Posted on 08/06/2003 2:18:09 PM PDT by anymouse
International Space Station (news - web sites) cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko is going forward with plans to get married while in orbit, ignoring officials' advice to wait until his return to Earth, a Russian space official said Tuesday.
Malenchenko had promised officials to put off his marriage until his scheduled return in October but then changed his mind and said he would proceed with the Aug. 10 wedding — which is to take place on Earth while he is in orbit — said Russian Aerospace Agency spokesman Sergei Gorbunov.
Gorbunov said the agency's chief, Yuri Koptev, had received an invitation to the wedding from Malenchenko's American bride, Ekaterina Dmitriev, who lives in Texas. He said Koptev was not planning to attend the reception, which is to be held at a Houston restaurant.
Malenchenko himself will not be present at the wedding and will be represented at the ceremony by a lawyer. The cosmonaut can also call his bride on a special phone from the space station, but this must be done during time slots officially allocated for contacts between the crew and their relatives, Gorbunov said.
Gorbunov had previously said that Malenchenko had promised to drop his plans for a space marriage after officials told him the plan presented a web of legal complexities. On Tuesday, Gorbunov said the space agency was not going to argue with Malenchenko any more.
"He wants it, and he will have it — that's his problem," Gorbunov told The Associated Press.
Malenchenko, a Russian air force colonel, has not given a reason for wanting to get married at such a distance, but some observers accuse him and his fiancee of seeking publicity.
The cosmonaut informed Russian space officials of his marriage plans when he was already in orbit, angering the Russian air force chief, Col. Gen. Vladimir Mikhailov, who reportedly said that a "cosmonaut mustn't behave like a movie star."
As a military officer, Malenchenko is considered the holder of state secrets under Russian law and can marry a foreigner only after getting special permission from his superiors, Gorbunov said.
"It's an obligation a person takes when he joins the military, a voluntary restriction of freedom," Gorbunov said. "And he didn't even bother to tell anyone about his intention."
The secrecy rules, which date back from the Soviet times, could theoretically force a person to wait for five or even 10 years to get such permission.
Malenchenko, who blasted off to the station in late April together with American astronaut Edward Lu, had quietly arranged to have his tail coat and wedding ring flown to him aboard a Progress cargo ship that arrived at the station in June.
Malenchenko and Dmitriev were issued a marriage license last month in the state of Texas, which allows weddings in which one of the parties is not present.
Dmitriev left Russia for the United States with her parents when she was 3 and lives in Houston. The two met at a social gathering five years ago and began dating in 2002.
Texas on the cutting edge. Left at the altar? Marry her/him anyway! Eliminates contentious in-law seating arrangements too.
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