Cosmonaut over the moon with out of this world wedding

A Russian cosmonaut is to marry his fiance while orbiting the earth in the first space wedding.

Yuri Malenchenko will tie the knot with US citizen Ekaterina Dmitriev, while she remains in Texas during next month’s ceremony.

“This shows you that long-distance relationships do work,” the 26-year-old bride-to-be told the Houston Chronicle.

She received a marriage licence in Houston yesterday as her intended was streaking across the sky in the international space station, 240 miles over the Pacific Ocean.

Clerk Dianne Wilson, who signed the document, said: “This is the first time a marriage licence has ever been issued to somebody who is not on this Earth.”

The couple hope to conduct the August 10 ceremony via a special telephone link-up.

If that fails, they will wed in a proxy ceremony with a friend of the cosmonaut standing in and reciting the vows.

Malenchenko will finally get to kiss the bride in October when he returns to earth in Kazakhstan. The couple will take a honeymoon in Australia before moving to Moscow.

Space expert Jim Oberg said it would be the first time a somebody has got married while in orbit.

“People have had birthdays. They have been there when their kids were born. But never this.”

Space station spokesman Rob Navias said Nasa officials knew of wedding plans.

He said: “It is a private matter between Malenchenko and his fiance.”