of the Order of Lenin Recipients of the Order "For Merit to the Fatherland", 4th class Recipients of the Medal "For Merit in Space Exploration" Recipients of the USSR State Prize Recipients of the Order of Ho Chi Minh Space Shuttle program astronauts Salyut program cosmonauts Spacewalkers Mir crew members