Russian Cosmonaut Proceeds With Marriage
FYI,
"Russian Cosmonaut Proceeds With Marriage"
Associated Press
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=624&ncid=624&e=2&u=/ap/20030805/ap_on_sc/russia_space_marriage
: International Space Station 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, 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.
Apparently love does conquer all, even in space and politics.
Congratulations to the happy couple.
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Mark Reiff e-mail: markreiff@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
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