Kondakova, Yelena (c. 1955—)
Kondakova, Yelena (c. 1955—)
Soviet cosmonaut. Name variations: Elena Kondakova. Born around 1955; married Valeri Ryumin (cosmonaut and director of Russia's end of the Mir-shuttle program who went on three space flights).
Yelena Kondakova's 169-day Mir mission in 1995 was the longest spaceflight by a woman until Shannon Lucid topped the record in September 1996. "My life is easier on board," said Kondakova, "because you don't have to do laundry there, you don't have to cook there. So I think that for a woman, being in space is kind of a vacation from home work." In May 1997, Kondakova became the first Russian woman to fly on a U.S. spaceship; NASA considered her Mir experience and her English-language skills a great asset for the mission to ferry American astronaut Michael Foale to Mir.